Are tuna recovering well, like reports say? It's complicated.

We look at some of the biggest news from the recent IUCN World Conservation Congress, like the upgraded conservation status of 4 tuna species, including Atlantic bluefin.

Is it really OK to eat such tuna now, as some media outlets reported? Are bluefin no longer endangered, but a species of 'least concern?' Well, it's complicated.

Mongabay staff writer Elizabeth Claire Alberts was at the event and discusses important news and motions that passed, like Indigenous peoples' role in conservation and a resounding rebuke of deep sea mining, for instance. 

Then, Pew Charitable Trusts’ senior officer for international fisheries Grantly Galland discusses the reassessments of tuna extinction risks released by the IUCN during the event, and he shares why species-level assessments don’t tell us the whole story about tuna populations.

Articles and podcast eps mentioned during the show: 

• ​​”‘Global Indigenous Agenda’ for land rights, conservation launched at IUCN congress” by Ashoka Mukpo 

• ”Podcast: Two tunas and a tale of managed extinction” (episode 118 of the Mongabay Newscast)

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Episode artwork: Atlantic bluefin tuna. Photo by Richard Herrmann/Pew.   Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.