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Saturday 1 December 2018

Tuna

The tuna (also known as a tunny) is a saltwater fish of the mackerel family. 

Bigeye tuna pixabay

Sizes vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max. length: 50 cm (1.6 ft), weight: 1.8 kg (4 lb)) up to the warm blooded Atlantic bluefin tuna (max. length: 4.6 m (15 ft), weight: 684 kg (1,508 lb)). 

It is believed that very large specimens of the Atlantic bluefin tuna can live up to 50 years.

Most species of fish have white flesh. However, the flesh of the tuna is pink to dark red, because tuna muscle tissue contains greater quantities of myoglobin. 

Tuna fish swim at an average speed of 9 miles per hour. They never stop moving.

Tuna By Takashi Hososhima

Bluefin tuna can reach speeds of 40 mph (64 km/h) to pursue prey such as flying fish and mackerel. They also need speed to elude their predators.

The Atlantic Bluefin Tuna is so powerful, it can cook its own flesh with sudden bursts of muscle activity.

Tuna has been fished since ancient times for food.

Tuna often swim for protection with dolphin pods. This led to fishermen following dolphins to hunt the fish - and to the deaths of huge number of dolphins.


In November 2011, a record was set when a fisherman in Massachusetts caught an 881 lb (400 kg) tuna.

Some varieties of tuna, such as the bluefin and bigeye tuna are threatened by overfishing, dramatically affecting tuna populations in the Atlantic and northwestern Pacific Oceans.

The UK consumes more than a billion tins of tuna a year - much of it yellowfin tuna, one of several types to be commercially fished.

Japan consumes over a quarter of the world's entire catch of tuna.

Pixabay

The record for the highest price paid for a bluefin tuna was one that fetched 155.4 million yen (about £1m) at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market in 2013.

Ohio-born fish food manufacturer Albert P. Halfhill (November 25, 1847 – May 7, 1924) originated the idea of removing the natural fish oil of tuna and substituting it with a vegetable oil before cooking it with compressed hot steam to produce a desirable food. Halfhill is considered the father of the tuna packing industry and was the first to use the slogan "chicken of the sea" as a sales gimmick. 

Source Daily Mail 

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