Fishery Porduction of Tuna

How much tunas have we caught? And will we be able to continue to catch tunas in the future?
Here, we consider the amount of tuna as a current "natural resource" based on various public statistics on fishery prodution.

Global aquatic production by catch and aquaculture.

Total global consumption of edible fish and shellfish has increased approximately five-fold over the past 50 years, due in part to population growth.

According to the statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the world's fisheries production has remained about 90 million tons since the 1990s (Fig.1), and one of the reasons for this is that the world's fishery resources are being used almost to their full capacity (Fig.2), making it difficult to increase catches of fish any further.

On the other hand, the world's aquaculture production is growing rapidly to compensate for the ever-growing demand for seafood: from about 17 million tons in 1990 to about 122 million tons in 2020.

Fig.1 Trends in World Fisheries and Aquaculture Production (2021 Fisheries White Paper by Fisheries Agency of Japan)	Fig.2 World Aquatic Resource Status (2021 Fisheries White Paper by Fisheries Agency of Japan)

Aquatic production by catch and aquaculture in Japan.

In contrast, Japan's fisheries and aquaculture production have both declined.
Japan's fisheries production was 9.6 thousand tons in 1990, but it had declined to 3.2 thousand tons, less than half in 2020. In addition, Japan's aquaculture production was about 1.3 thousand tons in 1990, but has declined slightly to about 1 thousand tons in 2020 (Fig.3).

Fig.3 Fishery and Aquaculture Production Statistics in Japan Production (Survey of Sea-level Fishery Production Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan)

Trends in amount of catched Natural Tuna

The global tuna production has been increasing: in the 1970s it was about 2 million tons, and since 2020 it has been about 8 million tons, a four-fold increase since the 1970s (Fig.4).


Fig.4 Trends in World Fishery Catches of Tuna, Bonito, and Swordfish (2021 Fisheries White Paper by Fisheries Agency of Japan)


Japan's fisheries production of tuna used to account for a large proportion of the world's fisheries production of tuna, but recently it gradually declined.
Tuna resources are managed by five regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs).
br>（See For sustainability → RFMOs).


Fig.5 Japanese Sea Surface Fisheries Catch of Tuna by Species (Survey of Sea Surface Fisheries Production Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan)

While the world's production of tuna has increased, Japan's production has decreased. While eating tuna is becoming more popular around the world, in contlast Japanese seem to be eating less fish than before.

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