Blue Fin Tuna

Facts The Atlantic bluefin tuna is one of the largest, fastest, and most gorgeously colored of all the world’s fishes. Their torpedo-shaped, streamlined bodies are built for speed and endurance. Their coloring—metallic blue on top and shimmering silver-white on the bottom—helps camouflage them from above and below. And their voracious appetite and varied diet pushes their average size to a whopping 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length and 550 pounds (250 kilograms), although much larger specimens are not uncommon. Unfortunately for the species however, bluefin meat also happens to be regarded as surpassingly delicious, particularly among sashimi eaters, and overfishing throughout their range has driven their numbers to critically low levels. Atlantic bluefins are warm-blooded, a rare trait among fish, and are comfortable in the cold waters off Newfoundland and Iceland, as well as the tropical waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea, where they go each year to spawn. They are among the most ambitiously migratory of all fish, and some tagged specimens have been tracked swimming from North American to European waters several times a year.

Facts They are prized among sport fishers for their fight and speed, shooting through the water with their powerful, crescent-shaped tails up to 43 miles (70 kilometers) per hour. They can retract their dorsal and pectoral fins into slots to reduce drag. And some scientists think the series of “finlets” on their tails may even serve to reduce water turbulence. Bluefins attain their enormous size by gorging themselves almost constantly on smaller fish, crustaceans, squid, and eels. They will also filter-feed on zooplankton and other small organisms and have even been observed eating kelp. The largest tuna ever recorded was an Atlantic bluefin caught off Nova Scotia that weighed 1,496 pounds (679 kilograms). Bluefin tuna have been eaten by humans for centuries. However, in the 1970s, demand and prices for large bluefins soared worldwide, particularly in Japan, and commercial fishing operations found new ways to find and catch these sleek giants. As a result, bluefin stocks, especially of large, breeding-age fish, have plummeted, and international conservation efforts have led to curbs on commercial takes. Nevertheless, at least one group says illegal fishing in Europe has pushed the Atlantic bluefin populations there to the brink of extinction.

Giant BlueFin Tuna Fetches Record $396,000 In Tokyo Auction!!

Who is killing our tuna An international fleet of thousands of long liners now fish the world's oceans, landing millions of tons of tuna and swordfish every year. The world doesn't care if we kill every last Blue Fin Tuna. We want to catch them all for the money. Long lining, an ultra-efficient practice developed after World War II by Japanese fishermen, deploys up to 60 miles of baited hooks across vast expanses of the Atlantic ocean where blue fin tuna migrate. In addition to catching swordfish and tuna, long lining tends to catch other, untargeted species like sharks and sea turtles. Fishermen try to keep this bycatch to a minimum but this is often difficult to do, and attempts at making the gear more selective have had only limited success.

Long lining fleets of several European and Asian nations, having fully exploited their own fishing grounds, are now fishing in African waters. Vessels go to the port of Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, to offload their catch, most of which is shipped back to Europe, Japan and the United States. Long liners deploy up to 60 miles of baited hooks to catch highly migratory species such as tuna and swordfish.

Europe Majestic bluefins teemed in northern European waters (North Sea, Norwegian Sea, Skaggerak, Kattegat, and Oresund ) for a few months each summer until an industrialized fishery geared up in the 1920s and literally filled the floors of European market halls with them. Then all of the blue fin tuna in Europe are all gone and now the Japanese are shipping their tuna to Europe.