World Wildlife Fund

Tuna are truly one of the ocean’s most magnificent fish. Champion long-distance swimmers and one of the ocean’s top predators, these commercially valuable fish are found throughout the world’s oceans.

With a cruise speed of around 1.7 to 4.6 miles/hour -- a slow to reasonably brisk walking pace for us -- they can speed up to 9 miles/hour for some time.  But it’s when they’re chasing their prey, or avoiding a hungry shark, that many tuna species really let fly, accelerating faster than a Porsche and reaching speeds of 45, and maybe even 70 miles/hour.

No surprise that the word 'tuna' comes from a Greek word meaning “to rush”.

Threats 

But many of the world’s valuable tuna species face a number of urgent yet common threats to their continued existence such as alarming population declines, in particular of bluefin and bigeye tunas, poor international conservation management of all tuna species, and high levels of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Additional marine wildlife like sharks, turtles, seabirds, and small cetaceans are accidentally killed as bycatch in some tuna fishing operations.

WWF is the only global conservation organization with a presence in every international body responsible for tuna conservation. We seek to pressure on governments to manage tuna resources with long-term economic and environmental benefits to consumers and society.

Call for action

WWF has five short to medium term asks of the tuna management and fishing sectors:

1. Reduction of fishing levels to those recommended by scientists
2. Implementation of a global reduction in fishing capacity of both longlining and purse-seining vessels
3. Mitigation of the bycatch of juvenile tuna and endangered and threatened species, particularly loggerhead and leatherback turtles
4. Establishment and use of effective domestic and international Catch Documentation Schemes for all tuna
5. Achievement of Marine Stewardship Council certification for healthy and well-managed tuna populations

Read more

• Immediate ban needed to save bluefin tuna
• Learn more about how WWF is addressing the challenges of overfishing, bycatch and policy reform