Yum, Yum, Bumblebee What??

Today's homage will be dedicated to source of this administrator's ulcer: the majestic bluefin tuna. No, no...the tuna itself doesn't give the adminstrator an ulcer, but the fact that this species of incredible fish is critically endangered is what's keeping them up at night.  

Never before have these fish had it so rough. Granted they probably don't remember the days in which they never had to worry about sonar detection or fleeing from so many enemies in one area at a time.  No, the bluefin probably doesn't think about that.  In fact, the bluefin tuna probably doesn't get ulcers because it luckily doesn't know what we're doing to its very own habitat.

Rather, the bluefin probably worries about the most basic things like you would; finding food, shelter, a mate, and all various forms of security.  It too gets road rage on its way to work, finds parenting to be tough (especially with 11 or 12 "kids" at a time), and will try not to complain when the same dinner is served over and over again.

The bluefin, not a native of the Pacific Ocean (although some are being farmed off the coast of Japan), grows to average of just over a meter.  Its body is a dense, muscle powerhouse which enables the tuna to swim as fast as it can away from predators (though not always successfully). The tuna itself is a predatory fish.  It lives primarily off of smaller fish like sardines and squids. The flesh of tuna, sadly, is also too highly valued in the arena of human consumption.  We have developed an unhealthy addiction to this lovely animal because its flesh is extremely...(ugh) tasty.  In fact, so prized is the tuna that in the Japan one tuna can fetch over $100,000 in the open market.  There is no shortage of irony with Japanese culture and fish...a country that spends years breeding carp (carp!!) for beauty pageants will unflinchingly kill off a species of fish just for the gratification of a sushi meal that lasts maybe one hour.

So, how bad have humans made it for the tuna?  Bad.  We've essentially guaranteed the extinction of this species by overfishing and sitting on our hands while other countries follow suit.  In approximately four decades we have nearly collapsed the available stock of bluefin.  The problem is aggravated by the fact that the bluefin is also slow to mature, and takes several years to reach spawning level.  This is coupled by the problem that the bluefin's diet is waning dramatically because those stocks also on the verge of collapse.

To see a bluefin in its environment is to understand the beauty and science of life in the ocean.  And to see a giant bluefin, rare as they are, is cause for even more wonderment. For in a setting in which we kill to satisfy a temporary hunger these fish persist.  But not for long, soon the bluefin will join its sibling, the yellowfin, in being referred to in the past tense.  It will have existed, and once swam the oceans.  If you see any of the men pictured in the photo above, kick them in the shins.  That will give the tunas one less reason to get an ulcer.