Featured News
86% of Global Tuna Catch Comes from Stocks at Healthy Levels; 9% Require Stronger Management
Updated Status of the Stocks Restores Eastern Pacific Ocean Skipjack Stock Abundance Rating to Green
Of the total commercial tuna catch worldwide, 86.4% is sourced from stocks at “healthy” levels of abundance, according to the ISSF Status of the Stocks report. In addition, 9.2% of the total tuna catch came from overfished stocks, and 4.4% came from stocks at an intermediate level of abundance.
The increase in the overall percentage of the catch coming from stocks at healthy levels of abundance — from 80.5% in the March 2022 report up to 86.4% in the July 2022 update — is 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 is being restored to green for the July 2022 report.
Featured Resource
UPDATED: Tuna FIPs & MSC Tuna Fisheries Tables
The ISSF website lists tuna fishery improvement projects (FIPs) that have profile pages on the FisheryProgress.org site. Each tuna FIP name in the table is linked to its description, and you can sort and filter the table by column.
A second recently updated table shows tuna fisheries worldwide that either have been certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or are currently undergoing a full assessment to become certified. Helping tuna fisheries meet sustainability criteria to achieve the MSC certification standard — without conditions — is ISSF’s ultimate objective. Tuna fishery names are linked to their pages on the MSC Track a Fishery site. You can sort or filter by column.
Featured Tool
FIP Resources Finder
ISSF maintains the FIP Resources Finder as an online tool for fisheries that matches more than 200 ISSF reports, guidebooks, and other resources to MSC Principles and Performance Indicators (PIs).
