World Tuna Day

  About 23 percent of the world’s tuna production comes from the Indian Ocean (IO) – FAO Major Fishing Areas 51 and 57–making it the second most important region for tuna fishing after the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. Catches of skipjack, yellowfin, bigeye and albacore tuna in 2023 totaled approximately 1 237 000 tonnes, a 1 percent decrease from 2022. The total catch generally declined after 2005, when a record 1.25 million tonnes were caught, followed by an increase in recent years which has brought catches back to 2005 levels (FIGURE E.1.16). Catches of southern bluefin tuna occur primarily in the IO Area of Competence. However, due to their distribution across three oceans, this stock is covered below under a separate section on the CCSBT convention area. The catch of tropical tunas and albacore tuna in the IO steadily increased, reaching 200 000 tonnes in the early 1980s. It then rose rapidly to 500 000 tonnes in 19...

  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...