Saving the Bluefin Tuna
The Bluefin tuna is one of the largest, fastest and most gorgeously colored fishes. Their coloring-metallic blue on top and shimmering silver-white on the bottom- helps camouflage them from above and bellow. Their streamlined bodies are built for speed and endurance. Their average size is about 6.5 feet in length and weighs 550 pounds although much larger specimens are common.
Atlantic bluefins are warm-blooded, a rare trait among fish, and are as comfortable in the cold waters off Newfoundland and Iceland, 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.
Unfortunately for the species, 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. Specialists even say that this could happen as soon as 2012.
Two students from Antwerp, Belgium set out to save this incredible fish that weighs more than a cow, accelerates faster than a car, is more expensive than pure silver and is more endangered than a polar bear! They’ve made a very informative movie about the truth of the bluefin fishing industry, which you can see below.
