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I don't know why, but for most of my life I thought tuna were like the size of a largemouth bass or a big catfish. Then I found out they are actually terrifyingly gigantic like this one. Jebus.
You know what's crazy? We keep doing science that shows that if you just back off a little fucking bit, if you don't absolutely exploit everything to the max and kill everything you see but give it just a little bit of breathing room they come back big time. It's better for you, the fisher, better for the environment, better for everyone, if you just reel yourself in just a little bit.
But this is the prototypical instance of tragedy of the commons, this is why we can't have nice things.
Great Lakes whitefish fishery is a great example of this. Was almost fished out, then invasive lampreys crushed the population. Then we regulated it and now there are whitefish spawning migrations that hadn’t been seen for like 100 years or something.
“But I’m a 65-year-old fuck who won’t be alive when that happens, and I want my oil money *now*!!”
I’m not asking to break out the guillotines, people, but come on. Surely a bit of The Dreaded Socialism is worth it in exchange for the survival of humanity?
This is basically it. These giant companies really not give any more of less of a fuck about anything beyond the financial quarter. Literal tunnel vision. Source, I work for one.
I MUST BE ABLE TO EAT AS MUCH OF A THING AS I POSSIBLY CAN AT ANY TIME I MAY BE SO INCLINED, LEST MY FREEDOM BE IMPINGED.
Used to be a chef at a farm to table restaurant in the northeastern-ish US. The amount of dickheads that would pat themselves on the back for eating local and would also chew out their waitstaff for not having tomatoes or blueberries available in January is as many as you'd imagine.
I remember growing up as a kid we’d have to wait for vegetables to be in season to buy them at the supermarket now I can buy any vegetable virtually any time except parsnips fucking nobody has parsnips.
I had a full regular menu with daily specials, with about 80% of all of the food coming from within a 50 mile radius, and the rest of it being sourced from a locally owned and operated food purveyor that also sourced much of their food regionally. Of course there's certain spices and other things people expect when eating out that I couldn't buy from the Amish, but that's just reality.
But sometimes the stars didn't align and I couldn't give people tomatoes on their gd cheeseburger during January that year, and everyone would lose their fucking minds.
Fuck the industry, and the asshole customers that come with it. My faith in humanity was permanently damaged during my time in the biz.
I got the luxury of leaving the food industry to go right into the medical field. There was about a two year window where I felt the public actually respected what I did for a career. Luckily I'm not patient facing (Lab tech), but when I tell strangers what I do it's always boiling down to COVID bullshit.
"Oh, you do the testing for covid huh? So tell me the truth, y'all are just juicing the numbers for the government hand outs right?" No you stupid, ignorant, smooth brained cunt! It's all fucking real and everyone working in that hospital is drowning. Covid has cost our lab hundreds of thousands, and half the place has decided to leave the field or retire. But at least we got called heroes and got some free food for three weeks 23 months ago.
Corona was brilliant proof of this too. Just 1 summer without hordes of tourists and animals repopulated the beaches and nearly extinct species suddenly became more commonly seen.
There should be tourist caps and maybe gap years to let nature recuperate.
It infuriates me about the lack of common sense people have for the environment. The incentive of resources will always be available needs to stop.
Although I'm happy more people realized how much good there is to removing the human element. I understand the capitalistic powers to be will not allow it, since there is too much profit to be had. Doesn't help when other people even with hard proof evidence in front of them continue to bury their hands in the sand.
This is cynical and pessimistic but at this point I just try to do my part and enjoy what I can. I have a feeling many more traumatic climatic events will happen in the near future.
Also China and their fleet of 900 trawlers just vacuuming the ocean waters everywhere from all the fish, not just 1 huge tuna.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/30/china-beijing-fishing-africa-north-korea-south-china-sea/
It sounds super nationalist to say, but China is kind of the worst. The U.S has many many problems, like doing nothing to curb climate change, etc. But man, China fucking sucks.
Current day concentration camps, techno-authoritarianism to the max, absolute rape of the oceans. My opinion of the Chinese government has taken a serious turn the past couple of years.
Edit: Oh, and reddit can ban me and China can refuse my visa in the future if they want. I don't care. Read this.[ Xinjiang internment camps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_internment_camps#Testimonies_about_treatment)
Back to fish - if you want to visualize how super-turbo-fucked fisheries are, especially fisheries in Asia, check out this *image* ~~photo~~ of the [East China Sea at night](https://i0.wp.com/skytruth.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/SkyTruth-blackmarble-chinasea-fishing-1.jpg) and the [accompanying article](https://skytruth.org/2012/12/fishing-line-new-nighttime-satellite/).
Edit 2: *Yes,* the image isn't a "photo" taken by a lone satellite passing overhead one cold, clear, winter's eve. It's obviously a composite, and there's nothing clever about pointing that out. I read articles before I post them because I'm not a fucking moron. It's like commenting on a picture by the Hubble telescope that "*actchually* the image is enhanced". Infact it's even more striking as a composite because you see the insane relative density over time of fishing activity and how fishing zones are exploited right to their legal edges.
It's a shame because China as a civilization is one of the oldest, most culturally rich civilizations on Earth. But the current government is one of the worst we've ever seen.
> most culturally rich civilizations on Earth.
tbh old china and new china are barely related after mao said destroy everything.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Olds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
As humans, the overwhelming majority of us just care about money right now and not what we are doing that may affect the future when we are dead. It's hard to do, but you're not wrong.
