Tuesday August 25, 2026
SF Gate —
Sausalito fisher Christian Cavanaugh returned from a recent trip 50 miles offshore with a prize: a nearly 200-pound bluefin tuna.
Cavanaugh, a boat captain and the owner of Big C Charters, described seeing an uptick in the number of bluefin in Northern California waters over the past six weeks. Typically, the fish stay south of Point Conception in Santa Barbara County.
“I’ve caught a lot of tuna fishing long-range boats out of San Diego, so we do have a little bit of experience doing it, but seeing one that’s [around] 200 pounds come up here out of Sausalito is a pretty unique thing,” Cavanaugh told SFGATE. “It’s exhilarating.”
The northward shift of bluefin — a massive fish species known for its athletic swims across the Pacific and cherished as a sushi delicacy worldwide — has also appeared in California’s commercial and recreational fishing data in recent months.
The geographic shift is part of a slow trend over the past decade, due to factors like prey availability and international conservation efforts after overfishing, according to Elizabeth Hellmers, a senior environmental scientist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. But this year in particular, Hellmers said, there’s another factor: Ocean temperatures are warmer than usual due to California’s marine heat wave and an unusually strong El Niño developing.