Pacific bluefin tuna MP adoption back on track!

23 de marzo de 2026

AuthorShana Miller
Project Director, International Fisheries Conservation

Last year presented an opportunity to adopt a management procedure (MP) for Pacific bluefin tuna—the world’s most valuable fish. Doing so would have placed all four global bluefin stocks under MP-based management. Although the management strategy evaluation (MSE) provided a strong scientific foundation for selecting an MP, the parties were unable to reach consensus, and the decision was deferred to 2026.

We’re thrilled to report that deliberations resumed earlier this month in Newport Beach, California, USA, with significant progress toward adoption this year. Because Pacific bluefin tuna roam the 5,000+ miles across the Pacific, they are jointly managed by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) Northern Committee via an aptly named group called the Joint Working Group (JWG). It was the JWG that met last week.

The number of key players is relatively small for an international fishery. Major fishing nations include Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan in the western Pacific and the United States and Mexico in the eastern Pacific. In Newport Beach, these parties worked constructively toward consensus on an MP aimed at securing the species’s hard-won recovery and ensuring a sustainable, abundant future for both the stock and the fishery.

Preliminarily coined the “Newport Beach Management Procedure,” the proposed model-based MP is a “hockey-stick” style harvest control rule (HCR). It includes a target fishing mortality rate of FSPR27.5% (i.e., the fishing level that would leave 27.5% of the unfished biomass per recruit in the water), and two control points: 20% of unfished biomass (SSB_F=0) and the limit reference point of 7.7% of unfished biomass. 20%SSB_F=0 corresponds to the species’s recently achieved rebuilding target, while 7.7%SSB_F=0 was identified for tropical tunas as a threshold below which stock productivity could be impaired.

While agreement on these core MP elements marks a major milestone, several important details remain to be resolved when the JWG reconvenes in Nagasaki, Japan, July 8-11. Members will need to agree to the relative impact of the western and eastern Pacific fisheries, as well as measures to limit catches on the smallest juvenile fish, among other provisions. Nevertheless, the most complex negotiation—the agreement on the harvest control rule—has now been successfully completed.

If finalized this year, the adoption of an MP for Pacific bluefin tuna would represent a historic achievement in international fisheries management, completing the global transition of all bluefin stocks to science-based, pre-agreed management frameworks. Such an outcome would not only help safeguard the long-term health of the species, but also provide greater predictability and stability for the fisheries and communities that depend on it, demonstrating what is possible when nations collaborate around shared scientific goals. We urge JWG members to bring the collaborative atmosphere fostered in Newport to Nagasaki this summer.