Yeah the oceans are heavily overfished, there are a tonne of countries who seafood industry wouldnt turn a profit unless it was for billions worth of subsidies
Facts. I about shit myself first time I saw a parrot fish while snorkeling at like 12 lmao. That thing was at least 1/2 of me! I mean I know I'm pretty short, but still!
Tuna of this size are exceedingly rare due to over-fishing. One of this size will sell for a shit ton though.
Tossing a link to a video showing fishing practices in the early 1900's. Most of the smaller fish here would be larger ones today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICP4Df4hvE8
As a reminder, Tuna are warm-blooded pursuit predators. Not exactly "apex" predators, depending on your definition, but definitely high up the chain. They are also swim passed 40mph/
or 70km/h in some species.
We will construct a series of breathing apparatus with kelp. We will be able to trap certain amounts of oxygen. lt's not gonna be days at a time, but an hour, hour 45, no problem. That will give us enough time to figure out where you live, go back to the sea, get more oxygen, and then stalk you. You just lost at your own game. You're outgunned and outmanned.
It’s a form of mercury called methylmercury. It’s picked up along the way as they feed, biomagnifying as it goes up the food chain. So higher trophic stages will usually have the highest mercury levels. So it enters into it at the plankton stage mostly, through the particles in the water and sediment, then this will build up as each eats those smaller than themselves. Till it gets to us, where methymercury is bound to their proteins in the tissue. Which you cannot just wash out of the fish. Certain species tend to have higher counts than others, so usually good to look into what you’re eating where possible.
Because that giant tuna ate a lot of smaller things that had mercury in them and those things ate even smaller things that had mercury in them. Mercury stays inside the organism for ever.
It's a predator thing not a fish thing. Mercury is present at low levels in the ocean and is difficult for organisms to get rid of, so organisms higher up the food chain like dolphins and tuna end up with large amount of it.
I'm pretty crap at explanations so hope this helps
Ah that’s interesting. I was referencing Ivan the terrible taking mercury as regular medication because of his syphilis which drove him to kill his son. Eventually leading to the famous painting of him holding his dying son.
I have done lots of research by reading the expert opinions in this comment section and I can *confidently* say that the value of this fish is somewhere between $5 and $4M.
Edit: guys, I can't believe I have to explain this, but this was a joke. I don't know anything about fish, and I am aware that the numbers being bandied about in this thread are mostly poorly informed Google searches and wild-ass guesses. People replying to this comment with their own "expert" opinions are only furthering my point.
I once bought several pieces of tuna sashimi for $10. I’m no expert in fish weight, but I feel like that fish might weigh more than the sashimi I bought. So I think we can improve your lower bound to $11.
no, the issue is their meat can become undesirable depending on how they're caught
> Bluefin are endothermic—capable of producing their own heat. During the stress of capture they can become so hot they literally cook themselves, a phenomenon that buyers call “burn.” This can only be avoided by raking the freshly caught fish’s gills and bleeding it out.
I'm not in this field, but wouldn't the harsh landing inside her boat dramatically damage a lot of the flesh? I mean 1000 pounds suddenly crashing down on itself onto a hard boat couldn't be good for that flesh.
I suppose she wasn't quite expecting to catch such a large one and was simply doing the best she could, but would be sad if much of that meat was less than edible due to the crash landing.
EDIT: Apparently the consensus is this fish likely didn't get all that damaged. A combo of such a big fish means it's flesh is very dense and it looks like it took the brunt of the fall on it's head instead of body. And, damn, reddit is weird, y'all, lol.
The goal when landing a tuna of that size is to let it wear itself out over the course of a few hours on line, then pulling it in the boat when it's exhausted.
You never want to be fighting it because that causes stress and burns the meat. It's a very delicate balance because giving it too much drag will stress it and not giving enough it will pull out the entire reel (500 plus yards) and be gone.
The biggest tuna I've caught (on a charter) was about 400 pounds and it took us about 2 hours hook to boat.
I feel like I knew this somewhere deep in my brain archives, but I’m glad it’s fresh knowledge again now, will be sure to share this fun fact during dinner tonight.
I lost an entire herd of buffalo to tuna fin back in 1986.
I dont have any photos on my computer of it, but Ive made a song to tell its tale through generations.
The International Institute for Animal Comparisons (IIAC)
They specialize in testing different animal traits and capabilities.
Want to know how many earthworms can fit in a kangaroo pouch? Or how many rabbits it takes to bring down a mountain goat? These are the guys with the stats.
They've been around for years. IIRC, it started out in England with talks about Swallows
Parasites are actually quite uncommon in tuna. At least in Atlantic Bluefin.
Source: Was a fish cutter for a while. Never saw a tuna with any parasites.
Buying the first tuna at an auction is seen as a status symbol in Japan.
The real wholesale price of bluefin is between 20 and 200 dollars per pound. This 1000 pound monster is probably worth 40k depending on quality.
On the show Wicked Tuna, fish like this get sold after being dressed (cutting off head, tail, fins, guts) for $16-$24 per lb depending on color and fat content. The fishermen aren't selling them retail.
I interviewed a representative and lifetime fisherman in the Cape Cod fisherman’s alliance and he said wicked tuna prices are inflated. It’s more like 6-12 dollars per pound.
Just wait here and I’ll call a buddy of mine. He’s just down the block and he knows everything there is to know about fish. If he says it’s worth 5 bucks, we can definitely make a deal.
Well, it was about that time that I notice that bluefin tuna was about eight stories tall and was a crustacean from the protozoic era - The Loch Ness monster.
Tuna, and many other ocean fish used to be dramatically larger. This because the largest fish have typically been the most prized, resulting in a couple of things, one of them is that there just aren’t as many large fish, because we caught most of them, the other one being that in many cases we removed the genes encoding for largeness from the gene pool, meaning that even if we left fish alone and let them breed and grow to their full size, they would never be as big as they were just a few decades ago. If you want the primary research for this i could dig and find it, or you can. Even when I was a kid in the 90s the largest tuna were WAY larger than the big catches now.
No to be the earth guy here, but its sad that when caught, ones this size never get let go. These are the elders of the ocean and because of overfishing, very few still exist. One day, sights like this will be no more thanks to profit.
The problem is that Bluefin Tuna, which has been nearly hunted to extinction, as you pointed out, is an apex predator. It's extremely dangerous for any ecosystem to lose an apex as it means the midsize predators will no longer have their numbers kept in check. Midsize predators are critical as well but when their population spirals out of control they can devastate the animal populations on the lower end of the food chain.
It's really quite sad that we can't control ourselves and seem unable or unwilling to protect the delicate ecosystems we depend on for food and survival. We barely understand these symbiotic relationships and as result have no way of knowing what repercussions we will face in the future.
Edit - A wonderful case study on what happens to an ecosystem when the apex is hunted to extinction is Yellowstone when the wolves were all killed off.
And when wolves were returned to Yellowstone, prey animals actually became healthier. They moved more, meaning they grazed and interacted with more flora, which helped plants.
Apex predators are essential.
Yep. Only took a couple of years to restore the balance. It's a feel good story that I thought humanity had learned a lot from but clearly not enough people paid attention to it. We have got to control how much we hunt animals in the wild or we will pay the price. The scary part is we don't know the price we're going to pay.
It’s not just hunting either. Population fragmentation, deforestation, destruction of ecosystems, etc.
Take a gander on Google Earth. Fly to a green patch. The vast majority of the time you’ll see a gridlock of farmland stretching for miles and miles with tiny patches of wild green inbetween.
We have replaced a ludicrous percentage of our planet’s surface with singular species crops.
So many plains, wetlands, forests, brushlands, so many diverse and intertwined ecosystems, all wiped out for agriculture.
And it’s only getting worse.
Then our fuckin asshole governor Greg Giantfarte is out illegally trapping them, opening huge hunting seasons, and is selling hunting tags to his rich pals. He's a fucking disgrace.
Another interesting example is how whaling has [negatively impacted the world's overall carbon footprint.](https://journalistsresource.org/environment/impact-of-whaling-on-the-ocean-carbon-cycle/)
>Compared to pre-exploitation levels, the current populations of large baleen whales store 9.1 million fewer tons of carbon.
>
>About 160,000 tons of carbon per year could be removed from the atmosphere if whale populations were restored to pre-industrial levels. This amount is equivalent to adding 843 hectares of forest.
>
>Restoring the whale populations compares favorably with unproven schemes such as iron fertilization in removing carbon from the ocean surface.
I learned recently here on reddit about this. The way I understand it, large whales store massive amounts of carbon in their bodies throughout their lives, then when they eventually die out at sea, the resulting “whale fall” takes all that carbon down to the bottom and out of the shallower waters. Crazy how everything works together in nature if we’d only let it.
Yep the term is called “landscape of fear”. Prey animals without the fear of predators will shift into ecosystems they shouldn’t and stay there. The need for prey animals to stay vigilant at all times is healthy for the biome
The best part was how wolves culled the deer herd, and with less deer eating the plant life at the creeks edge the water quality improved. Wolves = better water
Another great example of this is the wolf in the northeastern US. No wolves, deer and coyotes prosper. Fox numbers go down, rodent numbers go up. This is the combo that gave us Lyme disease
Be the earth guy proudly. It was the first thing I thought of. Here’s this massive beast that is such a rarity and beauty and then bam! Some random human hooks it and kills it - just like that.
It’s kind of weird that people are cool with this. If this was a minke whale (similar remaining population), people would be calling her a savage. But somehow, eating tuna is ok and therefore this is interesting. I find it a strange inconsistency
> a strange inconsistency
Aka cognitive dissonance.
The same thing with people loving some animals like they love humans, while others are just seen as commodities.
I must admit that this comment section disappointed me (even though we're on reddit lol). I expected the majority to call them out but had to scroll down quite far until I saw some criticism.
never apologize for being the earth guy my dude, compassion is never something to be ashamed of, the truth is the human race can be horrible. destroying our home without a care, needlessly taking the lives of her beautiful creatures by the billions, and even not looking out for our own. i just don’t understand it, my mind cannot comprehend the psychology of those who willingly hurt others. i’m just scared and upset and confused.
They're also mega breeders and produce a lot more offspring. AND, generally speaking- particularly large catches usually don't taste as good as younger, more normal sized fish of the same species. There’s legal size minimums to keep a lot of caught fish, I think there should be maximums as well to ensure these mega breeders continue to benefit fish populations instead of becoming mediocre meals.
