Abstract
Little tunny (Euthynnus alletteratus) supports economically important recreational and small-scale commercial fisheries throughout its range; however, in the United States (U.S.), the species lacks a formal stock assessment and remains largely unmanaged. This review synthesizes existing information on the fisheries, biology, and life history of little tunny, with emphasis on U.S. waters, and supplements domestic data with studies from other North Atlantic regions where U.S.-specific information is absent. Considerable knowledge gaps remain, including, but not limited to, stock structure, reproductive biology, post-release mortality, and fishery-dependent indices of abundance. Analysis of Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program and Marine Recreational Information Program data from 1951 to 2022 revealed that recreational landings account for 89% of removals, and 69% recreationally caught individuals were released. Commercial landings remain comparatively small and are primarily marketed as bait for large pelagic species. Length-weight relationships, growth, maturity, distribution, diet, spawning, and natural mortality are reviewed alongside observed trends in landings, discards, and fishery composition by region, State, fishing mode, and jurisdiction. Research recommendations include targeted biosampling, tagging studies, expanded discard estimation, and development of standardized catch-per-unit-effort indices for for-hire vessels to inform potential future management.