---
title: Yellowfin Tuna (Thunnus albacares)
scientific_name: Thunnus albacares
common_name: Yellowfin Tuna
taxon: Scombridae
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-01T18:32:43.516Z
updated: 2026-08-12T08:45:18.290Z
tags: Yellowfin Tuna, Thunnus albacares, Scombridae, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scombridae/yellowfin-tuna
---

# Yellowfin Tuna (*Thunnus albacares*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Scombridae (*Scombridae*)
- **Size:** up to 2.4 m
- **Weight:** 180 - 200 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-250 m
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Open water off the reef, sometimes over deep drop-offs
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- metallic dark blue back, silver belly, bright yellow fins and finlets
- second dorsal and anal fins drawn out into long sickles in big fish
- a row of small yellow finlets along the tail stalk
- length up to 2.4 m

Metallic blue above, silver below, with fins so yellow they look painted and a row of small finlets running to the tail. Adults reach 2.4 m (8 ft) and 200 kg (440 lb), and in big fish the second dorsal and anal fins stretch back into long sickles.

A tuna is a fish that runs warm. Heat from the swimming muscles is trapped by a counter-current network of blood vessels instead of being lost through the gills, so the muscle, the eyes and the brain run several degrees above the surrounding water. Warm muscle contracts faster, which is what lets this animal cruise all day and sprint at over 70 km/h.

Every detail follows the same logic. The fins fold into grooves in the body to leave the profile clean, the tail is a stiff crescent on a narrow stalk built to transmit force rather than bend, and the fish cannot stop swimming: it must move to push water over its gills, and it dies if held still.

The cost of all that machinery is oxygen and food. A yellowfin eats several percent of its body weight a day, grows to spawning size in two years, and is fished globally at a scale that makes it one of the most economically important animals in the ocean.

## Also known as

- **English:** Allison tuna, Pacific Long-tailed Tuna, yellowfin tuna, yellow-fin tunny
- **French:** albacore, albacore à nageoires jaunes, thon à nageoires jaunes
- **Italian:** tonno albacora
- **German:** Gelbflossenthun, Gelbflossen-Thun, Gelbflossenthunfisch
- **Spanish:** atún aleta amarilla, atún claro, atún de aleta amarilla
- **Turkish:** sari yuzgecli orkinos, sarı yüzgeçli orkinos
- **Portuguese:** Peixinho da ilho, Atum albacora, Atum rabil
- **Dutch:** Geelvintonijn
- **Swedish:** Gulfenad tonfisk, Albacora
- **Polish:** Tunczyk zóltopletwy a. albakora, tuńczyk żółtopłetwy, Albakora
- **Japanese:** キハダ, Kihada
- **Chinese:** 串仔, 黃奇串, 黃鰭金槍魚
- **Ukrainian:** Жовтоперий тунець, Тунець жовтоперий
- **Russian:** тунец желтопёрый
- **CYM:** Tiwnaod Melyn, tiwna melyn
- **DA:** Gulfinnet tunfisk
- **FI:** Keltaevätonnikala
- **LT:** gelsvauodegis tunas
- **NO:** Albacore, Albakor
- **RO:** Ton galben, Albacora
- **SL:** rumenoplavuti tun
- **SR:** Tuna zutoperka, Zutorepi tunj

## Scientific synonyms

- *Germo albacares* (Bonnaterre, 1788)
- *Germo albacora* (Lowe, 1839)
- *Germo allisoni* (Mowbray, 1920)
- *Germo argentivittatus* (Cuvier, 1832)
- *Germo itosibi* (Jordan & Evermann, 1926)
- *Germo macropterus* (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844)
- *Kishincella zacalles* Jordan & Evermann, 1926
- *Kishinoella zacalles* Jordan & Evermann, 1926
- *Neothunnus albacares* (Bonnaterre, 1788)
- *Neothunnus albacora* (Lowe, 1839)
- *Neothunnus albacora brevipinna* Bellón & Bardán de Bellón, 1949
- *Neothunnus albacora longipinna* Bellón & Bardán de Bellón, 1949
- *Neothunnus albacora macropterus* (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844)
- *Neothunnus albacores* (Bonnaterre, 1788)
- *Neothunnus allisoni* (Mowbray, 1920)
- *Neothunnus argentivittatus* (Cuvier, 1832)
- *Neothunnus brevipinna* Bellón & Bàrdan de Bellón, 1949
- *Neothunnus catalinae* Jordan & Evermann, 1926
- *Neothunnus itosibi* Jordan & Evermann, 1926
- *Neothunnus macropterus* (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844)
- *Neothunnus macropterus itosibi* Jordan & Evermann, 1926
- *Neothunnus macropterus macropterus* (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844)
- *Orcynus albacora* (Lowe, 1839)
- *Orcynus macropterus* (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844)
- *Orcynus subulatus* Poey, 1875

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Western Indian Ocean

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scombridae/yellowfin-tuna)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*