Yellowtail Vs Yellowfin Tuna: What's The Difference?

If there is anything to learn from browsing the seafood aisle, it is that there truly are plenty of fish in the sea. What's more, many of them have confusingly similar names and characteristics. Yet no one is truly to blame for the moment of hesitation that comes with choosing between yellowtail and yellowfin tuna.

While the similar names might lead one to use yellowtail in their ingredient-packed tuna melt, it is important to know that yellowtail and yellowfin are actually entirely different species; yellowtails belong to the amberjack fish family while yellowfin is a variety of tuna. While they share a similar mild flavor, the two have different coloring, textures, and harvesting methods.

While yellowtail is a smaller, fattier fish harvested from both the wild and farms, yellowfin tuna is much larger and firmer and only caught wild. While both are popular choices for recipes utilizing raw fish, their different characteristics lead to these fish being enjoyed in a variety of unique, species-specific ways.

Yellowtail is recognizable by many names, including Japanese amberjack, hiramasa, hamachi, and buri. Usually less than 30 inches long and about 80 pounds in weight, yellowtail are a migratory species found near coasts and reefs in the Atlantic and Pacific. The blue top half of its body is divided from its silvery-white bottom half by a line of yellowish bronze that extends to its tail. Its fins have a more defined yellow hue.

Yellowtail can be harvested from the ocean or a farm. While wild yellowtail tend to have a firmer texture, farmed yellowtail will be softer and fattier. The hue of this meat is also dependent on where the fish is caught. Wild yellowtail meat will be a darker beige or pink and sometimes even a light red, while farmed meat will be lighter beige or pink.

This fish is known for its buttery and slightly sweet flavor and is enjoyed in many ways, with sashimi or sushi rolls being popular choices. Grilling, searing, or baking yellowtail can also highlight its rich, savory profile. If you want to use yellowtail for your expert-level homemade sushi, avocado and cucumber are great choices to balance out the flavor of this protein.

Though yellowfin tuna have a similar coloring pattern to yellowtail, these fish are much larger, capable of reaching weights of 450 pounds and lengths of over 6 feet. They can be found globally in the open water and are popular catches for the seafood industry, though overfishing has led to this species approaching a threatened conservation status.

The color of yellowfin tuna meat depends on if it is sushi or cooking grade. While sushi grade meat can range from pink to deep red, cooking grade meat will instead sport a reddish-brown hue. Yellowfin tuna also has a dense and firm texture more similar to beef than soft, fatty yellowtail meat.

Similarly to yellowtail, yellowfin tuna sports a mild and slightly sweet flavor, but does not have quite the same buttery richness that shines through in yellowtail. Not only is this fish a popular choice for raw dishes like ahi and sashimi, but it is also creatively incorporated in some of the best burritos in California