David Profumo

The wonder of the marine world is in serious danger

The Atlantic Bluefin Tuna has the misfortune to taste so good that it has been hunted for millennia, and stocks are dangerously depleted

The fins of the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna retract into body slots like a switchblade so it can attain swimming speeds of more than 40 mph. [Bridgeman Images] 
issue 08 July 2023

Streamlined, musclebound, warm-blooded and with fins that retract into body slots like a switchblade so it can attain swimming speeds of more than 40 mph, the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna is a wonder of the marine world – the Clan Chief of the Scombridae, that can weigh up to 1,500 lb. It has long been prized by sport fishermen, from Charlie Chaplin to the dentist-turned-bestseller Zane Grey, and there is nothing tentative about a tunny strike. In 1927, after a four-hour battle with one eight-foot giant, Grey wrote: ‘If it were possible for a man to fall in love with a fish, that was what happened to me. I hung over him, spellbound and incredulous.’


‘If it were possible for a man to fall in love with a fish, that’s what happened to me. I hung over him spellbound’

Alas for the ABT (as they are known in the trade), they taste so good that they have been hunted for millennia.

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