![]() It’s the most energy-efficient way of moving through water. When swimming, tuna make only the minimum amount of side-to-side body movement, with nearly all of the forward thrust produced by their rapidly beating tail. The yellow finlets, extending like serrations on a saw blade, cut down on turbulence by altering water flow across their surface. The horizontal keels on the caudal peduncle knife through water as the tail swings from side to side, reducing water resistance and thus the effort needed to beat the tail. The tail is tall, very stiff, narrow-bladed and swept-back, a form referred to as “lunate”. This is the most hydrodynamic shape that is physically possible to achieve.Ī tuna’s main engine is among the most specialized in the animal kingdom. The body shape matches a teardrop, with the widest part of the body occurring at around 2/5th of the distance from head to tail. All its organ systems have evolved to enable this fish to be a cut above the rest and that is how you create a swift-moving, high-seas predator. Even among tunas, the bluefin stands out as extraordinary, having taken these adaptations to their ultimate perfection over thousands of years of evolution. Everything about them has evolved for peak athletic performance. There is a good reason tuna are often referred to as superfish. As a result, people find it hard to relate to this animal – and that may well be the driving factor behind this species’ near extinction.īluefin tuna may have only a few decades, possibly just a few years, for us to stop its human-caused extinction. My hope is that this article doesn’t end up being an eulogy to a magnificent species, but realistically, it may well become one. It is this lack of awareness that has led to this animal, known mostly for sushi, becoming endangered.įew people, even some that care about the fate of the bluefin, do not see the animal as anything other than a fish. It would be unthinkable to consider lions or wolves as not being wildlife, even if we ate them as food, but this is the exact plight facing bluefin tuna. This is a major injustice to such an amazing animal. David Attenborough called the Atlantic bluefin tuna ( Thunnus thynnus) the ultimate fish, but most people still perceive it is as food or a recreational toy rather than wildlife.
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