According to the information albacore tuna are harvested from tropical to temperate waters, mainly for canning, but also to satisfy the growing market for fresh fish in Europe and the United States. Albacore have become a prime target of Australia’s Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery which operates from Cape York to Tasmania and on the adjacent high seas. Several Pacific island nations and distant water fleets, including Taiwan and Korea, also target albacore.
Sudden such a huge rising catch of albacore has generated a need for more information about the species to assess stock levels and provide advice on harvest levels in Australian and international waters.
In order to understand this scientists from the CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship are studying the biology of albacore stocks from eastern Australia and the wider south-western Pacific Ocean to determine their age, growth and reproductive characteristics.
Project leader, Jess Farley, says fishery-wide information about how albacore age, grow and reproduce is needed to provide reliable stock assessments and set appropriate levels for future catches.
It is said that scientists aim to develop a ‘maturity schedule’ for female albacore across the south Pacific to help estimate their spawning output at different sizes and ages. This is the key to understanding the productivity of the stocks. CSIRO scientist Dr Campbell Davies says that, like other fish species, tunas release many thousands, if not millions, of eggs in a spawning season and individual spawning output increases with the size and age of the female fish.
