Skipjack tuna account for the majority of global tuna catch and face welfare challenges in large-scale purse seine fisheries — including FAD fishing that harms non-target species.
Purse seine capture of skipjack involves encircling entire schools and compressing them into an ever-smaller net space. Fish experience extreme crowding, oxygen depletion, and physical trauma before being pumped aboard. FAD fishing concentrates additional species — juvenile tuna, sharks, sea turtles, and marine mammals — creating large-scale multi-species welfare events. Fish that are not the target species are discarded, often dead or dying from net trauma. Skipjack themselves are typically brailed (scooped) onto ice, where they suffocate over many minutes. The welfare implications of billions of fish caught this way each year are profound.