If fish were like cars, tuna would be the Ferrari of the ocean — sleek, powerful, and made for speed. Tuna are remarkable and impressive wild animals. The Atlantic bluefin can reach ten feet in length and weigh as much as 2000 pounds (more than a horse). Their specialized body shape, fins and scales enable some species of tuna to swim as fast as 43 miles per hour.
Tuna swim incredible distances as they migrate. Some tuna are born in the Gulf of Mexico, and travel across the entire Atlantic Ocean to feed off coast of Europe, and then swim all the way back to the Gulf to breed.
Some species of tuna can swim at speeds of up to 43 miles per hour. Real Ferrari of the ocean.
Where tuna move, fishers have lined the ocean with giant nets and endless lines of fishing boats. Fishers have resorted to high-tech ways to catch tuna, including devices that draw the fish into bunches so that fishermen can catch more of them at once. Many of the world’s valuable tuna species face a number of urgent yet common threats to their continued existence such as significant population declines, poor international conservation management, and high levels of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (pirate) fishing.
WE NEED TO SLOW DOWN!
These extraordinary marine animals are integral to the diet of millions of people and are one of the most commercially valuable fish. As the methods of catching tuna have advanced over the years, the conservation and management of tuna has not evolved as quickly.
In the U.S., Americans eat about 1 billion pounds (or 0,45 billion kilos) of canned and pouched tuna a year.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, most tuna stocks are fully exploited (meaning there is no room for fishery expansion) and some are already overexploited (there is a risk of stock collapse). According to the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation, 65% of tuna stocks are at a healthy level of abundance, but 13% are considered overfished.
One 2019 study found that the amount of tuna taken from the ocean has increased by 1,000 percent over the last 60 years—a rate that some scientists say is unsustainable.
DOLPHIN BYCATCH IS ANOTHER HUGE PROBLEM
One of the consequences of widespread tuna fishing has been dolphin bycatch. Scientists estimate that four million dolphins have died in the Indian Ocean’s poorly regulated gillnet fisheries since the 1950s. The researchers report that roughly 80,000 dolphins are now killed as bycatch annually.
Bycatch is the single most important threat to marine mammals, and threatens some species with extinction. This report is estimating that 650,000 marine mammals including dolphins, whales, and seals are caught or seriously injured in fisheries every year. More about "dolphin bycatch" on nationalgeographic.com.
Main source: worldwildlife.org, nationalgeographic.com.
THERE IS NO TIME TO WASTE!
The next time you go to a sushi bar, think hard about your order. Maybe that will help protect the world's tuna population. Another thing you can do is SIGN UP NOW! And soon you can directly help non-profit organizations in the fight to save the oceans and their endangered species.
VAKOVAKO will soon fight to save the current shape and biodiversity of the oceans. 100 % of all donations given via our app to „OCEANS“ area will by transfered to related NGOs. Let’s help them expand their activities together.