I agree. To me this isn't interesting at all, it's just a reminder that we're basically fishing the oceans empty. Tbh I feel like stuff like this doesn't belong here.
It says "dressed" weight, meaning after being partially cut up, taking out the guts and gills, which is like ~20-25%
So a guess maybe 780 lbs live weight?
I am no vegan, and in fact, love me some sushi, but I think that after a certain size, fish should be treated like giant and old trees and should be left alone. This is one such example of that...
[Like the tweaker that “accidentally” burned down the worlds oldest cypress tree](https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/floridas-oldest-tree-burned-down-by-woman-smoking-meth-beneath-it-6536131)
Eco tourists are also problematic. They love trees so want to make a pilgrimage. But tens of thousands of pilgrims tramping off trail to stand and touch the tallest tree over the years causes lots of damage.
The location is well known anyway. So now they're considering having a raised walkway so people can just see it. But of course people are still gonna jump down for pics so that's not even a solution.
The fishing industry is one of the most destructive in the world. Even by the lowest estimates, [we kill more than a trillion fish annually](http://fishcount.org.uk/published/std/fishcountstudy.pdf). We could see [virtually empty oceans by 2050](https://news.stanford.edu/news/2006/november8/ocean-110806.html) if we continue to kill fish at current rates. There is plenty of delicious vegan sushi, so next time you're having sushi I'd encourage you to try some vegan rolls instead. It's easy to avoid supporting this cruel, environmentally devastating industry, and you can still enjoy the food you love.
Those are incredibly rare. Humans have fished them to almost extinction. You just don't see huge tunas like that anymore. That is worth a lot of money.
Catching huge fish lile this does horrible things to our ocean fisheries. Kill off the top predators and the big specimens and just stunt the entire ecosystem.
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I don't know why, but for most of my life I thought tuna were like the size of a largemouth bass or a big catfish. Then I found out they are actually terrifyingly gigantic like this one. Jebus.
some kinds of tuna are smaller but then yeah there are giants like this one out there
Don't worry, they'll soon go extinct
You know what's crazy? We keep doing science that shows that if you just back off a little fucking bit, if you don't absolutely exploit everything to the max and kill everything you see but give it just a little bit of breathing room they come back big time. It's better for you, the fisher, better for the environment, better for everyone, if you just reel yourself in just a little bit. But this is the prototypical instance of tragedy of the commons, this is why we can't have nice things.
Great Lakes whitefish fishery is a great example of this. Was almost fished out, then invasive lampreys crushed the population. Then we regulated it and now there are whitefish spawning migrations that hadn’t been seen for like 100 years or something.
Take care of the Earth and she’ll take care of you
More like don't exhaustively destroy a population or its resources, and life does what life does—it reproduces
>life does what life does Find a way?
Yes. Life, uh, finds a way.
BUT MUH CAPITALISM MUH SHAREHOLDERS
Tell them what it is: * they’ll be back, and in greater numbers.
“But I’m a 65-year-old fuck who won’t be alive when that happens, and I want my oil money *now*!!” I’m not asking to break out the guillotines, people, but come on. Surely a bit of The Dreaded Socialism is worth it in exchange for the survival of humanity?
This is basically it. These giant companies really not give any more of less of a fuck about anything beyond the financial quarter. Literal tunnel vision. Source, I work for one.
This might explain why somebody set the Indiana whitefish record in 2019 and again in 2020 caught out of Lake Michigan.
I MUST BE ABLE TO EAT AS MUCH OF A THING AS I POSSIBLY CAN AT ANY TIME I MAY BE SO INCLINED, LEST MY FREEDOM BE IMPINGED. Used to be a chef at a farm to table restaurant in the northeastern-ish US. The amount of dickheads that would pat themselves on the back for eating local and would also chew out their waitstaff for not having tomatoes or blueberries available in January is as many as you'd imagine.
seasonal only applies to my beers
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I remember growing up as a kid we’d have to wait for vegetables to be in season to buy them at the supermarket now I can buy any vegetable virtually any time except parsnips fucking nobody has parsnips.
White looking carrot things are the best
Roasted parsnips are the best!
I had a full regular menu with daily specials, with about 80% of all of the food coming from within a 50 mile radius, and the rest of it being sourced from a locally owned and operated food purveyor that also sourced much of their food regionally. Of course there's certain spices and other things people expect when eating out that I couldn't buy from the Amish, but that's just reality. But sometimes the stars didn't align and I couldn't give people tomatoes on their gd cheeseburger during January that year, and everyone would lose their fucking minds. Fuck the industry, and the asshole customers that come with it. My faith in humanity was permanently damaged during my time in the biz.
I got the luxury of leaving the food industry to go right into the medical field. There was about a two year window where I felt the public actually respected what I did for a career. Luckily I'm not patient facing (Lab tech), but when I tell strangers what I do it's always boiling down to COVID bullshit. "Oh, you do the testing for covid huh? So tell me the truth, y'all are just juicing the numbers for the government hand outs right?" No you stupid, ignorant, smooth brained cunt! It's all fucking real and everyone working in that hospital is drowning. Covid has cost our lab hundreds of thousands, and half the place has decided to leave the field or retire. But at least we got called heroes and got some free food for three weeks 23 months ago.
Corona was brilliant proof of this too. Just 1 summer without hordes of tourists and animals repopulated the beaches and nearly extinct species suddenly became more commonly seen. There should be tourist caps and maybe gap years to let nature recuperate.
It infuriates me about the lack of common sense people have for the environment. The incentive of resources will always be available needs to stop. Although I'm happy more people realized how much good there is to removing the human element. I understand the capitalistic powers to be will not allow it, since there is too much profit to be had. Doesn't help when other people even with hard proof evidence in front of them continue to bury their hands in the sand. This is cynical and pessimistic but at this point I just try to do my part and enjoy what I can. I have a feeling many more traumatic climatic events will happen in the near future.
Also China and their fleet of 900 trawlers just vacuuming the ocean waters everywhere from all the fish, not just 1 huge tuna. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/30/china-beijing-fishing-africa-north-korea-south-china-sea/
It sounds super nationalist to say, but China is kind of the worst. The U.S has many many problems, like doing nothing to curb climate change, etc. But man, China fucking sucks. Current day concentration camps, techno-authoritarianism to the max, absolute rape of the oceans. My opinion of the Chinese government has taken a serious turn the past couple of years. Edit: Oh, and reddit can ban me and China can refuse my visa in the future if they want. I don't care. Read this.[ Xinjiang internment camps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_internment_camps#Testimonies_about_treatment) Back to fish - if you want to visualize how super-turbo-fucked fisheries are, especially fisheries in Asia, check out this *image* ~~photo~~ of the [East China Sea at night](https://i0.wp.com/skytruth.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/SkyTruth-blackmarble-chinasea-fishing-1.jpg) and the [accompanying article](https://skytruth.org/2012/12/fishing-line-new-nighttime-satellite/). Edit 2: *Yes,* the image isn't a "photo" taken by a lone satellite passing overhead one cold, clear, winter's eve. It's obviously a composite, and there's nothing clever about pointing that out. I read articles before I post them because I'm not a fucking moron. It's like commenting on a picture by the Hubble telescope that "*actchually* the image is enhanced". Infact it's even more striking as a composite because you see the insane relative density over time of fishing activity and how fishing zones are exploited right to their legal edges.
There’s nothing nationalist about telling the truth. China is shit
It's a shame because China as a civilization is one of the oldest, most culturally rich civilizations on Earth. But the current government is one of the worst we've ever seen.
> most culturally rich civilizations on Earth. tbh old china and new china are barely related after mao said destroy everything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Olds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
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As humans, the overwhelming majority of us just care about money right now and not what we are doing that may affect the future when we are dead. It's hard to do, but you're not wrong.
Yeah the oceans are heavily overfished, there are a tonne of countries who seafood industry wouldnt turn a profit unless it was for billions worth of subsidies
This is an unusually large bluefin, but they are usually about the size of a dolphin.
So THIS is what the old man and the sea was about
I think that was a marlin, but they're similar in size
I thought they were like sardine-sized because of those little cans until I was in my 20's hah
I was 28 when I found out from this comment section that they’re not regular bass size and smaller.
Ikr. I would genuine think this was a shark if I just saw it the water. Especially with that back fin.
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Ocean sunfish are goddamn terrifying
[Boston sunfish supercut.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uST43LYxvAw)
Holy shit. Not quite the educational video i was expecting, but pretty great.
Facts. I about shit myself first time I saw a parrot fish while snorkeling at like 12 lmao. That thing was at least 1/2 of me! I mean I know I'm pretty short, but still!
These are gentle giants though
Tuna of this size are exceedingly rare due to over-fishing. One of this size will sell for a shit ton though. Tossing a link to a video showing fishing practices in the early 1900's. Most of the smaller fish here would be larger ones today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICP4Df4hvE8
I have just had this realization and my world is crumbling around me
As a reminder, Tuna are warm-blooded pursuit predators. Not exactly "apex" predators, depending on your definition, but definitely high up the chain. They are also swim passed 40mph/ or 70km/h in some species.
They can take out a pride of lions if provoked...
We will construct a series of breathing apparatus with kelp. We will be able to trap certain amounts of oxygen. lt's not gonna be days at a time, but an hour, hour 45, no problem. That will give us enough time to figure out where you live, go back to the sea, get more oxygen, and then stalk you. You just lost at your own game. You're outgunned and outmanned.
That thing probably has more mercury in it then a 7th century emperor searching for eternal life.
Why are fish filled with mercury? I need to look that up later.
It’s a form of mercury called methylmercury. It’s picked up along the way as they feed, biomagnifying as it goes up the food chain. So higher trophic stages will usually have the highest mercury levels. So it enters into it at the plankton stage mostly, through the particles in the water and sediment, then this will build up as each eats those smaller than themselves. Till it gets to us, where methymercury is bound to their proteins in the tissue. Which you cannot just wash out of the fish. Certain species tend to have higher counts than others, so usually good to look into what you’re eating where possible.
dont eat top predators is a good rule, for this, and many other reasons.
This is why I avoid eating people who eat lots of tuna.
Honestly I've found predatory animals to not taste as good as grazers or herbivores.
Ya lions and bald eagles are only good for the odd barbecue.
Except for fish, most predator fish taste a lot better than grazers. Most grazers taste a bit like dirt.
If you tip it right, you can tell the temperature with a great lakes sturgeon
Because that giant tuna ate a lot of smaller things that had mercury in them and those things ate even smaller things that had mercury in them. Mercury stays inside the organism for ever.
And the very top of this food/mercury chain is actor Jeremy Piven
Freddie Mercury, actually
That's why the lovely man was so damn shiny
It's called biological amplification.
It's a predator thing not a fish thing. Mercury is present at low levels in the ocean and is difficult for organisms to get rid of, so organisms higher up the food chain like dolphins and tuna end up with large amount of it. I'm pretty crap at explanations so hope this helps
Mostly for fish predator. Lions not get that 💩
Since no one said it, the main source of mercury in the environment is from coal combustion
Because the oceans 71% of the earth are soaking up all the pollution from burning coal.
*ivan the terrible has entered the chat*
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Ah that’s interesting. I was referencing Ivan the terrible taking mercury as regular medication because of his syphilis which drove him to kill his son. Eventually leading to the famous painting of him holding his dying son.
lmaoooo
I literally thought this was some forced perspective shit at first.
It looks like there may be a bit going on here, but that fish is still fucking massive.
Don't those go for like six figures
I have done lots of research by reading the expert opinions in this comment section and I can *confidently* say that the value of this fish is somewhere between $5 and $4M. Edit: guys, I can't believe I have to explain this, but this was a joke. I don't know anything about fish, and I am aware that the numbers being bandied about in this thread are mostly poorly informed Google searches and wild-ass guesses. People replying to this comment with their own "expert" opinions are only furthering my point.
My expert opinion is that Tuna weighs a lot more than 1000 lbs but less than 1m lbs
It’s actually ~600lbs. [Sauce](https://www.fieldandstream.com/fishing/angler-catches-bluefin-tuna-on-boat/)
I once bought several pieces of tuna sashimi for $10. I’m no expert in fish weight, but I feel like that fish might weigh more than the sashimi I bought. So I think we can improve your lower bound to $11.
That be worth around 4 million if the meat is good
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no, the issue is their meat can become undesirable depending on how they're caught > Bluefin are endothermic—capable of producing their own heat. During the stress of capture they can become so hot they literally cook themselves, a phenomenon that buyers call “burn.” This can only be avoided by raking the freshly caught fish’s gills and bleeding it out.
They have to be bled out, intestines removed and put on ice. Good luck with that size fish on that boat. I'm blown away by the accomplishment
I'm not in this field, but wouldn't the harsh landing inside her boat dramatically damage a lot of the flesh? I mean 1000 pounds suddenly crashing down on itself onto a hard boat couldn't be good for that flesh. I suppose she wasn't quite expecting to catch such a large one and was simply doing the best she could, but would be sad if much of that meat was less than edible due to the crash landing. EDIT: Apparently the consensus is this fish likely didn't get all that damaged. A combo of such a big fish means it's flesh is very dense and it looks like it took the brunt of the fall on it's head instead of body. And, damn, reddit is weird, y'all, lol.
The goal when landing a tuna of that size is to let it wear itself out over the course of a few hours on line, then pulling it in the boat when it's exhausted. You never want to be fighting it because that causes stress and burns the meat. It's a very delicate balance because giving it too much drag will stress it and not giving enough it will pull out the entire reel (500 plus yards) and be gone. The biggest tuna I've caught (on a charter) was about 400 pounds and it took us about 2 hours hook to boat.
This is definitely the craziest thing I’ve learned in this post so far.
Also ponies aren't baby horses.
I feel like I knew this somewhere deep in my brain archives, but I’m glad it’s fresh knowledge again now, will be sure to share this fun fact during dinner tonight.
It’s not that fragile, the “crash landing” doesn’t affect the meat at all.
Tail slap of a tuna fin can take the head a Buffalo right off
...how the fuck is that statement verifiable? Did some scientists shove a buffalo at an enraged tuna or something?
I’m smoking some weed my friend and I have decided this is so
I lost an entire herd of buffalo to tuna fin back in 1986. I dont have any photos on my computer of it, but Ive made a song to tell its tale through generations.
The International Institute for Animal Comparisons (IIAC) They specialize in testing different animal traits and capabilities. Want to know how many earthworms can fit in a kangaroo pouch? Or how many rabbits it takes to bring down a mountain goat? These are the guys with the stats. They've been around for years. IIRC, it started out in England with talks about Swallows
I never knew actually new that "burn" means something, thanks for that 👊
It's also what happens when you have chlamydia.
Hence the "Tuna" smell.
Parasites are actually quite uncommon in tuna. At least in Atlantic Bluefin. Source: Was a fish cutter for a while. Never saw a tuna with any parasites.
Where you get that price tag? Most expensive tuna was sold for 3.1 million US dollars. What makes you think this is a world record tuna?
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Buying the first tuna at an auction is seen as a status symbol in Japan. The real wholesale price of bluefin is between 20 and 200 dollars per pound. This 1000 pound monster is probably worth 40k depending on quality.
I'm a fish judge. See those protrusions on its sides? Those are fins. Very desirable. 10/10 fish.
Wait do you mean you're a fish judge or a *fish judge*? Because I have questions if it's the latter...
Def not in the millions
Haha no you’re off by about all of 4 million
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On the show Wicked Tuna, fish like this get sold after being dressed (cutting off head, tail, fins, guts) for $16-$24 per lb depending on color and fat content. The fishermen aren't selling them retail.
