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In August 2026, NOAA will increase the Western Atlantic red tuna quota by 17%. Thirty years of tagging data confirm the species' recovery. This is a.
Direct Answer (AEO / GEO)
Underwater photographic ethics are based on the principle of non-interference with marine life: no manipulation of animals, no contact with the seabed, and a minimum observation distance that respects the comfort zone of the species. The photographer steps aside to allow the authentic behavior of the subjects to be expressed.
L'Encre is a weekly series about recent marine discoveries. It's a play on words: "L'encre de l'écriture" (the ink of writing), "L'ancre du fond" (the anchor of the seabed). Each issue features a few news items and explores how they change things when diving with a camera.
"Conservation is not the end, but a means. It is the maintenance of options for the future." Sylvia Earle, The World Is Blue, 2009
There are decisions that don't make headlines at the moment they are made.
In 2007, the ICCAT imposed a reduction in bluefin tuna catches in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The quotas fell from 60,000 tons to 10,000 tons per year. The fishing industry opposed this. Entire fleets had to adapt their practices. In Mediterranean ports, fishermen lost entire seasons of income.
These decisions did not receive coverage proportional to their importance.On August 19, 2026, NOAA Fisheries published a decision in the U.S. Federal Register. The final rule implements ICCAT Recommendation 25-05: the base quota for the United States for Atlantic bluefin tuna increases from 1,316 metric tons to 1,510 metric tons, a 17% increase. This increase would not have been possible without the unpopular decisions made in the 2000s.
What the Quota Increase Says About the Stock Status
An increase in quota within the ICCAT framework is not a business decision. It is a management decision, based on stock assessments conducted by scientists and discussed during the Commission's sessions.
ICCAT Recommendation 25-05 from 2025 indicates that the Atlantic bluefin tuna stock has reached a level that allows for a reasonable increase in catches, without compromising the recovery trajectory. This type of signal in fisheries literature is rare. It does not mean that the crisis is over, nor that the stock has returned to its historical levels. It means that the trend has been positive for long enough that managers have confidence in the data.
To understand the basis for this confidence, it is necessary to look at the field data spanning 30 years.Dr. Barbara Block, a professor at Stanford University, led one of the longest-running tagging studies ever conducted on a large pelagic species. Over three decades, her team tagged thousands of individuals in the western Atlantic, tracking their movements using satellite telemetry. The data shows that the western Atlantic functions as a recovery refuge for bluefin tuna, with biomass increasing since the lows of the 1980s and 1990s. This study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2026, is one of the scientific foundations that informed the ICCAT recommendation 25-05.
Thirty years of data, a decision for a 17% increase.
What the Recovery of a Species Proves
The quick answer, the one that both the industry and NGOs repeat for their own purposes, is that the bluefin tuna proves that marine conservation can work. This is true, but it's a simplification.What the history of the bluefin tuna precisely demonstrates is that coordinated international management, maintained over two decades, can produce measurable results in a highly mobile pelagic fish stock. This is not a guaranteed outcome. Bluefin tuna crosses the Atlantic in a matter of weeks. It reproduces in areas that overlap multiple national jurisdictions. Its management requires an agreement among 52 member states of the ICCAT, regarding quotas that affect both industrial and artisanal fishing fleets.
The fact that this agreement has lasted long enough for a stock to recover is information that deserves to be read in its context, without excessive romanticization.
Issue #19 of *L'Encre* documented the paradox of Pacific gray whales: a species whose census indicated both stabilization and concerning signals. The complexity of the management data applied to marine species is never binary. What is true for gray whales is also true for bluefin tuna: the quota increase for 2026 does not close the issue. It marks a step in an ongoing process.
What the photographer sees in this data.The bluefin tuna is a pelagic species. It lives in the open water column, not on the seabed. Encounters with this species during scuba diving are documented, primarily in the Northeast Atlantic, during seasonal migrations. The Azores, certain areas of the Mediterranean Sea on the Atlantic side, and some sectors of the Bay of Biscay are areas where underwater photographers have recorded schools of tuna in the water column, sometimes very close to the surface.
These encounters are now more frequent than they were in the 1990s. This is not a dramatic change, and it is not uniform across the entire distribution area. However, the trend is evident.
For a photographer working in the Atlantic, this data raises a concrete question: is what I am documenting today, in terms of the composition and density of pelagic species, different from what someone would have documented twenty years ago in the same area? The likely answer, based on the available data, is yes.Ink #16 on coral bleaching in Cheeca Rocks documented the other side of the equation: the visible consequences of marine heatwaves on Florida corals. Red tuna and coral reefs don't have much in common biologically. But they share the same context: the same ocean that is warming, changing its chemistry, and reacting differently depending on whether species have benefited from protection or not.
Ink #18 on the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico raised the question of hypoxia and what it does to species in the water column. Red tuna, a species with high oxygen demands, are sensitive to these phenomena. The recovery of the stock cannot be viewed independently of the water quality in which it lives.
Conservation efforts have produced a visible result. The environment in which this result exists continues to evolve.
For an underwater photographer, both of these pieces of information are equally important. The first tells you what you can find. The second tells you for how long.This is one of the reasons why, in the AquaExposure training program, understanding the ecological context of a dive is part of the curriculum, not just the exposure settings. What we document underwater has a history, and that history is both scientific and aesthetic.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did NOAA increase the red tuna quota in August 2026?
NOAA Fisheries implemented the ICCAT Recommendation 25-05, adopted during the session of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). The base U.S. quota increased from 1,316 to 1,510 metric tons (+17%), in response to stock reconstruction data from the western Atlantic, including a 30-year tagging study by Dr. Barbara Block (Stanford University, PNAS 2026).
