Albacore are pelagic predators that eat a wide variety of foods, including but not limited yellowfin tuna sushi fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods. They are unique among most tuna in that their primary food source is cephalopods, with fish making up a much smaller portion of their diet.
The albacore is a very economically important fish and is a target of commercial and recreational fisheries. Phylogenetic tree of genus Thunnus with yellowfin group in green. 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. 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. The albacore has a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical and temperate waters across the globe and in every ocean as well as the Mediterranean Sea.