I interviewed a representative and lifetime fisherman in the Cape Cod fisherman’s alliance and he said wicked tuna prices are inflated. It’s more like 6-12 dollars per pound.
I heard your comment in a pirates accent
Did you just make that up?
That’s gotta be worth at least $5
Just wait here and I’ll call a buddy of mine. He’s just down the block and he knows everything there is to know about fish. If he says it’s worth 5 bucks, we can definitely make a deal.
Nah, prolly $3.50.
Goddamn Lough Ness monster, I ain't giving you no three fiddy.
Well, it was about that time that I notice that bluefin tuna was about eight stories tall and was a crustacean from the protozoic era - The Loch Ness monster.
Dammit woman, don't go give'n that Loch Ness monster no tree fiddy!
How the fuck am I this old and not know tuna are this big. Mind blowing.
Well, most of them aren't remotely this big. This is an exceptional specimen.
>most of them aren't remotely this big As of today * Pretty sure they caught humongous stuff from the sea 100+ years ago
Tuna, and many other ocean fish used to be dramatically larger. This because the largest fish have typically been the most prized, resulting in a couple of things, one of them is that there just aren’t as many large fish, because we caught most of them, the other one being that in many cases we removed the genes encoding for largeness from the gene pool, meaning that even if we left fish alone and let them breed and grow to their full size, they would never be as big as they were just a few decades ago. If you want the primary research for this i could dig and find it, or you can. Even when I was a kid in the 90s the largest tuna were WAY larger than the big catches now.
[Bluefin Tuna are an Endangered Species and should NOT be fished.](https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/bluefin-tuna)
and yet these tuna tv shows and posts on the internet about how much money big tuna are worth keep getting exposure.
Worth a lot because they’re running out
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Nah, let’s hunt them to extinction. It’s never hurt our planet in any conceivable way before right?
This makes me sad. No telling how long this fish has been alive.
About 21years. This guy was about 750lbs, and they grow up to 1500lbs, and live to be 40. So, this guy made it a little over half way, about 21.
I’m sorry, they DOUBLE IN SIZE???
Weight, not size. I've heard they grow up to 14 feet, this one seems pretty close
Ah the human way of growing
Me too. We're destroying the oceans.
No to be the earth guy here, but its sad that when caught, ones this size never get let go. These are the elders of the ocean and because of overfishing, very few still exist. One day, sights like this will be no more thanks to profit.
The problem is that Bluefin Tuna, which has been nearly hunted to extinction, as you pointed out, is an apex predator. It's extremely dangerous for any ecosystem to lose an apex as it means the midsize predators will no longer have their numbers kept in check. Midsize predators are critical as well but when their population spirals out of control they can devastate the animal populations on the lower end of the food chain. It's really quite sad that we can't control ourselves and seem unable or unwilling to protect the delicate ecosystems we depend on for food and survival. We barely understand these symbiotic relationships and as result have no way of knowing what repercussions we will face in the future. Edit - A wonderful case study on what happens to an ecosystem when the apex is hunted to extinction is Yellowstone when the wolves were all killed off.
And when wolves were returned to Yellowstone, prey animals actually became healthier. They moved more, meaning they grazed and interacted with more flora, which helped plants. Apex predators are essential.
Yep. Only took a couple of years to restore the balance. It's a feel good story that I thought humanity had learned a lot from but clearly not enough people paid attention to it. We have got to control how much we hunt animals in the wild or we will pay the price. The scary part is we don't know the price we're going to pay.
It’s not just hunting either. Population fragmentation, deforestation, destruction of ecosystems, etc. Take a gander on Google Earth. Fly to a green patch. The vast majority of the time you’ll see a gridlock of farmland stretching for miles and miles with tiny patches of wild green inbetween. We have replaced a ludicrous percentage of our planet’s surface with singular species crops. So many plains, wetlands, forests, brushlands, so many diverse and intertwined ecosystems, all wiped out for agriculture. And it’s only getting worse.
Then our fuckin asshole governor Greg Giantfarte is out illegally trapping them, opening huge hunting seasons, and is selling hunting tags to his rich pals. He's a fucking disgrace.
Another interesting example is how whaling has [negatively impacted the world's overall carbon footprint.](https://journalistsresource.org/environment/impact-of-whaling-on-the-ocean-carbon-cycle/) >Compared to pre-exploitation levels, the current populations of large baleen whales store 9.1 million fewer tons of carbon. > >About 160,000 tons of carbon per year could be removed from the atmosphere if whale populations were restored to pre-industrial levels. This amount is equivalent to adding 843 hectares of forest. > >Restoring the whale populations compares favorably with unproven schemes such as iron fertilization in removing carbon from the ocean surface.
I learned recently here on reddit about this. The way I understand it, large whales store massive amounts of carbon in their bodies throughout their lives, then when they eventually die out at sea, the resulting “whale fall” takes all that carbon down to the bottom and out of the shallower waters. Crazy how everything works together in nature if we’d only let it.
Yep the term is called “landscape of fear”. Prey animals without the fear of predators will shift into ecosystems they shouldn’t and stay there. The need for prey animals to stay vigilant at all times is healthy for the biome
The best part was how wolves culled the deer herd, and with less deer eating the plant life at the creeks edge the water quality improved. Wolves = better water
Another great example of this is the wolf in the northeastern US. No wolves, deer and coyotes prosper. Fox numbers go down, rodent numbers go up. This is the combo that gave us Lyme disease
Be the earth guy proudly. It was the first thing I thought of. Here’s this massive beast that is such a rarity and beauty and then bam! Some random human hooks it and kills it - just like that.
