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Pacific bluefin tuna will get some help as countries agree to new harvest strategy
Pacific bluefin tuna will get some help as countries agree to new harvest strategy. Originally published by Mongabay.
By Francesco De Augustinis · 2026-09-14T09:05:17.202Z
The annual meeting of the Inter American Tropical Tuna Commission IATTC concluded on Sept. 4 with an agreement to adopt a long term harvest strategy for Pacific bluefin tuna. The agreement aims to ensure sustainable management of this species, which has only recently recovered after decades of overfishing. But the commission fell short of establishing a harvest strategy for other tuna species — bigeye, skipjack and yellowfin — managed under the convention. “A proposal was adopted … and that’s really great progress,” Dave Gershman, a senior officer for international fisheries at the U.S. based think tank The Pew Charitable Trusts, who took part in the meeting as an observer, told Mongabay. The commission approved the plan for Pacific bluefin tuna Thunnus orientalis after 10 years of research and mediation. The plan establishes science based rules to support the stock’s complete recovery and long term protection while taking into account impacts on the broader ecosystem. “You want to have these things in place when times are good so it’s there when you need it,” Gershman said. The 104th meeting of the IATTC https://www.iattc.org/en US/Event/DetailEvent/Event IATTC 104 took place in Lisbon from Aug. 31 to Sept. 4. One of five main regional fishery management organizations RFMOs responsible for tuna and tuna like species, the commission is tasked with managing six tuna stocks, associated species and their ecosystems throughout the Eastern Pacific Ocean, from Canada south to Chile. The most heavily fished species https://www.iattc.org/en US/Data/Cumulative catch in the IATTC convention area are yellowfin tuna Thunnus albacares , with 314,230 metric tons caught between January and August 2026 ; skipjack tuna Katsuwonus pelamis , with 217,807 metric tons caught during the same period ; bigeye tuna Thunnus obesus , with 16,330 metric tons caught ; and Pacific bluefin tuna with 3,928 metric tons caught . The species are primarily caught by vessels flying the flags of Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, the United States and Venezuela. While yellowfin, skipjack and bigeye are managed exclusively by the IATTC, Pacific bluefin tuna is managed through a joint working group between the IATTC and the other main tuna RFMO in the Pacific Ocean, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission https://www.wcpfc.int/ WCPFC , as the species comprises a single population spanning the entire Pacific. It was this working group, which met three times in 2026, that led to the proposal put forward by Japan, the U.S. and Mexico https://www.iattc.org/GetAttachment/b87733b0 5067 4219 9397 d86d86b160ce/IATTC 104 PROP H 1 VAR Amend C 23 01 Bluefin EN.pdf , resulting in the adoption of the Pacific bluefin harvest strategy. In 2016, the population had fallen to 2.6% https://www.iattc.org/GetAttachment/449ca3fe 5a0b 4284 bf57 6351ebe9a41b/C 16 08 Active Conservation and management of Pacific bluefin tuna.pdf of its historic size, prompting the IATTC to approve a rebuilding plan https://www.iattc.org/GetAttachment/dec1fdca 011e 4a99 930a 1aad47082c6b/IATTC 92 PROP D 1 USA Pacific bluefin tuna.pdf the following year that led to a substantial recovery. The adoption of a long term harvest strategy https://www.iattc.org/GetAttachment/4ea900aa 882b 4f2f 8de9 2fb9207b846e/IATTC 104 INF F PBFWG 11 session2 Summary Report 08 21 26 FINAL ES.pdf aims to complete the species’ recovery, while also allowing for slight increases in total catches, with automatic reductions in catch levels should a new decline occur. According to Gershman, for the measure to be truly effective, the WCPFC will need to adopt a complementary harvest strategy for its own waters at its next meeting, scheduled for Nov. 30 to Dec. 4 in Vanuatu. “The IATTC members who participate in the joint working group — Japan, Korea, the U.S. and Taiwan — they’ve all endorsed this. So we’re hopeful that the other members of the WCPFC will join,” he said. No deal for tropical tuna IATTC members failed to reach an agreement on another anticipated management framework concerning three other tuna species: Bigeye, yellowfin and skipjack. They are often caught together, so the proposals before the IATTC aimed to establish a multispecies long term harvest strategy