Tuna fishing in the western Pacific yields the world's largest catches. Catch sizes have increased rapidly over the past decade with over 1.5 million tonnes caught every year since 1991. Purse seine fishing is largely responsible for this.

Evidence suggests the increased use of purse seine fishing by vessels from outside the Pacific Island region is resulting in reduced catches per unit effort for local longline and pole-and-line fisheries. While there is no evidence of over-fishing of skipjack stocks, there is some concern over purse seining on yellowfin stocks.

Japan, USA, TAIWAN and Korea conduct most of the tuna fishing in the region, with the exception of the Solomon Islands. Access agreements to these fishing grounds are the main source of economic return to Pacific Island Nations from their tuna resources. Countries who are Parties to the Nauru Agreement license most of the outside fishing vessels.