Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) is a highly migratory species that inhabits the epipelagic zone of tropical and subtropical marine waters distributed throughout the three major oceans where it forms large schools, often associated with floating objects (IOTC 2023). 

The evidence of fast and large movements of yellowfin tuna reported by the Regional Tuna Tagging Project-Indian Ocean (RTTP-IO) supports the assumption of a single well-mixed yellowfin tuna population within the Indian Ocean (Murua et al. 2015)(IOTC 2017)(Artetxe-Arrate et al. 2021). It is then assumed to be a single Yellowfin Tuna stock in the Indian Ocean. Nevertheless, genetic differentiations (Dammannagoda et al. 2008), otolith microchemistry nursery areas separation (Artetxe-Arrate et al. 2019), or even stock differentiation based on fisheries data (Nishida 1992), have also been found within the north-western area and between eastern and western areas of the Indian Ocean, suggesting the presence of sub-populations in this region (IOTC 2023).

In Indonesia, yellowfin tuna distribution areas cover the waters of west and south of Sumatra, southern Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara, Banda Sea and Mallucas island’s sea, Sulawesi sea and western waters of Papua. The nature as a highly migratory species resulted in the possibility of mixing fish populations, especially for the territorial waters of Indonesia that have the characteristics of archipelagic waters directly adjacent to the ocean waters. Genetic data information of yellowfin tuna  obtained  can  be  relied  upon  for  resource management (Akbar and Aris 2018). There is no difference in the structure of yellowfin tuna populations in FMA 572 and FMA 573 (LP2T, 2016). The population structure of madidihang in the western and eastern Indian Ocean regions shows no significant results of subpopulation differences (Chow et al. 2000) (Nishida and Tanaka 2004).