Saving Seafood

MSC research finds tuna fisheries are at most risk from climate change

November 4, 2025 — A new suite of research led by the Marine Stewardship Council has found fisheries targeting tuna species are at the most risk from the impacts of climate change.

The research paper, “Climate change risks to future sustainable fishing using global seafood ecolabel data,” was recently published in Cell Reports Sustainability and reviewed more than 500 fisheries around the world with a sustainability certification. The study examined species under multiple gear types and species, including whitefish, krill, lobster, and tuna.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Fisheries management and Greenland

September 9, 2025 — Greenland has been much in the news since the Trump administration announced its desire to control the world’s largest island. While geographically part of North America (as is western Iceland), Greenland is a semi-autonomous region under the control of Denmark and is politically and economically aligned with the European Union. The EU pays Greenland over $20 million annually for access and support of Greenland’s fisheries.

While seafood products including halibut, shrimp, and mackerel account for well over 90 percent of Greenland’s exports, Greenland seldom makes the fisheries news in North America. Yet several North American stocks migrate to Greenland waters, most notably Atlantic salmon and bluefin tuna.

Bluefin tuna have been reported as bycatch in the Greenland mackerel fishery, and Atlantic salmon from Maine and Canada can be caught in the island’s subsistence salmon fishery. Salmon bycatch in Greenland’s commercial fisheries is deemed insignificant.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Bluefin tuna off limits for recreational and charter anglers due to federal shutdown

August 13, 2025 –If you were hoping to catch and keep a bluefin tuna off the coast of Long Island this summer, you’re out of luck. A new federal shutdown of the bluefin tuna fishery for recreational and charter anglers is now in effect — and it’s already having a ripple effect across the local fishing industry.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ordered the closure, citing the need to stay within international conservation limits.

“This inseason action is needed to ensure the United States Atlantic bluefin tuna quota is not exceeded and is consistent with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) requirements,” a NOAA spokesperson said in a statement.

While commercial bluefin fishing can continue, the shutdown applies to all recreational and charter boat fishing. That means charter captains like Greg Gargiulo, of Patty Ann Charters based at the Captree Boat Basin, will have to drastically shift their business model by targeting yellowfin tuna instead, which are farther off shore.

Read the full article at News 12

An Overview of Tuna and its Sustainability in 2025

August 6, 2025 — Tuna is the third most consumed seafood in the United States. It’s eaten fresh, frozen, or in shelf-stable condition. It can be enjoyed on a budget or served in the most expensive fine dining restaurants. But how sustainable is tuna in 2025?

Like most seafood questions, tuna sustainability is full of nuance. The answer depends on which of the five species of tuna you’re eating, how it was caught, and where it came from.

This post gives an overview of tuna consumption and sustainability to help you make informed choices for your next trip down the canned tuna aisle or the next reservation at your favorite sushi restaurant.

Read the full article at Sustainable Fisheries UW

Bluefina working to gain greater foothold in high-end restaurants with “Wagyu” of tuna

April 4, 2025 — Primetime Seafood President and Owner Rex Ito wants the company’s ranched bluefin tuna products to be seen as the “Wagyu” of the tuna world.

Ito is a more than 30-year veteran of the bluefin tuna industry, and has been a part of a shift in how the species is brought to market. He told SeafoodSource at Seafood Expo North America, which ran from 16 to 18 March in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., at the start of his career he was mainly selling wild caught tuna, and he now works in ranched tuna produced by Bluefina – of which he is the exclusive distributor.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Bluefin tuna fishing halted along East Coast after quota exceeded

March 8, 2025 — Fishermen from Maine to Florida will not be able to catch the bluefin tuna for the rest of the month after exceeding the federal government’s winter quota.

Ship captain Tyler McLaughlin said the bluefin tuna is the most prized fish in New England.

He said several fishermen rely on the tuna for their livelihood, and the restrictions could affect how much fish they can catch during their busiest time of year.

“I’ve really chased the bluefin tuna my whole life up and down the coast, and I have a wide grasp on the fishery and the fishery in multiple locations throughout the year,” McLaughlin said.

Read the full article at wmur

Climate change is robbing Pacific islands of another resource: Tuna

February 19, 2025 — Fourteen Pacific island nations will receive $107 million to adapt their tuna-dependent economies as climate change pushes the fish farther from their shores, the Green Climate Fund announced Tuesday.

The fund’s largest grant-only project to date, the money will be used to create an advanced warning system to enable Pacific island nations to track changes in tuna migration and potentially pursue compensation when warming waters drive the fish from these countries’ exclusive economic zones.

“These are the countries that contribute the least to the climate crisis and now are going to lose a resource that they have collectively stewarded better than any other ocean basin,” said Jack Kittinger, senior vice president at Conservation International, the Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit environmental organization that led the research behind the grant. “This is the ultimate climate justice issue.”

Read the full article at The Washington Post

Genetic study provides data for improved bluefin tuna conservation and management

December 28, 2023 — The results of a study on bluefin tuna genetics, intended to support better conservation and help aid in the creation of effective management plans, recently appeared in the scientific journal Molecular Ecology.

AZTI Technological Centre, an organization that specializes in marine and food research, led the study and said the results will support sustainable management plans that better anticipate when changes in abundance or distribution occur.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Price of Japan’s top tuna highlights country’s recovery from Covid-19

January 13, 2023 — The top bluefin tuna sold during the first auction of the year at Tokyo’s Central Wholesale Market in Toyosu reached JPY 36,040,000 (USD 274,120, EUR 256,785), carrying on a tradition started at the market’s former location in Tsukiji and signaling some recovery from the pandemic.

The high price has nothing to do with the actual value of tuna, nor with its relative scarcity. As in years past, it’s a PR stunt and a reasonably inexpensive way for the purchaser to get worldwide name recognition.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Evidence Bolsters Classification of a Major Spawning Ground for Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Off the Northeast U.S.

March 4, 2022 — The Slope Sea off the Northeast United States is a major spawning ground for Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus), a new paper affirms. This finding likely has important implications for population dynamics and the survival of this fish, according to the paper, “Support for the Slope Sea as a major spawning ground for Atlantic bluefin tuna: evidence from larval abundance, growth rates, and particle-tracking simulations,” published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.

“Overall, our results provide important supporting evidence that the Slope Sea is a major spawning ground that is likely to be important for population dynamics,” the paper states. Spawning in the Slope Sea “may offer the species additional resilience in the face of both harvesting and climate change,” the paper adds.

The paper presents larval evidence supporting the recognition of the Slope Sea as a major spawning ground, including that larvae collected in the Slope Sea grew at the same rate as larvae collected in the Gulf of Mexico, indicating that this region is good larval habitat.

“In comparison to everything else we know about this species, the Slope Sea is a perfectly good place to be born as a larva,” said lead author Christina Hernández, who was a doctoral student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering at the time of the study.

Read the full story at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution