The volume of tuna sold with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)’s blue ecolabel grew by 24% year on year to almost 300,000 metric tonnes in 24-25 according to new data released by the MSC in the latest edition of its Sustainable Tuna Yearbook. The data includes sales of wet tuna from the fish counter, frozen, in ready meals or pet food as well as canned or tinned tuna. 

Several tuna fisheries were newly certified as environmentally sustainable during the year. They include Kyowa-Meiho, the first Japanese purse seine tuna fishery to achieve certification; Australian Southern Bluefin tuna; and Senegal's Atlantic tuna fishery which made history by becoming the first in West Africa to meet the MSC Fisheries Standard.  

The South African albacore tuna pole and line fishery became the first fishery to progress from the MSC Improvement Program to certification in 2024.  

Currently, 2. 82 million tonnes of tuna from MSC certified fisheries are being landed annually, accounting for half of the global wild tuna catch. 

Laura Rodriguez, MSC’s Head of Species Strategies, said: “Sales of eco-labelled tuna have been growing for some years now and show no signs of slowing down. It’s heartening to see the progress being made in tuna fisheries around the world to meet this demand from retailers and consumers, which in turn is driving progress on the water.”  

Tuna are migratory and so stocks can be shared by many different countries, who must reach agreement on the management measures needed to ensure fishing is sustainable. This can be a significant challenge for tuna fisheries and Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs). Two significant tuna fisheries, Western Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) skipjack and North Pacific albacore, achieved major milestones in sustainable fisheries management in the last year by successfully implementing rigorous harvest strategies that ensure the long-term health of these tuna stocks.  

The total amount of tuna caught every year has been steadily increasing since the 1950’s, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. Its latest State of the World’s Fisheries (SOFIA) report, published in 2024, shows more than 3 million tonnes of live weight Skipjack tuna, and more than 1.5 million tonnes of live weight Yellowfin were caught in 2022.  

Research showing that a third of the stocks of the seven principal tuna species were being fished at biologically unsustainable levels led the UN in 2016 to designate May 2 as World Tuna Day to raise awareness that the stocks of tuna fish were threatened by overwhelming demand. Since then, many fisheries have shown a huge commitment to improving practices to ensure the sustainability of tuna. The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation’s recent stock report showed 87% of global tuna catch was coming from stocks at healthy levels.