page_title: Albacore
section_title: Fisheries management
hierarchical_section_title: Albacore / Human interaction / Conservation / Fisheries management
caption_attribution_description: Original Collection: Extension and Experiment Station Communications (P 95) Item Number: P092:1249 Image Description: Photo part of the Extension Oral History Project. Robert W. Jacobson was a Marine Extension Agent at the Marine Science Extension Center in Newport for 28 years, 1967-1995. You can find this image by searching for the item number by clicking here. Want more? You can find more digital resources online. We're happy for you to share this digital image within the spirit of The Commons; however, certain restrictions on high quality reproductions of the original physical version may apply. To read more about what “no known restrictions” means, please visit the Special Collections &amp; Archives website, or contact staff at the OSU Special Collections &amp; Archives Research Center for details.
context_page_description: The albacore, known also as the longfin tuna, is a species of tuna of the order Perciformes. It is found in temperate and tropical waters across the globe in the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones. There are six distinct stocks known globally in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. The albacore has an elongate, fusiform body with a conical snout, large eyes, and remarkably long pectoral fins. Its body is a deep blue dorsally and shades of silvery white ventrally. Individuals can reach up to 1.4 m in length.
  Albacore are pelagic predators that eat a variety of foods, including fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods. They are unique among tuna in that their primary food source is cephalopods, with fish making up a much smaller portion of their diet. Reproduction usually occurs from November to February and is oviparous. An adult female can release over 2 million eggs in a single cycle. Fry generally stay near where they were spawned for about a year before moving on. Albacore form schools based on their stage in the life cycle, but also combine with other tuna like the skipjack tuna, yellowfin tuna, and bluefin tuna.
context_section_description: Albacore are managed by four tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, (RFMO's) include the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC). ICCAT has established catch quotas in the North and South Atlantic.
  There are 6 globally managed stocks of albacore worldwide, one in the North Pacific, one in the South Pacific, another in the Indian Ocean, two for the North and South Atlantic, and one in the Mediterranean Sea.
  There is substantial uncertainty on current stock status, since different models and assumptions provide a wide range of estimates. However, most of them agreed on the view that spawning stock biomass decreased since the 1930s and started to recover since the mid-1990s. Most of the model formulations, as well as the base case, concluded that currently the stock is not undergoing overfishing but the spawning stock biomass is overfished. IOTC judges albacore in the Indian Ocean are not overfished, but maintaining or increasing effort in the core albacore fishing grounds is likely to result in further declines in albacore biomass. All of the tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations noted that there is uncertainty surrounding the life history and biology of tunas and tuna like species including age and growth, maturity, and natural mortality rates; uncertainty about the quality and completeness of available data; and uncertainty about recruitment.
  The WCPFC has assessed the South Pacific Albacore are not over fished.
  In the 2014 assessment, the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in North Pacific Ocean (ISC), Albacore Working Group (ALBWG), found estimates of total stock biomass (age-1 and older) show a long term decline from the early 1970s to 1990 followed by a recovery through the 1990s and subsequent fluctuations without trend in the 2000s. The ALBWG concludes that the stock is likely not in an overfished condition at present.
  South Pacific albacore stocks have recently (2007 to 2015) shown a 40% reduction in stock.
caption: Hatfield Marine Science Center researchers talk to an albacore fisherman in Newport
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