The Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery (ETBF), which targets yellowfin, bigeye, and albacore, has been MSC recertified for the third time. Currently, 24 fishing vessels are in the certification and all are members of Tuna Australia, according to organization’s statement. Its CEO, David Ellis, stated that the recertification is a huge win for the Australian tuna fishing industry. He said it reflects the considerable work undertaken by the industry to maintain the management, monitoring, reporting and sustainability standards that underpin the fishery. “With more retailers and consumers turning to sustainable seafood, our members are in a strong position to access and expand markets here in Australia and abroad.”

The ETBF fishery stretches from Cape York in Queensland to the South Australian/Victorian border, with fishing taking place in both the Australian EEZ and adjacent high seas, including waters covered by several Australian Marine Parks, including the 1-million-square-kilometre Coral Sea Marine Park and Lord Howe Marine Park.

Fiji has become the first Pacific Island nation to join the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI). Alitia Bainivalu, Fiji’s Fisheries Minister, and Sven Biermann, Executive Director of FiTI, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the UN FAO COFI meeting held in Rome last week. Fiji will also collaborate with FiTI to deploy a Fisheries Information System (FIS), under which FiTI will support the Ministry in organising, verifying, and publishing data through its online reporting infrastructure.

The two parties will work together to enhance fisheries transparency in the Fiji’s fisheries, including publishing reliable data on its marine sector, covering foreign fishing agreements, commercial licensing, catch volumes, and local artisanal fishing activities, according to a FiTI statement.  Biermann said: “Fiji is not just a new country that we welcome into the FiTI; it also marks the start of our implementation efforts in the Pacific, one of the most important fisheries regions globally.” FiTI is a global, multi-stakeholder initiative that works with coastal countries to improve transparency in how their marine fisheries are managed.

Israel has launched a National Tuna Project to breed Atlantic bluefin under controlled conditions. The aim is to develop a closed-cycle aquaculture model that supplies eggs and juveniles without depleting wild stocks, according to government statements. In June, fertilized bluefin eggs were flown from Malta to the National Center for Mariculture (NCM) in Eilat, Israel. The juveniles are being reared in the center. Captive breeding is technically demanding and requires tight control of water quality, nutrition, temperature, and sensitive larval stages. If the team can establish a stable broodstock, the initiative could bolster food security, reduce pressure on wild bluefin, and open a new high-value aquaculture niche for Israel.

The project’s aim is to build scientific and production infrastructure domestically. Commercial output remains a longer-term goal, but success would position Israel for premium export channels while generating intellectual property and equipment know-how for wider use. The program draws on research by NCM in Eilat and is backed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, which invested ILS 30 million (USD 9.90 million), alongside the agricultural cooperative Granot Group. In 2019, Atuna reported on Israel funding bluefin farming research, indicating a continuity of effort now shifting from lab research toward pilot-scale production.