Saving Seafood

IATTC adopts interim management procedure for Pacific bluefin, but again defers for tropical tunas

September 17, 2026 — The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) has adopted an interim management procedure for Pacific bluefin tuna and a measure to reflect a management procedure on South Pacific albacore, but again deferred any action on tropical tunas.

Businesses and NGOs alike were pushing the IATTC to adopt its first-ever management procedures for tuna ahead of the meeting. A management procedure, also known as a harvest strategy, is a means of setting pre-determined triggers on species management so regional fishery management organizations (RFMO) like the IATTC have a roadmap ahead of any sudden changes in fish stocks.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Pacific bluefin tuna will get some help as countries agree to new harvest strategy

September 14, 2026 — The annual meeting of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) concluded on Sept. 4 with an agreement to adopt a long-term harvest strategy for Pacific bluefin tuna. The agreement aims to ensure sustainable management of this species, which has only recently recovered after decades of overfishing. But the commission fell short of establishing a harvest strategy for other tuna species — bigeye, skipjack and yellowfin — managed under the convention.

“A proposal was adopted … and that’s really great progress,” Dave Gershman, a senior officer for international fisheries at the U.S.-based think tank The Pew Charitable Trusts, who took part in the meeting as an observer, told Mongabay.

The commission approved the plan for Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis) after 10 years of research and mediation. The plan establishes science-based rules to support the stock’s complete recovery and long-term protection while taking into account impacts on the broader ecosystem. “You want to have these things in place when times are good so it’s there when you need it,” Gershman said.

The 104th meeting of the IATTC took place in Lisbon from Aug. 31 to Sept. 4. One of five main regional fishery management organizations (RFMOs) responsible for tuna and tuna-like species, the commission is tasked with managing six tuna stocks, associated species and their ecosystems throughout the Eastern Pacific Ocean, from Canada south to Chile.

Read the full article at Mongabay 

Businesses, NGOs pushing for IATTC to adopt management procedures for tropical tuna

August 21, 2026 — Businesses and environmental NGOs are both working to push the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) into adopting its first-ever management procedures for tuna at its next meeting, which starts on 24 August.

Groups have been pushing the regional fishery management organization (RFMO) to adopt management procedures for multiple species it governs. Management procedures, also called harvest strategies, are a means of setting predetermined triggers on how a species is managed so that an RFMO has a clear roadmap for how to adjust fishing effort based on what surveys and scientific analysis of a stock indicate.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Pacific bluefin tuna working group meeting ends without recommendations

July 14, 2026 — A working group of nations that commercially harvest Pacific bluefin tuna concluded its July meeting without agreeing on new management measures to be implemented in 2027.

“For much of the last decade, Pacific bluefin management showed that when governments work together, they can bring a severely overfished species back from the brink of collapse. But at a joint management meeting in Nagasaki, Japan, governments disregarded a tentative agreement they made in March to adopt a much-needed management procedure for the species at this convening,” Dave Gershman, who heads up The Pew Charitable Trusts’ conservation work with Pacific RMFOs, said in a release

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Nonprofit pressure pays off with IATTC approval of albacore harvest strategy

August 16, 2023 — Multiple NGOs pushing the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) for a full harvest strategy for North Pacific albacore tuna got their wish at the latest meeting of the regional fisheries management organization (RFMO).

The annual meeting of the  IATTC took place from 7 to 11 August in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and several marine sustainability nonprofit organizations continued their calls for the RFMO to adopt a full harvest strategy – including harvest control rules – for North Pacific albacore tuna before the meeting.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

IATTC meeting closes with agreements on transshipment and monitoring

August 8, 2022 — The 100th meeting of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) ended on 5 August with agreements on transshipment and compliance, and a commitment to adopt a harvest strategy for north Pacific albacore at next year’s meeting.

IATTC members followed the lead of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) by adopting stronger oversight for transshipment at sea. Transferring catches from a fishing vessel to a larger carrier vessel which takes fish to port is a common practice, but according to a statement by the Pew Charitable Trusts, which holds observer status at the IATTC, there were loopholes in the data collection requirements that allowed for the misreporting of catch, or in some cases, no reporting at all. The latest decision by the IATTC closes those loopholes.

Read the full article at SeaFoodSouce

ISSF urges IATTC to add protections for bigeye and yellowfin tuna stocks

July 26, 2022 — The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) is urging the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) to protect bigeye and yelowfin stocks by ensuring all its commission members are fully implementing conservation measures.

ISSF published a position statement ahead of the IATTC’s upcoming annual meeting acknowledging the IATTC’s tuna-conservation efforts while also pushing for it to follow through on its enacted measures with member-states.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Lack of effective RFMO management of tuna fisheries threatening US commercial entities

June 17, 2022 — There are 17 regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) in total, but most attention tends to fall on the five major tuna RFMOs that are responsible for about 91 percent of the world’s oceans. These five tuna-focused RFMOs are international organizations formed by countries with fishing interests in a geographical area or highly migratory stock. These RFMOs create fishing limits on stocks in the high seas in order to manage long-term healthy populations and can monitor technical measures used by fisheries. The tuna RFMOs regulate rules and quotas for the participating member-countries to follow in order to sustain healthy tuna stocks in the geographical areas they cover.

Two of the five tuna RFMOs – the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) – manage tuna fisheries in the Pacific Ocean, covering from the coasts of North America and South America all the way to the coasts of Russia, China, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

United States Wins New Conservation Measures for Pacific Tuna and Backs Inspections to Curb Illegal Fishing

December 7, 2021 — Tropical tuna in the eastern Pacific Ocean gained renewed protections and science-based catch levels under resolutions advocated by the United States. They were adopted by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission at its virtual meeting in October. The IATTC also established a framework for foreign fishing vessels to face spot inspections when they enter the port of another member nation.

The IATTC’s actions will help conserve and sustainably manage tuna and other highly migratory species that cross international boundaries. They also improve oversight of international fisheries to reduce illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, a U.S. priority. The move furthers the effort to close the world’s ports to illegal fishing and give consumers additional confidence that their seafood is safe and sustainable.

“This is a critical step forward for the conservation of species that support important commercial fisheries and play a prominent role in the marine ecosystem,” said Ryan Wulff, who leads the U.S. delegation to the IATTC, and serves as Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries for NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region. “We worked through challenging negotiations—all in a virtual setting. In the end, we achieved consensus on a number of important conservation and management measures for the eastern Pacific Ocean.”

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

 

IATTC approves Pacific bluefin tuna quota increase

October 27, 2021 — The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) has approved a higher catch limit for Pacific bluefin tuna.

Based on IATTC Scientific Committee projections that indicated a 100 percent chance of reaching an initial stock rebuilding target by 2024, the IATTC approved a 15 percent increase in the catch limit for adults (over 30 kilograms) and no change for juveniles. The decision was made at IATTC’s full commission meeting, which ran from 13 to 22 October.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource