Eleven of the major commercial tuna stocks are clear of overfishing and maintaining stock biomass levels, while twelve continue to fail to meet criteria for the MSC Fisheries Standard.
A report commissioned by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) finds that eleven of the 23 major commercial tuna stocks worldwide are successfully avoiding overfishing and maintaining target stock biomass levels when measured against the MSC Fisheries Standard.
These are Western Atlantic skipjack, North Atlantic albacore, South Atlantic albacore, Eastern Atlantic bluefin, Western Pacific yellowfin, Western Pacific bigeye, Western Pacific skipjack, Eastern Pacific yellowfin, Eastern Pacific skipjack, Indian Ocean skipjack and Southern Ocean bluefin.
Seven of the 23 stocks also have fully implemented well-defined harvest control rules. However, failure to implement controls before rebuilding is required continues to contribute to an increasing number of stocks failing to meet minimum requirements on harvest control rules.
Stocks failing to meet the standards are yellowfin, bigeye, Eastern skipjack, Mediterranean albacore and Western bluefin in the Atlantic, plus Eastern bigeye, Northern albacore, Southern albacore and Pacific bluefin in the Pacific, and in the Indian Ocean yellowfin, bigeye and albacore all received overall principle-level failing scores – as was also the case last year.