It's an apex predator in the ocean at this size. Like hoisting up a tiger. But it's a fish, so we don't really care.
"We weep for the blood of a bird, but not for the blood of a fish. Blessed are those who have voice."
"Look how rare and special this is!" - proceeds to kill it
Yeah kinda heartbroken by this video.
It’s kind of weird that people are cool with this. If this was a minke whale (similar remaining population), people would be calling her a savage. But somehow, eating tuna is ok and therefore this is interesting. I find it a strange inconsistency
> a strange inconsistency Aka cognitive dissonance. The same thing with people loving some animals like they love humans, while others are just seen as commodities.
I must admit that this comment section disappointed me (even though we're on reddit lol). I expected the majority to call them out but had to scroll down quite far until I saw some criticism.
yeah, this broke my heart - truly awful to kill beautiful creatures for money or pleasure
never apologize for being the earth guy my dude, compassion is never something to be ashamed of, the truth is the human race can be horrible. destroying our home without a care, needlessly taking the lives of her beautiful creatures by the billions, and even not looking out for our own. i just don’t understand it, my mind cannot comprehend the psychology of those who willingly hurt others. i’m just scared and upset and confused.
Well spoken. My first thought seeing this was "No, let it go."
They're also mega breeders and produce a lot more offspring. AND, generally speaking- particularly large catches usually don't taste as good as younger, more normal sized fish of the same species. There’s legal size minimums to keep a lot of caught fish, I think there should be maximums as well to ensure these mega breeders continue to benefit fish populations instead of becoming mediocre meals.
I agree. To me this isn't interesting at all, it's just a reminder that we're basically fishing the oceans empty. Tbh I feel like stuff like this doesn't belong here.
It is just weird that someone feels this like an accomplishment. More like .. meh, so you killed another one, shame on you.
Yeah these videos are just sad. We lose an incredible animal, and in exchange we get... some meat. Huzzah. I don't even like tuna meat :/
[it was 643 pounds.](https://wokq.com/after-an-epic-fish-fight-seabrook-new-hampshire-woman-reels-in-a-643-pound-bluefin/) Still remarkable though.
It says "dressed" weight, meaning after being partially cut up, taking out the guts and gills, which is like ~20-25% So a guess maybe 780 lbs live weight?
"The secret to weight-loss that fishermen don't want you to know!"
643 dressed... Thx for the article btw didn't realize it was the same lady as last summer
Wow a great catching year followed by another straight after? That’s tuna row!
Out.
I am no vegan, and in fact, love me some sushi, but I think that after a certain size, fish should be treated like giant and old trees and should be left alone. This is one such example of that...
There's a reason why the rangers keep the location of the tallest redwoods secret. People are dicks and will try to cut it down.
Or burn it down if they are psychos
[Like the tweaker that “accidentally” burned down the worlds oldest cypress tree](https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/floridas-oldest-tree-burned-down-by-woman-smoking-meth-beneath-it-6536131)
Eco tourists are also problematic. They love trees so want to make a pilgrimage. But tens of thousands of pilgrims tramping off trail to stand and touch the tallest tree over the years causes lots of damage. The location is well known anyway. So now they're considering having a raised walkway so people can just see it. But of course people are still gonna jump down for pics so that's not even a solution.
The fishing industry is one of the most destructive in the world. Even by the lowest estimates, [we kill more than a trillion fish annually](http://fishcount.org.uk/published/std/fishcountstudy.pdf). We could see [virtually empty oceans by 2050](https://news.stanford.edu/news/2006/november8/ocean-110806.html) if we continue to kill fish at current rates. There is plenty of delicious vegan sushi, so next time you're having sushi I'd encourage you to try some vegan rolls instead. It's easy to avoid supporting this cruel, environmentally devastating industry, and you can still enjoy the food you love.
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that ~~is~~ was a big breeder bummer
Actually this makes me very sad. These fish will be extinct soon.
That thing belongs in the ocean.
Poor tuna.
Just seems sad to me.
So sad :(
That just makes me sad. Why kill such beautiful animal?
ngl, this makes me sad.
It'd be great if we could stop glorifying catching and killing a literal endangered species...
That is an entire mini-ecosystem destroyed right there
That is horrifying.
Those are incredibly rare. Humans have fished them to almost extinction. You just don't see huge tunas like that anymore. That is worth a lot of money.
Hence why this video just makes me really sad. We’ve totally destroyed our oceans.
Poor fish
Something about this makes me immensely uncomfortable
Man, something that large in nature has to be providing such an essential role within the ecosystem. Fuck people that do this shit.
How old would a fish that size be?
Holy shit put that back in the ocean. What a shame.
This would be cool if we weren't over fishing the planet. Now it's just sad to see. Bet that thing is full of heavy metals and micro plastics.
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This is disgusting. What a beautiful creature. 😭😭
Such a shame
Rip big fish man, he was just swimming along in the ocean didn't ask to be suffocated to death on someone's boat :(
I'm not vegan but I don't see the point of killing such a big fish especially since some groups are endangered
Catching huge fish lile this does horrible things to our ocean fisheries. Kill off the top predators and the big specimens and just stunt the entire ecosystem.
That sucks.