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The Truth About Tuna

September 30, 2024 — Ahi steak. Akami sashimi. Albacore on sourdough. Whether you smoked yellowfin on the grill or spread skipjack on a sandwich, chances are you’ve had tuna recently.

On average, Americans eat around two pounds of the fish per year, more than any other seafood except for shrimp and salmon. And for good reason: Tuna is tasty and versatile, and the canned variety costs as little as a dollar.

But is it good for you? Should you be worried about its mercury content? And what about the health of our oceans? Here’s what to know before you pop open that next can for lunch.

Is tuna healthy?

Tuna is about as nutritious as a food can be.

It’s packed with protein, minerals and vitamins, said Chris Vogliano, a dietitian and research director at the educational nonprofit Food and Planet. It has more selenium than just about any other meat. It’s also low in fat, Dr. Vogliano noted — but that means it has fewer omega-3 fatty acids than some other seafood.

There’s not a huge nutritional difference between canned tuna, sushi and a tuna steak, he added. Cooking the fish might lower its vitamin D, and the canning process might leach out a few nutrients, he said, but its nutritional value is largely the same.

Tuna’s one big health drawback, experts say, is the risk posed by mercury, a neurotoxin. This heavy metal enters the ocean mostly from human activities like burning fossil fuels. It’s absorbed by small organisms and works its way up the food chain and accumulates in bigger, longer-lived species — like sharks, swordfish and, yes, tuna.

In high enough concentrations, mercury can cause serious health problems. Cases of mercury poisoning are rare in the United States, but experts worry about the long-term effects of mercury on the brain — and elevated levels are often more common among urban and coastal populations that eat more seafood.

So what does this mean for tuna eaters? The answer is nuanced because the amount of mercury depends on the species — and there are 15 types of tuna, all of which could end up on a dinner plate. The smallest (and often cheapest), like skipjack, have very little mercury. Albacore and yellowfin can have three times as much; bigeye and bluefin can have far more, Dr. Vogliano said.

Read the full article at the The New York Times

Read more about the science behind tuna and mercury from the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council

WCPFC faces test as expiration date nears for Tropical Tuna Measure

November 29, 2021 — The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) 2021 meeting begins 29 November, as it faces the expiration of its Tropical Tuna Measure guiding fishing controls for bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna in its jurisdiction.

The regional fisheries management organization, which oversees the conservation and management of highly migratory fish stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, will meet virtually through 7 December. In December 2020, the WCPFC’s 27 members agreed to roll over its previous Tropical Tuna Measure, but the measure is set to expire in February 2022.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

NGOs express disappointment after IATTC fails to advance tuna conservation measure

August 31, 2021 — A weeklong Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) meeting, held to advance the commission’s protection of bigeye, yellowfin, and skipjack tuna stocks in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, has failed deliver any such conservation measure.

With the IATTC unable to reach consensus, discussions on the measure roll over to its next virtual meeting, scheduled to take place on 18 October.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

DNA lab test doesn’t detect tuna in Subway sandwiches

June 23, 2021 — After facing a class-action lawsuit claiming that Subway’s tuna sandwiches do not contain tuna and the restaurant chain cannot prove the fish is sustainable, a new DNA lab report shows there is no tuna in the company’s tuna sandwiches.

The New York Times set up an independent lab test of 60 inches of tuna sandwiches from three Subway restaurants in Los Angeles, California. The testing, which included a polymerase chain reaction test that searched for DNA of five different tuna species, detected no tuna in the sandwiches.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Subway Tuna Lawsuit Update: Plaintiffs Say Chain’s Sustainability Claims Are “False and Misleading”

June 22, 2021 — The Subway tuna lawsuit drama continues.

In January a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging that the sandwich chain’s tuna sandwich is “made with anything but tuna.” Independent lab tests that were reportedly taken from multiple California Subway locations found that the tuna was a “mixture of concoctions that do not constitute tuna, yet have been blended together by defendants to imitate the appearance of tuna.” The two plaintiffs, Karen Dhanowa and Nilima Amin of Alameda County, were hoping to get their claim certified as class action, which would open the case up to others in California who bought tuna from Subway after January 21, 2017.

Read the full story at Seafood News

IATTC agrees to rollover tropical tuna quotas to 2021

December 22, 2020 — The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) agreed at a special session on 22 December to a rollover of its existing quotas for tropical tuna in the eastern Pacific for 2021.

