Longtail tuna (Thunnus tonggol) is an economically and socially important pelagic species distributed around the northern half of Australia from Perth, W.A. to Eden, N.S.W. They are exploited by numerous countries throughout the Indo-West Pacific, mainly by small scale commercial artisinal fisheries, but it is believed that total catches may exceed 100,000 t per year. In Australia, longtail tuna have not been a primary target species in Commonwealth or state fisheries, but are highly valued as a sportfish. Their importance to recreational fisheries was recognised by their declaration as a “recreational only” species by the Commonwealth Government in 2007. Recently, the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation announced new management arrangements for longtail tuna, ensuring there will be no large-scale targeting of longtail tuna by the commercial sector.

Despite the new protection afforded to longtail tuna as a ‘recreational only’ species, very little is known of the species’ basic biology, stock structure and catch by recreational and commercial fisheries to ensure that this new management measure represents adequate sharing of the resource, or is adequate to ensure the long-term sustainability of the species in the long-term. It is important that the recreational sector demonstrates stewardship for this species, for which they are probably the primary extractive user group in Australia. Collection of information to underpin sustainable management is critical to work towards addressing these basic, but important, issues for longtail tuna.