Profile updated on 4 March 2020

SUMMARY

SUMMARY

IDENTIFICATION

SCIENTIFIC NAME(s)

Katsuwonus pelamis

SPECIES NAME(s)

Skipjack tuna

Skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) is a cosmopolitan species found in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It is considered a highly migratory species that generally forms large schools, often in association with other tunas of similar size such as juveniles of yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna (IOTC 2017). The evidence of rapid and large-scale movements of skipjack tuna in the Indian Ocean reported by the Regional Tuna Tagging Project-Indian Ocean (RTTP-IO) supports the assumption of a single stock of skipjack tuna population within the Indian Ocean (Murua et al. 2015)(IOTC 2017)(Artetxe-Arrate et al. 2021).


ANALYSIS

Strengths
  • Skipjack tuna stock in the Indian Ocean is currently considered to be healthy, not overfished and not undergoing overfishing (IOTC 2023)(IOTC 2023).

SCORES

Management Quality:

Management Strategy:

≥ 8

Managers Compliance:

≥ 8

Fishers Compliance:

5.2