World Tuna Day

   Tuna fisheries play a crucial role in global seafood production, providing food security, employment and economic value to many coastal nations. However, growing concerns related to unsustainable fishing, climate change, ecosystem impacts and mismanagement necessitate robust management approaches. Management strategy evaluation (MSE) and precautionary management procedures have emerged as a key tool for ensuring sustainable tuna stocks while balancing economic and ecological objectives. MSE tested management procedures for tunas have recently become an improved management tool in rebuilding tuna stocks and ensuring their long-term sustainability. MSE is a simulation-based framework that allows fisheries managers and stakeholders to test and evaluate the performance of different management options against pre-agreed management objectives before implementation. This process accounts for uncertainties in stock assessments, biological and environmental variability, as well as m...

  Approximately 13 percent of the world’s tuna production comes from the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO )–FAO Major Fishing Areas 67, 77 and 87. In 2023, catches of skipjack tuna, yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna totaled around 761 800 tonnes, reflecting a 15 percent increase from 2022. The catch of tropical tunas in the EPO steadily increased since 1990s, reaching a record high of 800 000 tonnes in 2003. Total catches then declined until 2007 but have again been rising since, reaching the second-highest level in the entire time series in 2023 (FIGURE E.1.7). Catches of Pacific albacore tuna and Pacific bluefin tuna also occur in the EPO; however, these stocks are covered in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean section, as they are distributed there too. Average annual tropical tuna catches for the last five-year period (2019–2023) totalled 683 100 tonnes. During this recent period, skipjack tuna accounted for 49 percent of the catches by weight, follow...