Thunnus orientalis, Pacific bluefin tuna : fisheries, aquaculture, gamefish

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Thunnus orientalis (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844)

Pacific bluefin tuna
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Thunnus orientalis   AquaMaps   Data sources: GBIF OBIS
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Thunnus orientalis
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Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Scombriformes (Mackerels) > Scombridae (Mackerels, tunas, bonitos) > Scombrinae
Etymology: Thunnus: Greek, thynnos = tunna (Ref. 45335).
More on authors: Temminck & Schlegel.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Marine; brackish; pelagic-oceanic; oceanodromous (Ref. 51243); depth range 1 - 550 m (Ref. 58302). Subtropical; 61°N - 52°S, 99°E - 70°W

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

North Pacific: Gulf of Alaska to southern California and Baja California and from Sakhalin Island in the southern Sea of Okhotsk south to northern Philippines. There are four substantiated records of this subspecies in the southern hemisphere: off Western Australia, southeast Pacific (37°11'S, 114°41'W) and Gulf of Papua (Ref. 10997). The species occurs mainly in the northern Pacific but ventures into New Zealand waters for at least three months during spring and early summer (Ref. 83312).

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 300 cm FL male/unsexed; (Ref. 9340); common length : 200 cm FL male/unsexed; (Ref. 9340); max. published weight: 450.0 kg (Ref. 47525); max. reported age: 15 years (Ref. 83312)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Mean number of gill rakers 35.9. First ventrally directed parapophysis on vertebra number 8. Dorsal wall of body cavity has a narrow bulge with lateral concavity and wide lateral trough. Caudal keels dark.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Epipelagic, usually oceanic, but seasonally coming close to shore (Ref. 168). Tolerates ample temperature intervals (Ref. 168). Forms schools by size, sometimes with other scombrids (Ref. 168). Migrates between June and September in a northward direction along the coast of Baja California, Mexico and California (Ref. 168). A voracious predator that feeds on a wide variety of small schooling fishes and squids, also on crabs crabs and to a lesser degree on sessile organisms (Ref. 168). Marketed fresh and frozen.

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator : Collette, Bruce B. | Collaborators

Collette, B.B., 1995. Scombridae. Atunes, bacoretas, bonitos, caballas, estorninos, melva, etc. p. 1521-1543. In W. Fischer, F. Krupp, W. Schneider, C. Sommer, K.E. Carpenter and V. Niem (eds.) Guia FAO para Identification de Especies para lo Fines de la Pesca. Pacifico Centro-Oriental. 3 Vols. FAO, Rome. (Ref. 9340)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Near Threatened (NT) (A2bd); Date assessed: 15 January 2021

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Fisheries: highly commercial; aquaculture: commercial; gamefish: yes
FAO - Aquaculture: production; Fisheries: landings; Publication: search | FIRMS - Stock assessments | FishSource | Sea Around Us

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Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Aquaculture: production; Fisheries: landings; Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | National databases | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 123201): 13.9 - 28.1, mean 24.3 °C (based on 983 cells).
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.5039   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.01380 (0.00638 - 0.02986), b=3.03 (2.86 - 3.20), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this Genus-body shape (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  4.5   ±0.3 se; based on size and trophs of closest relatives
Generation time: 10.6 ( na - na) years. Estimated as median ln(3)/K based on 2 growth studies.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (tm=3-5; tmax=15; K=0.1-0.2).
Prior r = 0.38, 95% CL = 0.25 - 0.57, Based on 2 stock assessments.
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Very high vulnerability (76 of 100).
Climate Vulnerability (Ref. 125649):  Moderate vulnerability (38 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766):   Very high.
Nutrients (Ref. 124155):  Calcium = 18.3 [10.0, 32.3] mg/100g; Iron = 2.32 [0.96, 5.79] mg/100g; Protein = 24.2 [22.7, 25.5] %; Omega3 = 0.403 [0.246, 0.662] g/100g; Selenium = 42.6 [16.1, 118.0] μg/100g; VitaminA = 21.5 [2.9, 199.3] μg/100g; Zinc = 0.355 [0.211, 0.717] mg/100g (wet weight); based on nutrient studies.