Tropical tunas: Global warming and food security, an overview

Abstract

The term ‘tropical tuna’ refers to skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis), bigeye (Thunnus obesus) and yellowfin tunas (Thunnus albacares), which have a wide pa nt ropical distribution. Tropical tunas inhabit wate rs with a sea surface temperature with an optimal value around 20°C. Currently, two of these species are among the 7 species with higher landings worldwide. In addition, it is expected that future tropical tuna stocks play a key role safeguarding food security. The aim of this paper was to review the studies about the effect of both climatic oscillations and global warming on tropical tuna populations. Moreover, it warns about the main challenges of fisheries biology in relation to the management of stocks of tropical tunas, an important fishery resource, in the context of climate change. For this, a review of studies that have addressed to date the effect of both climate oscillations and global warming on populations of tropical tunas was performed.