What is ICCAT and how does red tuna management work?
ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) comprises 52 member states. It coordinates fishing quotas and adopts binding recommendations. In 2007, facing stock collapse, ICCAT imposed a reduction in catches from 60,000 to 10,000 tons per year. Recommendation 25-05 of 2025 marks the first significant increase in the U.S. quota since that period.
Why is Dr. Barbara Block's tagging study important?Thirty years of satellite telemetry data on thousands of individuals in the western Atlantic, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2026. The study documents that the western Atlantic functions as a recovery refuge for bluefin tuna, with biomass increasing since the 1980s and 1990s. This is one of the scientific foundations for the ICCAT recommendation 25-05.
Can divers encounter bluefin tuna in the ocean?
Bluefin tuna is a pelagic species. Encounters during scuba diving are documented, primarily in the Azores, in the Atlantic portion of the Mediterranean, and in certain areas of the Bay of Biscay, during seasonal migrations. These encounters, in schools within the water column, are more frequent than they were in the 1990s, and are linked to the recovery of the stocks.
Is the conservation of bluefin tuna a model for other species?
Bluefin tuna is often cited as one of the most well-documented examples of recovery following international, coordinated management. The main limitation of this model is the level of cooperation required: 52 member states, over two decades. What has worked for bluefin tuna does not automatically translate to all species and all governance contexts.You can find previous issues of L'Encre on the AquaExposure blog. And to learn how to understand the ecological context of an underwater photoshoot, comprehensive resources are available on the AquaExposure training platform.
In 2007, a controversial decision reduced quotas by a factor of six. In 2026, NOAA may increase them by 17% because 30 years of data allow it. This is not the end. It is a step in a process that depends on decisions that no one sees until a species returns.
To learn how to observe marine life without disturbing it and to apply passive approach protocols, please refer to our Module 3.2: Ethology and Pelagic Megafauna.
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Table of Contents
- 01What the Quota Increase Says About the Stock Status
- 02What the Recovery of a Species Proves
- 03What the photographer sees in this data.The bluefin tuna is a pelagic species. It lives in the open water column, not on the seabed. Encounters with this species during scuba diving are documented, primarily in the Northeast Atlantic, during seasonal migrations. The Azores, certain areas of the Mediterranean Sea on the Atlantic side, and some sectors of the Bay of Biscay are areas where underwater photographers have recorded schools of tuna in the water column, sometimes very close to the surface.
- 04Frequently Asked Questions
- 05Why did NOAA increase the red tuna quota in August 2026?
- 06What is ICCAT and how does red tuna management work?
- 07Why is Dr. Barbara Block's tagging study important?Thirty years of satellite telemetry data on thousands of individuals in the western Atlantic, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2026. The study documents that the western Atlantic functions as a recovery refuge for bluefin tuna, with biomass increasing since the 1980s and 1990s. This is one of the scientific foundations for the ICCAT recommendation 25-05.
- 08Can divers encounter bluefin tuna in the ocean?
- 09Is the conservation of bluefin tuna a model for other species?
Questions about the Journal
Why did NOAA increase the red tuna quota in August 2026?
NOAA Fisheries has implemented ICCAT Recommendation 25-05, which was adopted during the session of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. This recommendation increases the base quota for the United States from 1,316.14 metric tons to 1,509.98 metric tons, representing a 17% increase. This increase is justified by data on the stock reconstruction of the Atlantic, documented in part by a 30-year tagging study led by Dr. Barbara Block (Stanford University), which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2026.
What is ICCAT, and how does the management of bluefin tuna work?
The ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) is the international organization that coordinates the management of bluefin tuna populations in the Atlantic. It brings together member states, establishes fishing quotas for each country, and adopts binding recommendations. In 2007, facing the collapse of stocks, ICCAT imposed a drastic reduction in catches, which fell from 60,000 tons to approximately 10,000 tons per year. Recommendation 25-05 of 2025 marks the first significant increase in the American quota since that period of crisis.
How does Dr. Barbara Block's tagging study change our understanding of bluefin tuna?
The study, led by Barbara Block at Stanford University, analyzes 30 years of data from tagging and satellite telemetry on thousands of individuals in the western Atlantic. It formally documents that the western Atlantic functions as a recovery refuge for bluefin tuna, with biomass increasing since the lows of the 1980s and 1990s. This continuity of data over three decades is exceptional in the literature on large pelagic fish and provides a scientific basis for management decisions, such as the ICCAT recommendation 25-05.
Does the bluefin tuna dive? Is it a species that divers can encounter?
The Atlantic bluefin tuna ( *Thunnus thynnus*) is a pelagic species, meaning it lives in the open water column rather than on the seabed. Encounters with these fish while scuba diving are rare but documented, particularly in certain areas of the northeastern Atlantic (the Azores, the Mediterranean) during seasonal migrations. These encounters have become more frequent with the recovery of tuna populations, especially since the 2010s. An underwater photographer diving in these areas may encounter schools of bluefin tuna in the water column, experiencing very different visibility and lighting conditions compared to a reef dive.
Is the conservation model used for the bluefin tuna applicable to other species?
The Atlantic bluefin tuna is often cited as one of the most well-documented examples of stock recovery following coordinated international management. Scientists and fisheries managers are studying this case as a model for other species facing similar challenges, such as certain pelagic sharks, tuna species from other oceans, or species subject to comparable pressures. The main limitation of this model is the level of international cooperation required. The ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) includes 52 member states, and its decisions require a consensus that can be difficult to achieve. What worked for the Atlantic bluefin tuna cannot be automatically applied to all species or all governance contexts.
