The Aquarium Lady :: Fish In The Sea Articles :: Pacific Bluefin Tuna -Thunnus Orientalis
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By Courtesy of Montery Bay Aquarium
| Pacific Bluefin Tuna |
| Thunnus orientalis |
Bluefin tuna are some of the largest and fastest fish in the ocean—they’re powerful swimmers, built for endurance and speed. To help conserve energy on its long-distance journeys, a tuna’s body is almost perfectly streamlined, reducing drag around its fins. And a tuna can retract those fins so water flows more smoothly over its body. This makes the tuna super-streamlined.
Unlike most fish, tuna are warm-blooded and can heat their bodies up to 20° C (36° F) warmer than the surrounding water. This added warmth helps a tuna’s muscles work faster and more efficiently. Tuna consume as much as 5% of their body weight daily and must continually swim with their mouths open to force water over their gills, supercharging their blood-rich muscles with oxygen.
Pacific bluefin tuna spawn midway between Okinawa and the Philippines and possibly in the Sea of Japan, then migrate over 6,000 nautical miles (11,112 km) to the eastern Pacific, eventually returning to their birth waters to spawn.
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| Diet |
fish, krill, pelagic red crab, squid |
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| Size |
to 10 feet (3 m), 1,200 pounds (555 kg) |
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| Range |
northern Pacific Ocean |
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| Relatives |
yellowfin and albacore tuna, mackerel, bonito; Family: Scombridae |
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| Conservation Notes |
Avoid eating bluefin tuna; they’re severely overfished throughout the world. They’re caught nearly everywhere they swim, and many young bluefins are caught before they have the chance to reproduce. Visit the Seafood Watch section on our web site to learn about choosing seafood wisely.
Creating effective fishing policies for bluefin tuna is difficult since they’re highly mobile and swim through the territorial waters of many different nations. Data about their movements and high levels of international cooperation are needed to ensure sustainable bluefin tuna populations.
To help provide some of this data, staff at the Tuna Research and Conservation Center have been tagging both Atlantic and Pacific bluefin tunas in the wild as well as studying them in their facility, next door to the aquarium. This research is helping inform fishing policies for bluefin tuna worldwide. |
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| Cool Facts |
A Pacific bluefin tuna is capable of swimming at speeds of 12 to 18 miles (20-30 km) per hour for brief periods.
Magnetite, a mineral found in neural pits in the tuna’s snout, may be used by the tuna to detect the earth’s magnetic field for navigation. |
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Video / Animation |
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