Of the total commercial tuna catch worldwide, 84% came from stocks at healthy levels of abundance, according to the March 2020 International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) ‘Status of the Stocks’ report.
The figure in the ISSF’s previous report of October 2019 was 81%. According to the latest report 15% of the total tuna catch was from overfished stocks, and 1% was from stocks at an intermediate level of abundance.
The ISSF reports that Atlantic Ocean bigeye, Eastern Pacific yellowfin, Indian Ocean yellowfin, Pacific bluefin tuna stocks, Eastern Pacific bigeye, Indian Ocean bigeye and Indian Ocean albacore are overfished whilst all skipjack and most albacore stocks are healthy.
ISSF publishes its ‘Status of the Stocks’ report twice each year using the most current scientific data about 23 major commercial tuna stocks. Key findings in this report show that 65% of the 23 stocks are at healthy levels of abundance, 17.5% are overfished and 17.5% are at an intermediate level.
In terms of mortality, 70% of the 23 stocks are experiencing a well-managed fishing mortality rate, and 30% are experiencing overfishing. In 2018, the catch of major commercial tuna stocks was 5.1 million tonnes. 58% was skipjack tuna, followed by yellowfin (29%), bigeye (8%) and albacore (4%). Bluefin tunas accounted for 1% of the global catch.
