The albacore has an elongate, fusiform body with a conical snout, large eyes, and remarkably long pectoral fins.

Albacore are pelagic predators that eat a wide variety of foods, including but not limited to fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods.

They are unique among tuna in that their primary food source is cephalopods, with fish making up a much smaller portion of their diet.

It was originally the basis for the United States tuna-canning industry and is no less important today, making up significant percentages of the gross domestic products of various Pacific nations.

[citation needed] T. atlanticus T. albacares T. tonggol T. obesus T. maccoyii T. thynnus T. alalunga T. orientalis The first scientific description of the albacore was authored in 1788 by Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre in the illustrated encyclopedia Tableau encyclopédique et methodique des trois règnes de la nature.

[8] The albacore has a streamlined, fusiform body with a conical snout, large mouth, and big eyes.

Its body is dark blue dorsally, shades of silvery white ventrally, and covered by small scales.

Like the fish's body, the fins are dark blue on top, but change to a medium yellow color on the underside.

They are markedly shorter in fish under 0.5 m (1 ft 8 in) in length, often resulting in confusion with T. obesus juveniles, which also have long pectoral fins, though these are rounded at the tips where the albacore's taper to a point.

[11] The albacore has a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical and temperate waters across the globe and in every ocean as well as the Mediterranean Sea.

[4] A highly migratory species, schools of albacore travel great distances, though Atlantic and Pacific populations do not appear to mix.

[12] Every summer, North Atlantic albacore head to the Bay of Biscay off of France and Spain, but now arrive about 8 days earlier than they did 40 years ago.

[14] Genetic research using ddRAD sequencing indicates that albacore migrate between the North and South Pacific oceans across the equator.

[3][9] Schools of albacore are highly migratory within bodies of water and segregated by maturity, with older fish tending to form more compact groups.

The most abundant cephalopod in its diet is Heteroteuthis dispar, a tiny deep-water squid found in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

[17][18] The albacore's reproduction is oviparous and a 20 kg (44 lb) female can produce between 2–3 million eggs per spawning,[9] which usually takes place between November and February.

The creation of ova, known as oogenesis, begins with the rapid production of oogonia (undifferentiated germ cells that give rise to oocytes) by mitotic separations in the oogonial nests of female tuna.

The resulting oocytes are cast en masse into the sea, where full development and later fertilization take place.

The experiment was a huge success, and the commercial fishery expanded rapidly due to the high level of demand for canned tuna.

[23] Many Pacific island countries and territories (PICTs) heavily rely on oceanic fisheries for economic development and food security.

Processing facilities and tuna fishing vessels provide more than 12,000 jobs for workers in the Pacific islands.

There is substantial uncertainty on current stock status, since different models and assumptions provide a wide range of estimates.

[31] In the 2014 assessment, the Albacore Working Group of the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in North Pacific Ocean found estimates of total stock biomass (age 1 and older) show a long-term decline from the early 1970s to 1990 followed by a recovery through the 1990s and subsequent fluctuations without trend in the 2000s.

][38] Albacore caught in this region also show methylmercury levels well below the 1.0 ppm mercury standard set by The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

[citation needed] As with other tunas, albacore meat is a versatile ingredient that is used a wide variety of dishes.