Skipjack Tuna

Skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) is a small tuna, with a rapid growth rate and an estimated maximum size of 110 cm in length and 34 kg in weight. This tuna species is distinguished by four to seven dark, longitudinal stripes on its belly. Skipjack also has a dark blue or purple-coloured back with a clearly defined area of green above the pectoral fin. Its sides and belly are a silvery metallic colour.

Skipjack feeds on small fish, crustaceans, cephalods and mollusks, and is an important prey species for large pelagic fish and sharks. It tends to swim in schools with other similar sized tunas, and its maximum age is estimated to range between 8 and 12 years.

Skipjack is an important fish in the global tuna fishery. It has wide distribution throughout tropical and sub-tropical waters in the Pacific and Indian Oceans: 55% in the Western Pacific, 12% in the Eastern Pacific, and 20% in the Indian Ocean. Skipjack is also found in the Atlantic Ocean. Management of skipjack on the high seas is shared by four regional fisheries management organizations: Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, and Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission.

Skipjack tuna is rarely found within Canadian waters, and is not fished by Canadian tuna harvesters. Available information about the status of skipjack stocks does not point to overexploitation of the stock; however, concerns have been raised about the skipjack being increasingly harvested as bycatch due to increased pressure on other tuna fisheries worldwide. In some areas of the Indian Ocean, in particular, skipjack may be fully exploited. Variability in the recruitment of young fish, influenced by environmental conditions, appears to be the primary determinant of stock size and fishery performance in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.