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 

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

Tuna are rebounding. The work is far from done.

June 8, 2026 — Tuna offer a useful case study for World Ocean Day because their recovery has come through the least sentimental parts of conservation: quotas, enforcement, stock assessments, and years of difficult diplomacy.

By the early 2010s, several tuna stocks were in serious trouble. Atlantic bluefin had become a marker of overfishing. Pacific bluefin had fallen to a small fraction of its historic abundance. The risk was ecological and commercial. Governments were looking at the possible collapse of one of the world’s most valuable fisheries.

The response was slow, contested, and often technical. Regional fisheries bodies tightened catch limits, improved monitoring, began adopting automated harvest rules, and expanded electronic catch-documentation systems to make illegal and unreported fishing harder to hide. Fleets built around high catches had to accept lower quotas. The politics were difficult because the countries involved often had competing economic interests.

That is part of what makes the outcome worth studying. Atlantic bluefin are showing strong signs of recovery, backed by decades of tagging, catch data, and population modeling. Pacific bluefin reached a key rebuilding target years ahead of schedule. Across commercial tuna fisheries, a much larger share of global catch now comes from stocks assessed as being at healthy levels.

Read the full article at Mongabay

Study tracks fishing boats to see how heat waves affect fish distribution

January 14, 2026 — Marine heat waves have become longer and more frequent along the U.S. West Coast, as elsewhere in the world. But heating doesn’t always lead fish to change their location. A new study suggests a better way to tell if such ecological shifts are happening: Use fishing vessel tracking data.

The study, published Dec. 22, 2025, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that tracking data could provide early detection of extreme northward and inshore shifts in albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) and Pacific bluefin tuna (T. orientalis) distribution in response to heat waves. The data also showed when such shifts weren’t happening, despite high sea surface temperatures. Related data also showed when there was low albacore availability for fishing.

The study indicates that tracking data can in some cases be used as an early-warning signal for ecological change in the ocean, the authors suggest.

“We have so much data on fishing vessel activity,” study lead author Heather Welch, a marine spatial ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said in a statement. “These data are traditionally used for surveillance, and it is exciting that they may also be useful for understanding ecosystem health.”

Read the full article at Mongabay

HAWAII: Fresh fish floods Oahu piers just in time for holiday rush

January 2, 2025 — As Hawaii prepared for New Year’s Eve celebrations, Oahu piers were flooded with high demand for fresh fish.

The United Fishing Agency reported the island had a vast supply in time for the holiday.

“This boat brought in nearly 20,000 pounds of fresh seafood, mostly ahi,” said Eric Kingma, executive director of Hawaii Longline Association. “All the fish are getting a pretty good price today because the quality is nice, and it’s peak holiday market demand.”

To meet the high demand, Tamashiro Market was filled with customers preparing for the New Year.

Read the full article at Hawaii News Now

Pacific bluefin tuna is yellow rated for the first time in the 25-year history of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program

October 8, 2024 — The following was released by the Monterey Bay Aquarium:

With a new assessment showing Pacific bluefin tuna rebounding, Pacific nations can build on progress with a long-term management plan

For the first time in the 25-year history of the program, Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch today released new assessments for Pacific bluefin tuna fisheries in the Eastern Pacific region and assigned a yellow (good alternative) rating to Pacific bluefin tuna caught by fisheries in California and Mexico using FAD-free purse seines, and the U.S. pole-and-line fishery.

Like all bluefin tuna, these fisheries were previously rated red (avoid) due to overfishing across the Pacific. The assessment did not include an update to Mexico’s ranching operations, which are still rated red.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

Op-ed: Pacific bluefin tuna recovery is more than just a success story

October 7, 2024 — Martha Betancourt is a researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California and an associate at FIDEMAR – a research organization concentrating on Mexico’s tuna fishery, co-founded by Mexico’s National Chamber of the Fishing Industry (CANAINPESCA); CONAPESCA-INAPESCA; and the Mexican Foundation for the Preservation of Marine Fauna (FUMDAMAR), with the support of BANAMEX and Mexico’s longline and purse-seine tuna fleet and pelagic vessel operators.

The success story of the Pacific bluefin tuna is more than just an epic tale of recovery from the brink of collapse; it is evidence that collective action, led by science, can turn the tide on the state of our world’s fisheries.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council calls out foreign tuna dumping

July 1, 2024 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council expressed concern over foreign tuna dumping in its latest meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, warning that foreign competition is harming both producers and consumers.

“If our fishermen can’t compete, fish, sustain a profit, and provide protein for our communities, not only do we lose food security in American Samoa, but our economy dies,” Council Chair Taulapapa William Sword said.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Bluefin tuna make triumphant rebound a decade earlier than expected, scientists say

July 1, 2024 — Pacific bluefin tuna have beat decades of overfishing and fully rebounded — 10 years earlier than expected, experts said.

This milestone is a surprise and triumph for scientists worldwide who were tasked with helping to revive the species.

“This is an amazingly resilient fish and the new assessment is showing us that,” Dr. Huihua Lee, a research mathematical statistician at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a June 25 news release from the administration.

The fish’s restoration can be seen in the latest stock assessment detailed in the news release.

Bluefin populations are measured based on their “unfished spawning stock biomass,” which is the hypothetical number of fish there would be in the absence of fishing.

Read the full article at the Merced Sun-Star