The tropical tuna fishery – which includes bigeye, yellowfin, and skipjack tuna stocks – brings in billions of dollars’ worth of fish annually. At its annual meeting earlier this month, the commission failed to reach a consensus on the management of tropical tunas by one vote – with Colombia opposing the resolution – leaving tuna fisheries without any rules of governance starting on 1 January.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

WCPFC secures consensus to continue tropical tuna measure

December 16, 2020 — The 27 members of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) have approved the rollover of the tropical tuna measure for bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna, which without a consensus would have expired in February 2021.

The move by the WCPFC is in contrast with the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), which failed to reach a consensus on regulations, leaving the fishery unmanaged beginning 1 January, 2021. The renewal by the WCPFC is considered a victory, but the Pacific Islands Forum’s Fisheries Forum Agency (FFA) said much work remains left to be tackled at next year’s tuna commission.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

IATTC leaves tropical tuna unmanaged as meeting fails to reach consensus by one vote

December 8, 2020 — The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) has failed to reach a consensus on the management of tropical tunas by one vote – with Colombia opposing the resolution – leaving tuna fisheries without any rules starting on 1 January.

The tropical tuna fishery – which includes bigeye, yellowfin, and skipjack tuna stocks – includes billions of dollars of catch. With the failure to reach a consensus – the first time in the IATTC’s history – the fishery is left without any form of management, including quotas, gear types, and more. While individual countries can choose to implement regulations matching the proposed IATTC resolution, region-wide rules will end.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Eastern Pacific Tuna Fishing Will Be Unregulated After January 1

December 8, 2020 — The international rules and regulations covering the catch of tuna in the Eastern Pacific are about to go away. On January 1, the fisheries for bigeye, skipjack and yellowfin tuna will be wide open and ungoverned because the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission concluded its annual meeting without an agreement, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Guillermo Moran, the headof Ecuadorian fishing industry group Tuna Conservation Group (Tunacons), told Undercurrent News that the only nation standing in the way of the 2021 regulatory scheme was Colombia. IATTC operates by consensus, and without 100 percent agreement, the group cannot issue regulations.

“For the first time in its 70-year history, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission has completely withdrawn from management of tropical tunas. To remedy this abdication of responsibility, IATTC and its member governments should immediately schedule a special session to set rules for 2021. Unless IATTC takes this emergency action, starting Jan. 1 there will be . . . no restrictions on what gear can be used; and no consequences for the resulting harm that may occur,” said Amanda Nickson, director of international fisheries for The Pew Charitable Trusts. “When meeting participants can’t reach consensus, the default should never be to simply suspend management of species . . . The need to responsibly manage fish stocks worldwide calls out for significant reforms in the predictability and stability of decision-making.”

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

ISSF Report Estimates at Least 1,721 Purse Seine Vessels Authorized to Fish for Tuna Worldwide Today, a Slight Decrease Since 2019 Analysis

June 17, 2020 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has updated its Large-Scale Tuna Purse Seine Fishing Fleets report as of June 2020. The total number of purse seine vessels, calculated based on data from the five tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs), has decreased from 1,843 in 2019 to 1,721 today.

Having an accurate estimate of active vessels is critical for managing tuna fishing capacity regionally as well as globally. Although purse seine vessels account for approximately 66 percent of the 4.9-million-tonne global tuna catch, multiple databases must be searched to compile a count of all authorized purse seine vessels. To provide an annual best estimate — and to track capacity changes from year to year — ISSF analyzes and aggregates information from the five tuna RFMOs and other sources. As the report explains, these figures still may underestimate the total fleet, because many small-scale purse seiners or purse seiners operating in only one exclusive economic zone (EEZ) do not have to be listed on RFMOs’ records of authorized fishing vessels.

The ISSF report shows approximately 696 vessels (up 1.5 percent from last year) defined as large-scale purse seine (LSPS) vessels targeting tropical tuna species (skipjack, yellowfin, and bigeye), with a combined fish hold capacity of over 874,000 m3 (cubic meters).

Other report findings about the large-scale purse seine vessels targeting tropical tuna include:

  • About 17 percent of these 696 large-scale vessels are authorized to fish in more than one RFMO, which should be taken into account in any efforts to manage fishing capacity at a regional level.
  • Among the RFMOs, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) still has the highest number of LSPS registrations (349), which represents around half of the global fleet.
  • The majority of large-scale vessels (517) are registered on the ISSF ProActive Vessel Register (PVR); PVR-registered LSPS represent 74 percent in number and 83 percent in fish hold volume (FHV).

The report also covers purse-seine vessel construction, distribution, and FHV by national flag. It offers recommendations for vessel owners on the use of IMO numbers as unique vessel identifiers and for RFMOs on vessel-data collection and management. View the updated report here. View a related infographic here.

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