Majority of tuna catches from stocks at ‘healthy levels’. Of the total commercial tuna catch worldwide, 87% came from stocks at “healthy” levels of abundance, according to the latest International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) Status of the Stocks report.
In addition, 10% of the total tuna catch came from overfished stocks and 3% from stocks at an intermediate level of abundance. The previous version of this report was published in March 2020. This report reflects results of tuna RFMO meetings through October 2020, and the next version will include results of RFMO meetings that have taken place more recently.
Several tuna stocks worldwide are considered overfished and/or subject to overfishing:
- The Atlantic Oceanbigeye, Indian Ocean yellowfin and Pacific bluefin tuna stocks are currently overfished and subject to overfishing.
- Indian Ocean albacore and bigeye are subject to overfishing,
All skipjack and most albacore stocks are healthy.
Ratings for the following species have changed since last reported in March 2020:
- The abundance rating for Eastern Pacific Ocean bigeye has downgraded from green to yellow but the fishing mortality rating of that stock has improved from orange to yellow.
- Both the fishing mortality rate ratio and abundance rating for Eastern Pacific Ocean yellowfin has improved from orange to green, due primarily to changes in the stock assessment methodology used.