Bigeye tuna
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Bigeye tuna ( Thunnus obesus ) |
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| Thunnus obesus | ||||||||||||
| ( Lowe , 1839) |
The bigeye tuna ( Thunnus obesus ) is a species of fish belonging to the tuna genus . It reaches a total length of up to 2.50 meters, a weight of up to 210 kilograms and an age of 5 to 7 years, according to some sources up to 11 years. It is believed that they reach sexual maturity at 3 to 4 years of age. Bigeye tuna usually live at greater depths than other types of tuna. This is why their meat is very fatty (for thermal insulation) and is in great demand in Japan for making sashimi .
Young bigeye tuna often swim in mixed schools with yellowfin tuna and skipjack tuna . The swarms often associate with objects floating on the sea surface. Therefore, young bigeye tuna are particularly endangered by purse seine fisheries that use a so-called Fish Aggregating Device (FAD) (device for attracting large schools of fish). Adult bigeye tuna, on the other hand, seem to be far less attracted to FADs.
distribution
Bigeye tuna live in subtropical and tropical waters in the Atlantic , Pacific and Indian Oceans , but not in the Mediterranean .
Economical meaning
The bigeye tuna is an important food fish . The stocks in the Atlantic are considered overfished , those in the Pacific as massively overfished and threatened with extinction. Adult animals are with longlines and trolling caught smaller purse-seine. The main market is Japan (for sashimi), in South America baby bigeye tuna are also processed into canned tuna and sold as "white beef" (the taste is said to be similar to that of beef).
swell
- ↑ IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Eng.)
- ↑ The canned tuna industry and its impact on tuna stocks. Society for the rescue of the dolphins V., accessed on June 26, 2017 .
