page_title: Yellowfin tuna
section_title: Purse seining
hierarchical_section_title: Yellowfin tuna / Commercial fishery / Purse seining
caption_attribution_description: English: Juvenile yellowfin tuna on purse seine vessel
context_page_description: The yellowfin tuna is a species of tuna found in pelagic waters of tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide.
  Yellowfin is often marketed as ahi, from the Hawaiian ʻahi, a name also used there for the closely related bigeye tuna. The species name, albacares can also lead to confusion: in English, the albacore tuna is a different species, while yellowfin is officially designated albacore in French and referred to as albacora by Portuguese fishermen.
context_section_description: Purse seining largely took over commercial tuna fisheries in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, purse seines account for more of the commercial catch than any other method. The purse-seine fishery primarily operates in the Pacific Ocean, in the historic tuna grounds of the San Diego tuna fleet in the eastern Pacific, and in the islands of the western Pacific, where many U.S. tuna canneries relocated in the 1980s, but significant purse-seine catches are also made in the Indian Ocean and in the tropical Atlantic Ocean, especially in the Gulf of Guinea by French and Spanish vessels.
  Purse-seine vessels locate tuna using onboard lookouts, as was done in the pole-and-line fishery, but they also employ sophisticated onboard electronics, sea-surface temperature and other satellite data, and helicopters overhead. Once a school is located, the net is set around it. A single set may yield 100 t (98 long tons; 110 short tons). Modern tuna seiners have a capacity up to 2,000 metric tons (2,000 long tons; 2,200 short tons), reach speeds of over 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph), and carry multiple spotting helicopters.
  Purse seining for yellowfin tuna became highly controversial in the late 1970s when it became apparent that the eastern Pacific fishery was killing many spinner dolphins, pantropical spotted dolphins, and other cetaceans (often called "porpoises" by the tuna fleet) that accompany the fish. This association has been long-recognized by commercial tuna fishermen.
caption: Juvenile yellowfin caught with purse seine near the Philippines
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