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Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

Greenpeace Canada Redlist

Fishery Facts

Latin Name
Thunnus thynnus

Fishing Method
Purse seine, pelagic longline, pole and line, troll lines, hand lines, driftnets, traps in the Mediterranean and east Atlantic, harpoons off the coast of North America.

Region of Harvest
Off the coast of Atlantic Canada, down to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Also off the coast of Norway down to the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean.

Other
In the late 1970s, the advent of modern factory ships and rapid worldwide air shipment made bluefin tuna an international luxury commodity. Bluefin tuna can sell for more than $100,000 each in Japan.

Why is it on the red list?

Biology

1.
The Atlantic population has declined by nearly 90 per cent since the 1970s and overfishing is still occurring on the already depleted population of Atlantic bluefin

2.
Pirate fishing is a problem in the Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery, especially with longliners. Huge under-reporting of catches, especially of juveniles is suspected.

3.
When bluefin tuna are caught with longlines, thousands of other species are caught and discarded. For purse seines, even when they are ‘dolphin safe’ their bycatch of other unwanted fishes and animals is very high.

Bluefin tuna live between 0-9850 metres below sea level.

They can live for up to 15 years, and mature between three and five years.

The largest bluefin can grow up to 4.6 metres and weigh up to 684 kilograms.

Bluefin feed mainly on small schooling fish (anchovies, sauries, hakes) or on squids and red crabs.

Bluefin tuna migrate large distances across oceans, making international management and enforcement of regulations very difficult.