https://www.iattc.org/GetAttachment/75a56ddf 64f3 4969 b142 66d7f72b8e98/IATTC 104 INF A MP for Tropical Tuna in EPO SUMMARY EN.pdf — a world first — so that signs of a population decline in one species would trigger restrictions on fishing across all three. According to IATTC stock assessments https://www.iattc.org/GetAttachment/c8824487 d9ff 4bff 93af 1a21fdcbe633/IATTC 104 PRES 2025 STATUS OF THE STOCKS and RECOMMENDATIONS TROPICAL.pdf , these populations are “in healthy condition.” Even so, in position statements submitted ahead of the meeting, groups representing the tuna industry, including the Global Tuna Alliance https://www.globaltunaalliance.com/wp content/uploads/2026/08/GTA CIAT Declaracion de Posicion IATTC Position Statement 2026.pdf and the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation https://www.iattc.org/GetAttachment/6a9afb16 8a2c 48d0 8420 3d52411f73d2/IATTC 104 RD ISSF 2026 IATTC Position Statement EN.pdf , called for the adoption of a harvest strategy to establish predictable rules and give global seafood markets greater confidence in the sustainability of these fisheries. “The market is increasingly concerned that the IATTC is lagging behind other RFMOs in adopting modern, predictable, and science based management tools,” Wetjens Dimmlich, advocacy lead at the Global Tuna Alliance, told Mongabay in an email. “For the global tuna market, confidence that the tuna is sourced from stocks sustainably managed through well tested MPs long term harvest strategies is critical,” he said. But IATTC members did not approve proposals put forward by the European Union, Ecuador and the United States. According to Gershman, the failure to reach consensus, required to adopt any measure under IATTC rules, was due to opposition from “a group of countries” calling for greater fishing capacity. He declined to name the countries. Dimmlich said Global Tuna Alliance was disappointed with the “failure” to adopt a harvest strategy for these species, and “deeply concerned by the IATTC’s procedural shortcomings.” “It has become a recurring issue that critical management proposals are only presented or tabled on the final day of the meeting, creating a bottleneck that prevents member delegations and observers from giving important management measures the proper consideration they require,” he said. Transparency and rights At the opening of the meeting, NGOs belonging to the European IUU Fishing Coalition https://www.iuuwatch.eu/ issued a joint statement https://www.iattc.org/GetAttachment/f9567d24 b644 49b1 8750 b34d34271162/IATTC 104 RD IATTC EU IUU Coalition Pew Oceana WWF brief 2026.pdf calling on IATTC members to adopt new measures to improve transparency and combat illegal, unreported and unregulated IUU fishing. The statement set out a series of measures it called “minimum” requirements for all RFMOs. It specifically called on the IATTC to improve transparency around the “beneficial owners” of fishing vessels to enable identification of the persons “who ultimately profit” from a vessel’s activities so they can be held to account for any violations. It also called for the body to adopt onboard inspections, more stringent labor standards and stricter rules at port to reduce the risk of IUU caught fish entering international markets. According to Gershman, proposals put forward by Ecuador and Canada during the meeting that called for greater transparency and improved monitoring were not adopted, while only preliminary discussions on port measures got underway. “So we kind of hope someone brings forward a measure next year,” he said. IATTC members did not discuss the issue of labor standards at all. “We must highlight a major gap in the commission’s agenda: The continued absence of labour standards and worker conditions,” Dimmlich said. “Sustainable and responsible fisheries management encompasses the people who make the industry possible, and the IATTC is significantly lagging behind other RFMOs in this regard.” Banner image : A tuna catch on board an Ecuadorean purse seiner in the vicinity of the northern Galapagos Islands. Image by © Alex Hofford/ Greenpeace https://media.greenpeace.org/Detail/27MZIFL11VV9 . Countries shorten tuna fishing closure at Pacific summit with few conservation ‘wins’ https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/countries shorten tuna fishing closure at pacific summit with few conservation wins/ Feedback : Use this form https://form.jotform.com/260768810431356 to send a message to the editor of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.