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Fish, Crustaceans & Cephalopods

Beche De Mer
(Sea Cucumber)

Also known as Allison Tuna and Ahi (Hawaii)

The caudal fin of the yellowfin tuna is distinctly notched in an "M" chape at the centre of its fork.  Behind the second dorsal fin and the anal fin, the body profile of the yellowfin tuna is somewhat flat.  The ventral surface of the liver is smooth and the right lobe is longer than the central lobe.

Yellowfin tuna adults are distinguished by having a moderately long pectoral fin that is one third to one quarter the body fork length.  In juveniles there are about 20 broken pale lines crossing the lower sides.  In large fish, the second dorsal and anal fins may be exceedingly elongated and bright yellow.  Yellowfin tuna less than 75cm fork length (10kg whole weight) may be difficult to distinguish from small bigeye tuna. 

A beautiful and colourful tuna.  Blue to steel black above, silver to silvery gold on the flanks, silvery white below.  In fresh fish a band of bright gold or iridescent blue (sometimes both) runs along the upper flank, separating the dark back from the lighter belly area.

The stomach area sometimes carries oval, colourless patches and vague broken vertical bars of white.  These are more obvious in juveniles.

The yellowfins fins are bright yellow.  The finlets, in particular are canary yellow with black margins.

In Australian waters fish of between 2 and 80kg are common with some specimens reaching 100kg.  In other countries Yellowfin have been recorded in excess of 150kg.

Yellowfin Tuna are found close inshore, in clean warm currents, but are more common on the Continental Shelf areas.  They prefer clean water with water temperatures of 17-27ºC.  They rarely venture into dirty, discoloured areas.

Yellowfin feed both on the surface, and well down in the water column.

Yellowfin is a very good eating fish (yellowfin tuna recipes).  It is extremely good as sashimi (raw fish).

Small yellowfin (2-12kg) will take trolled and cast lures, small live baits and sometimes freely drifted pilchards or cut flesh strips.  Larger yellowfin take small and medium live baits, up to and including live frigate mackerel, bonito and striped tuna weighing as much as 5kg plus.

Yellowfin are extremely powerful and demand the best in tackle and gaffs!

Yellowfin is often marketed as ahi, from its Hawaiian name ʻahi although the name ʻahi in Hawaiian also refers to the closely related bigeye tuna. Although the species name Albacares might suggest otherwise, the fish usually known as albacore is a different species of tuna, Thunnus alalunga. The yellowfin tuna is sometimes referred to as albacora by French and Portuguese fishermen.

Yellowfin tuna prey include other fish, pelagic crustaceans, and squid. Like all tunas their body shape is evolved for speed, enabling them to pursue and capture fast-moving baitfish such as flying fish, saury and mackerel. Schooling species such as myctophids or lantern fish and similar pelagic drift fish, anchovies and sardines are frequently taken. Large yellowfin prey on smaller members of the tuna family such as frigate mackerel and skipjack tuna.

In turn, yellowfin are preyed upon when young by other pelagic hunters including larger tuna, seabirds and predatory fishes such as wahoo, shark and billfish. As they increase in size and speed, yellowfin become able to escape most of their predators. Adults are threatened only by the largest and fastest hunters such as toothed whales, particularly the false killer whale, pelagic sharks such as the mako and great white, and large blue marlin and black marlin. Industrial tuna fisheries represent by far their most threatening predator.

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Other Yellowfin Tuna Links:

Recipes for Tuna from How To Cook Fish

TUNA SUPPLIERS

Angling for Yellowfin Tuna:

Fishing Tips - Yellowfin tuna are fished in near-coastal and offshore regions of New South Wales and can be caught by trolling lures or fishing live or dead baits at anchor or on the drift. Pilchards, small skipjack tuna and mackerel are common baits used by anglers. These tuna can also be caught from drifting boats using dead or live bait such as redfish or nannygai along with berley.

Yellowfin tuna are some of the most popular game fish in the world, and given their tremendous fight, size, and tastiness, it's easy to see why. Once you tie into a big one, you may never go back to other game fish. And whether you bring that big yellowfin home to eat or to hang on the wall, you'll have a fish story to be proud of.

A favoured Australian technique for taking large yellowfin involves the use of unweighted flesh strip baits or pilchards used in conjunction with a berley trail of fish 'cubes'.

Yellowfin tuna are one of the most challenging species to catch with a rod and reel. Their large size and high capacity for exercise can result in broken tackle if you are poorly prepared. Trolling and chumming are the primary methods used by anglers. Trolling involves creating a flashy presentation of multiple lures trolled in the boat wake while moving along at 7-8 nautical miles per hour. Single hook lures with plastic skirts are a common offering and chains or spreader bars of lures are an option to increase the visual attraction. Green is a popular color for yellowfin tuna. The idea is to have a pattern of lures that splash, wiggle and sparkle enough to trick the fish into thinking it is attacking a group of agitated baitfish. Chumming involves introducing a baited hook to yellowfin tuna while the boat is drifting or anchored. Cut pieces of butterfish or silver hake are common baits, and small pieces of the bait are deliberately tossed in the water around the baited hook to attract tuna.

Both methods use similar tackle. Since yellowfin typically range between 30-80 pounds in this fishery, you most often see high quality 30, 50, or 80 pound-class reels and rods and line used. Yellowfin that exceed 100 pounds are matched well with the 80 pound class gear. Lighter tackle can be used and is gaining popularity, but you better have time on your hands if you want to land a 150 lb. yellowfin tuna with 30 pound class tackle. Once hooked, rods are taken from rod holders and transferred to the angler wearing a gimbal belt and/or back harness. This sets up a "stand-up" fish fighting technique that can quickly fatigue the inexperienced angler faced with a large tuna.

