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Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Research Paper

Decent Essays

Kristofer Don
BIOL 102-192/1M2
Conservation Synthesis
April 20, 2016

The role that I played in the Conservation Group Dialogue was: Politician

The Thunnus thynnus, or more commonly known as the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, is a fish that can grow up to over 1,000 lbs., swim up to speeds of about 50 mph, and reach lengths of 6.5 feet or more. An Atlantic Bluefin Tuna can live up to 40 years old and produce 30 million eggs (Guilford, 2014). But nowadays, the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna is being overhunted and their populations are at an all-time low. They are at 4% of their original population compared back in the 1970’s (McCurry, 2016). The main reason for the Bluefin Tuna being overhunted is because of their tasty meat. Japan is paying top prices to …show more content…

The fact that many other countries that are fishing for this particular fish species, such as Italy, Spain, Tunisia, the Netherlands, Japan, and some other countries with the European Union goes to show that they are only thinking of making money and not thinking of any long-term consequences that it will have in the future (Crispino, 2014). If Japan wants to continue to serve the Bluefin Tuna, they first have to acknowledge the fact that the populations are dwindling. But in September 2015, McCurry stated that “Bluefin Tuna are “one step closer to collapse” after tuna-fishing nations including Japan failed to agree to new conservation measures” (McCurry, …show more content…

Sri Lanka is a heavily dependent fishing country that relies on mainly tuna to make money to try and make a decent living (Tallaksen, 2014). As of 2014, the European Union has banned all imports from Sri Lanka, a country that depends on fishing to make the vast majority of their money. But this ban may help them in the long run, even though that they might not see it right now. Trying to limit the amount of fishing trawlers catching Atlantic Bluefin Tuna that are in the ocean can help the population rise back and enable the tuna reach maturity to be able to reproduce (Tallaksen, 2014). This is great news for the tuna, but is bad for Sri Lanka as they will have to find another way of receiving some sort of

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