FILE: The bluefin tuna pictured above are swimming in faraway seas.

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. 

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“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.”

A 180-pound tuna was caught on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, offshore of San Francisco.

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........

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