Albacore tuna Archives - Saving Seafood

An Overview of Tuna and its Sustainability in 2025

August 6, 2025 — Tuna is the third most consumed seafood in the United States. It’s eaten fresh, frozen, or in shelf-stable condition. It can be enjoyed on a budget or served in the most expensive fine dining restaurants. But how sustainable is tuna in 2025?

Like most seafood questions, tuna sustainability is full of nuance. The answer depends on which of the five species of tuna you’re eating, how it was caught, and where it came from.

This post gives an overview of tuna consumption and sustainability to help you make informed choices for your next trip down the canned tuna aisle or the next reservation at your favorite sushi restaurant.

Read the full article at Sustainable Fisheries UW

MAINE: Commercial Tuna Fishermen: Participate in Proposed Offshore Wind Survery

June 4, 2025 — The Maine Dept. of Marine Resources and the University of Maine Pelagic Fisheries Lab run by Dr. Walt Golet are working on a study to quantify the potential overlap between the commercial Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery and proposed offshore wind areas in the Gulf of Maine.

At this time, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has finalized 5 lease areas in the Gulf of Maine for offshore wind. While many of the US East Coast offshore wind projects are paused, under review, or in some cases postponed indefinitely, the future of offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine remains unknown at this time. This actually creates an opportunity to establish important baseline data in support of the US bluefin tuna fishery should development ever continue and things like mitigation measures be needed.

Read thd full article at On The Water

Climate change is robbing Pacific islands of another resource: Tuna

February 19, 2025 — Fourteen Pacific island nations will receive $107 million to adapt their tuna-dependent economies as climate change pushes the fish farther from their shores, the Green Climate Fund announced Tuesday.

The fund’s largest grant-only project to date, the money will be used to create an advanced warning system to enable Pacific island nations to track changes in tuna migration and potentially pursue compensation when warming waters drive the fish from these countries’ exclusive economic zones.

“These are the countries that contribute the least to the climate crisis and now are going to lose a resource that they have collectively stewarded better than any other ocean basin,” said Jack Kittinger, senior vice president at Conservation International, the Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit environmental organization that led the research behind the grant. “This is the ultimate climate justice issue.”

Read the full article at The Washington Post

US West Coast governors seek financial relief for albacore fishers

January 3, 2024 — The governors of California, Oregon, and Washington have asked the U.S. federal government to provide financial aid for the states’ struggling commercial West Coast Pacific albacore troll/hook-and-line fishery.

Last year was the fishery’s worst performing season in 30 years, California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a recent statement. The fishery generated USD 9.5 million (EUR 9.3 million) in ex-vessel value in 2024, notably lower than the five-year average of USD 24.6 million (EUR 24 million).

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

The Truth About Tuna

September 30, 2024 — Ahi steak. Akami sashimi. Albacore on sourdough. Whether you smoked yellowfin on the grill or spread skipjack on a sandwich, chances are you’ve had tuna recently.

On average, Americans eat around two pounds of the fish per year, more than any other seafood except for shrimp and salmon. And for good reason: Tuna is tasty and versatile, and the canned variety costs as little as a dollar.

But is it good for you? Should you be worried about its mercury content? And what about the health of our oceans? Here’s what to know before you pop open that next can for lunch.

Is tuna healthy?

Tuna is about as nutritious as a food can be.

It’s packed with protein, minerals and vitamins, said Chris Vogliano, a dietitian and research director at the educational nonprofit Food and Planet. It has more selenium than just about any other meat. It’s also low in fat, Dr. Vogliano noted — but that means it has fewer omega-3 fatty acids than some other seafood.

There’s not a huge nutritional difference between canned tuna, sushi and a tuna steak, he added. Cooking the fish might lower its vitamin D, and the canning process might leach out a few nutrients, he said, but its nutritional value is largely the same.

Tuna’s one big health drawback, experts say, is the risk posed by mercury, a neurotoxin. This heavy metal enters the ocean mostly from human activities like burning fossil fuels. It’s absorbed by small organisms and works its way up the food chain and accumulates in bigger, longer-lived species — like sharks, swordfish and, yes, tuna.

In high enough concentrations, mercury can cause serious health problems. Cases of mercury poisoning are rare in the United States, but experts worry about the long-term effects of mercury on the brain — and elevated levels are often more common among urban and coastal populations that eat more seafood.

So what does this mean for tuna eaters? The answer is nuanced because the amount of mercury depends on the species — and there are 15 types of tuna, all of which could end up on a dinner plate. The smallest (and often cheapest), like skipjack, have very little mercury. Albacore and yellowfin can have three times as much; bigeye and bluefin can have far more, Dr. Vogliano said.

