Tuna stocks health improves

USA: Of the total commercial tuna catch worldwide, 86.4% is sourced from stocks deemed to be at “healthy” levels of abundance, according to the latest edition of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) ‘Status of the Stocks’ report.

 ISSF’s July 2022 report also finds that 9.2% of the total tuna catch came from overfished stocks, and 4.4% came from stocks at an intermediate level of abundance.

Six months previously, the “healthy” level was at a much higher 80.5%, with the improvement mainly attributed to a positive change in the rating of the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) skipjack stock, which represents about 6% of the global tuna catch.

In March 2022, the rating for the status of the EPO skipjack stock had been changed from green to yellow due to the lack of a recent stock assessment by the relevant regional fisheries management organization (RFMO), the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC).

Given the new assessment carried out by the IATTC in May 2022, the rating has been restored to green for the July report.

ISSF’s latest report also determines that the Indian Ocean yellowfin, Pacific bluefin tuna and Mediterranean albacore stocks are overfished and subject to overfishing, while the Indian Ocean albacore and bigeye stocks are subject to overfishing.

In 2020, the total global tuna catch was 4.9 million tonnes, which was about 10% lower than in 2019. Some 57% of this was skipjack tuna, followed by yellowfin (30%), bigeye (8%) and albacore (4%). Bluefin tuna accounted for 1% of the global catch.

Some 66% of the catch is from purse seining, followed by longline (10%), pole-and-line (7%), gillnets (4%), and miscellaneous gears (13%). These percentages have not changed since the previous report.

There are 23 stocks of major commercial tuna species worldwide — six albacore, four bigeye, four bluefin, five skipjack, and four yellowfin stocks. Status of the Stocks summarises the results of the most recent scientific assessments of these stocks, as well as the current management measures adopted by the RFMOs.

Source: World Fishing