Skipjack Tuna

Habitat Distribution

• Native to the Atlantic; found throughout Brazil's offshore waters from the northeast coast down through the southeast, following warm tropical and subtropical surface temperatures.
• A pelagic, open-water species that travels in large schools — sometimes tens of thousands of fish — near the surface, rarely venturing into shallow coastal zones.
• The western Atlantic stock is most heavily fished along the south and southeastern Brazilian coast, where the major commercial pole-and-line fleets operate out of Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul.
• Schools frequently mix with yellowfin tuna and other scombrids, and are often located around floating objects, current edges, and temperature breaks offshore.

Key Locations

• Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul — home ports of the largest pole-and-line skipjack fleet in Brazil and the country's major tuna canneries.
• Rio de Janeiro — another major base for the southern tuna fleet; offshore waters here see consistent skipjack activity.
• Northeastern coast — skipjack appear as bycatch in the handline yellowfin fishery operating around PIRATA buoys off the northeast; less targeted here but present.

Specific Spots

• Current edges and temperature breaks offshore — skipjack stack where warm surface water meets cooler upwellings, concentrating the baitfish they chase.
• Around PIRATA buoys and floating FADs (fish aggregating devices) used by the Brazilian fleet; schools gather under floating structure in open water.
• Surface feeding frenzies — when birds are working and bait is being pushed up, skipjack are almost certainly underneath; get the boat into casting range quickly.
• Deeper blue water well offshore, particularly in the southeast where the commercial baitboat fleet concentrates; inshore fish are less common than yellowfin.