Read the full article at the The New York Times

Climate change forces 3rd gen fisherman to rethink this year

June 6, 2024 — Every June, fisherman Scott Hawkins and his small crew set sail from a marina in San Diego and travel hundreds of miles, scouring the water, hoping for a good catch of albacore tuna. It can take hours or days to stumble upon a school of them.

But when they do, everyone springs into action at once.

The men grab fishing poles taller than they are, stand in a row on the edge of the boat and cast their lines into the water. Every few seconds, one of them pulls up a fat, two-foot-long albacore tuna and hoists it over his shoulder onto the pile. Every thud is another one landing atop the dozens already flapping on deck.

Read the full article at KCRW

Tuna suppliers say they support Pacific management proposals

August 4, 2023 — With international tuna regulators headed for a major meeting in November, a coalition of seafood suppliers and environmental activists are supporting proposals for the first Pacific-wide harvest strategy to jointly manage albacore stocks.

The 101st Session of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) will be held Aug. 7-11 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The commission’s agenda includes an amendment to the North Pacific albacore harvest strategy, a measure for South Pacific albacore and proposals on electronic monitoring, FADs, and harvest control rules and a Vessel Monitoring System.

“Albacore tuna accounts for a significant chunk of the $40 billion-per-year global tuna market, and demand for this species is projected to grow. That’s why it is vital that fisheries managers work to ensure the sustainability of the albacore population,” wrote Esther Wozniak and Katy Hladki of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ international fisheries project in a recent commentary.

“Together, they can create the first Pacific-wide harvest strategy to jointly manage the stock. After years of research, evaluations and negotiations, managers are now poised to adopt a full harvest strategy this year,” they wrote.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA report highlights 2021 climate, weather, ocean research

March 29, 2022 — Launching the first ever national rip current forecast model, creating high-resolution sea ice information to improve navigation, and using artificial intelligence to process marine mammal calls: These are just a few of NOAA’s many notable scientific accomplishments from the past year. The newly released 2021 NOAA Science Report includes more than 60 stories that represent a selection of NOAA’s 2021 research and development accomplishments across the range of NOAA’s mission. Some of NOAA’s biggest science accomplishments from 2021 include the following 4 stories:

1. Looking at how climate change could impact West Coast fisheries

The “Future Seas” project is a collaborative effort that uses models to explore potential impacts of climate change on West Coast fisheries and evaluate strategies for managing those impacts. This year, the team of scientists completed detailed projections of West Coast ocean conditions out to the year 2100 and used them to project potential climate-driven changes in the distributions and landings of Pacific sardine and albacore tuna in the California Current System, an ocean current that moves southward along the West Coast of North America. Thanks to the Future Seas project, scientists can now provide information and advice on climate resilience to West Coast fishing communities, which helps them better prepare for the effects of climate change.

Read the full story from NOAA

Tuna too few: Commercial season off to standard slow start

July 21, 2021 — Commercial albacore tuna season swam into action last week with the first official landings hitting local docks.

Safe Coast Seafoods and Ilwaco Landing each recorded their first offload of the 2021 commercial tuna season Monday, July 12 in Ilwaco.

Landings have been slow to start the season, fishermen and processors reported, which is par for the course. August has historically been the month with the heaviest commercial tuna landings for Oregon and Washington, with the season wrapping up around October, depending on weather.

“It’s a pretty typical start with fish scattered and in low numbers, but we are encouraged that the water temperature and sea life look more typical and are in good shape to hold large numbers (of tuna) as they come in,” said Tre-Fin Day-Boat Seafood co-founder Michael Domeyer, who recorded their first tuna of the season Saturday, July 17.

Read the full story at The Chinook Observer

Northwest tuna vessel owners fined for ‘paper captain’ violations

June 2, 2021 — Federal teams working in the Pacific Northwest uncovered eight cases of U.S.-flag commercial vessels illegally employing foreign nationals during the summer tuna season out of Washington state, Coast Guard officials said.

Working with Customs and Board Protection and NMFS law enforcement officers, the Coast Guard says since 2019 it documented so-called “paper captain” violations – documentation claiming a U.S. crew member as the captain, when in fact the vessel was under command of a foreign national.

“Paper captain is a term applied to an individual listed on documents as a U.S.-flagged vessel’s captain but in actuality serves as a deckhand or in a similar lower‐level capacity. It is the law that a documented vessel be under the command of a U.S. citizen,” according to a Coast Guard statement.

Read the full story at National Fisherman