Saving Seafood

IOTC kicks off 30th annual meeting; ISSF pushing for more momentum on management procedures

May 11, 2026 — The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) is hosting its 30th annual meeting from 11 to 15 May in Male, Maldives, and the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation is pushing for more progress on fish aggregating devices (FADs) and harvest strategies. 

McLean, Virginia, U.S.A.-based tuna conservation nonprofit ISSF told SeafoodSource it is hoping the IOTC will use this year’s meeting to build upon the tangible progress it has made over the past few years, which has come in the form of new management measures for FADs, the establishment of management procedures for skipjack and bigeye tuna, steps to improve member adherence to the Port State Measures Agreement, shark retention bans, and more.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NGOs call for WCPFC to adopt transshipment rules, echo calls for South Pacific albacore management procedure

December 1, 2025 — Environmental NGOs are calling on the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) to adopt new rules for transshipment regulation, electronic monitoring, and fish aggregating devices (FADs) and have joined calls for a new management procedure for South Pacific albacore.

The WCPFC, which is meeting 1 to 5 December, oversees more than half of the world’s tuna catch and includes 26 different member countries.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Walmart Foundation-funded partnership aims to give tuna buyers more complete transparency information

October 3, 2025 — Three fishery monitoring organizations – the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), Global Fishing Watch (GFW), and the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) – are collaborating to combine their databases to improve transparency in the tuna supply chain. The goal, the organizations said, is to give tuna buyers access to information, including vessel by vessel bycatch data and observer reports, in one place.

The project, which will draw on SFP’s buyer transparency databases, FishSource and Seafood Metrics, ISSF’s  Proactive Vessel Register (PVR) and Vessels in Other Sustainability Initiatives (VOSI), and GFW’s Vessel Viewer and Marine Manager, is funded by grants from the Walmart Foundation.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Latest ISSF report shows its members holding fast on commitment to sustainable tuna

July 23, 2025 — The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) recently released its annual compliance report, showing that during 2024, the 24 ISSF participating companies managed a 99.6 percent conformance rate.

The nonprofit organization tracks conformance across 33 different conservation measures, which range from submitting quarterly purchase data and only conducting transactions with purse-seine vessels that have received information on best practices for reducing bycatch from ISSF.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ISSF calls on IOTC to enhance monitoring, management during next annual meeting

April 2, 2025 — The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) is once again calling on the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) to enhance monitoring of its fisheries and engage in science-based conservation of the tuna fisheries it manages.

The IOTC is holding its 29th annual meeting from 13 to 17 April, bringing together member nations of the regional fishery management organization (RFMO) to work on management of a range of tuna stocks in the Indian Ocean. The ISSF is calling on the RFMO to tackle a number of new initiatives, including establishing observer coverage of the fisheries through electronic monitoring, better bycatch mitigation and shark protection, and science-based management of the tuna stock.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ISSF report finds more tuna stocks are sustainable

July 29, 2024 — A recently released report by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) found the number of tuna stocks meeting Marine Stewardship Council fisheries standards and avoiding overfishing has increased in 2024.

The report, “An Evaluation of the Sustainability of Global Tuna Stocks Relative to Marine Stewardship Council Criteria,” determined 11 of the 23 major commercial tuna stocks worldwide are sufficiently avoiding overfishing and maintaining target stock biomass levels to meet MSC standards. That is an increase from the seven fisheries that met the standard in the ISSF’s report from March 2023.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ISSF report indicates little change in global tuna sustainability since March

November 15, 2023 — The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation’s (ISSF) latest “Status of the Stocks” report for global tuna fisheries found the sustainability of global tuna stocks has remained flat since its last report in March.

The latest report found that 85 percent of the world’s commercial tuna catch comes from stocks at “healthy” levels of abundance, the same amount the ISSF reported over six months ago. The level of tuna coming from overfished stocks also remained flat at 11 percent, and 4 percent of the catch is coming from stocks at an “intermediate” level of abundance.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ISSF aims for full MSC certification from participating companies

April 11, 2023 — The newest strategic plan from the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) is keeping Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification as a central tenant as the organization advocates for more sustainable wild-caught seafood.

The ISSF Strategic Plan for 2023-2027, “Continuously Improving Global Tuna Fishery Sustainability,” was released 28 February, 2023. The plan highlights ISSF research, advocacy, and its approach to achieving tuna fishery sustainability in participating companies for the next five years, including full implementation of a plan for MSC certification.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

SSF report finds majority of tuna stocks don’t meet Marine Stewardship Council standard

April 2, 2023 — A new report by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has found that only eight of 23 major commercial tuna stocks avoid overfishing and maintain biomass targets when measured against Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standards.

The report, “An Evaluation of the Sustainability of Global Tuna Stocks Relative to Marine Stewardship Council Criteria,” found that only Western Atlantic skipjack, North Atlantic albacore, South Atlantic albacore, Eastern Atlantic bluefin, Western Pacific skipjack, Eastern Pacific yellowfin, Eastern Pacific skipjack, and Indian Ocean skipjack achieve a passing score for “sustainable fish stocks” when measured against MSC criteria. According to ISSF, an increased number of stocks failed to meet the MSC standard because managing bodies failed to implement harvest-control rules within the past year.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ISSF report finds more tuna at healthy stock levels, but others still overfished

March 11, 2023 — The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation released its latest Status of the Stocks Report, finding a higher percentage of the global tuna catch comes from stocks with a healthy level of abundance than in 2021 – but that the level coming from overfished stocks also increased.

The latest report found that of the global commercial tuna catch, 85 percent is sourced from stocks with “healthy” levels of abundance – an improvement over 2022 report, which found 80.5 percent was sourced from healthy stocks. That improvement is tempered somewhat by the 11 percent of tuna catch coming from overfished stocks, an increase from the 9.2 percent found in 2022.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource