In the framework of the EU Project No 96-093, data concerning the accidental catches of tuna and tuna-like species in the clupeoids fishery, carried out by purse seine using light, were collected in the central Mediterranean during 1997-1998. The total amount of the bluefin tuna can be considered negligible since only a few hundreds of them were caught, especially in the South Tyrrhenian Sea and South Ionian Sea. Their catches consisted mainly of juveniles, which fork lengths ranged from 8.5 to 44.5 cm. Since the bluefin tuna was scarcely represented in the catches obtained by clupeoids purse seine, this kind of fishery does not seem to affect the stock in the southern Italian seas. Moreover, due to the great interest for the bluefin tuna domestication in the last period, the possibility to use the accidental catches of juveniles bluefin tuna could be evaluated for aquaculture experiments.