Skipjack tuna is a batch spawner. Spawning occurs year-round in equatorial waters, but it yellowfin tuna more seasonal further away from the equator. It is also known for its potent smell.
It is an important commercial and game fish, usually caught using purse seine nets, and is sold fresh, frozen, canned, dried, salted, and smoked. Skipjack is the most fecund of the main commercial tunas, and its population is considered sustainable against its current consumption. Its fishing is still controversial due to the methodology, with rod and reel or fishery options being promoted as ecologically preferable. Skipjack is considered to have “moderate” mercury contamination. As a result, pregnant women are advised against eating large quantities.
It is also a key ingredient in shuto. In Indonesian cuisine, skipjack tuna is known as cakalang. The most popular Indonesian dish made from skipjack tuna is cakalang fufu from Minahasa. It is a cured and smoked skipjack tuna dish, made by cooking the fish after clipping it to a bamboo frame. Hawaiians prefer to eat aku either raw as a sashimi or poke or seared like in the Japanese tataki style. The trade in pickled skipjack tuna is a driving force behind the commercial fishery of this species in Spain. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.