These photos are from Commercial Fishing Supplies - Mooloolaba, Australia

Cooking Yellowfin Tuna:

To Buy
Usually sold as steaks, cutlets or sliced as sashimi. Look for bright red flesh (colour can vary with cut) that is firm, lustrous and moist without any dull brown markings or oozing water and with a pleasant fresh sea smell. Always buy sashimi-grade fish if it is to be served raw or rare.

To Store
Make sure whole fish is scaled, gilled, gutted and cleaned thoroughly. Wrap steaks and cutlets in plastic wrap or place in an airtight container. Refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months below -18ºC. Sashimi-grade fish should be eaten within 24 hours of purchase, or else cooked.

To Cook
Average yield is 70-75%. Has a medium flavour, medium oiliness and moist flesh, which quickly becomes dry if overcooked. The cooked flesh is creamy brown in colour and breaks into large flakes; there are very few bones to worry about. The centre bone of cutlets can be removed and a filling placed in the cavity. Cut thick steaks into serving-size portions to allow even heat penetration. The general rule is 10 minutes per inch of thickness, at the thickest part of the fillet or steak, at 400-450 degrees F. Fish is done when the flesh becomes opaque and flakes easily when tested with a fork.,

Cooking Methods
Poach, pan-fry, stir-fry, bake, braise, grill, barbecue, smoke, raw (sashimi), pickle. The firm flesh holds together well in soups, curries and casseroles and can be cubed for kebabs.

Recipes for Yellowfin Tuna from How To Cook Fish

Tuna & Macaroni Salad - Macaroni pasta, canned tuna, mayonnaise, celery, capsicum, fresh dill and Dijon mustard.

Commercial Fishing for Yellowfin Tuna:

The yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) is one of the most economically important fish in the world. Hundreds of thousands of tons are taken by commercial fishermen worldwide every year. If you open a can of tuna, if it's not albacore, then it is probably yellowfin tuna. This species, also called Allison tuna, has a wide range: it is found in a thick band around the equator throughout the world, inhabiting warm seas from the US-Canada border latitudes in the north to Australia in the south, and frequents depths from the surface down to 100 fathoms.

Modern commercial fisheries catch yellowfin tuna with encircling nets (purse seines), and by industrial longlines.

Tuna are fish from the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tuna are fast swimmers—they have been clocked at 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph)—and include several warm-blooded species. Unlike most fish, which have white flesh, tuna flesh is pink to dark red, which could explain their odd nick-name, "rose of the sea." The red coloring comes from tuna muscle tissue's greater quantities of myoglobin, an oxygen-binding molecule. Some of the larger species, such as the bluefin tuna, can raise their blood temperature above water temperature through muscular activity. This ability enables them to live in cooler waters and to survive in a wide range of ocean environments.

While many stocks are managed sustainably, it is widely accepted that bluefin have been severely overfished, with some stocks at risk of collapse. According to the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (a global, non-profit partnership between the tuna industry, scientists, and the World Wide Fund for Nature), Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna, Pacific Ocean (eastern & western) bigeye tuna, and North Atlantic albacore tuna are all overfished. In April 2009 no stock of skipjack tuna (which makes up roughly 60 percent of all tuna fished worldwide) was considered to be overfished.

Pole & Line Fishing - Formerly, much of the commercial catch was made by pole and line fishing, using live bait such as anchovy to attract schools of tuna close to the fishing vessel that were then taken with baited jigs on sturdy bamboo or fibreglass poles or on handlines. This fishery, which targeted skipjack and occasionally albacore as well as yellowfin, for canning, reached its heyday between World War I and the 1950s before declining. The most well-known fleet of pole and line boats sailed from San Diego in California and exploited abundant stocks in Mexican waters, as well as further south to Panama, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands.

Purse Seining - Purse seining largely took over commercial tuna fisheries in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, purse seines account for more of the commercial catch than any other method. The purse seine fishery primarily operates in the Pacific Ocean, in the historic tuna grounds of the San Diego tuna fleet in the eastern Pacific, and in the islands of the western Pacific, where many US tuna canneries relocated in the 1980s; but significant purse-seine catches are also made in the Indian Ocean and in the tropical Atlantic Ocean, especially in the Gulf of Guinea by French and Spanish vessels. Purse seine vessels locate tuna via onboard lookouts, as was done in the pole and line fishery, but they also employ sophisticated onboard electronics, sea-surface temperature and other satellite data, and from helicopters overhead. Once a school is located, the net is set around it.

Longline - Most of the commercial catch is canned, but the sashimi marketplace adds significant demand for high-quality fish. This market is primarily supplied by industrial tuna longline vessels. Industrial longlining was primarily perfected by Japanese fishermen who expanded into new grounds in the Western Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Longlining has since been adopted by other fishermen, most notably South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. Tuna longlining targets larger sashimi-grade fish of around 25 kilograms (55 lb) and up that swim deeper in the water column. In tropical and warm temperate areas the more valuable bigeye is often the main target, but significant effort is also directed towards larger yellowfin. Longlining seeks areas of higher ocean productivity indicated by temperature and chlorophyll fronts formed by upwellings, ocean current eddies and major bathymetric features. Satellite imaging technology is the primary tool for locating these dynamic and constantly changing ocean areas.

Exporters of Yellowfin Tuna  |  Importers of Yellowfin Tuna  |  Processors of Yellowfin Tuna  |
Wholesale Suppliers of Yellowfin Tuna  |  Seafood Agents for Yellowfin Tuna

More links about Yellowfin Tuna and Tuna Information

YELLOWFIN TUNA LINKS:
'The Story of Greg Pickerings' Pending World Record Yellowfin Tuna'
Yellowfin Tuna--General Description 
Yellowfin Tuna--General Description & Uses of Fish