Creature Profile
Bigeye Tuna is an animal from the class Actinopterygii and family Scombridae. It is a relatively large and fast swimming fish found in most of the oceans in the world. It has a streamlined body which is colored white on the ventral side while the dorsal part is colored dark metallic blue. It has pectoral fins on the sides of its body that are moderately long and used for balancing and slowing down. It has two dorsal fins with the 1st one being yellow while the 2nd one is pale yellow. Its anal fin is also colored yellow. It also has finlets which are small fins after the dorsal fin and anal fin. These are colored bright yellow and black on the edges. Its fork length measures up to a little bit over 70 inches.
The Bigeye Tuna eats a variety of cephalopods, crustaceans, and fishes usually during day and night. It has a preference for environment with temperatures of between 13 degree and 29 degrees Celsius. While juveniles and small adults live at the surface, the adults live in deep waters. It usually live in waters above 1,600 ft. This species spawns several times within the year. Most spawning happens in the months of April to September, in the northern Hemisphere and January to March in the southern Hemisphere. Spawning activities usually takes place chiefly during night time. Every mature female usually spawns after every 2-3 days. The number of eggs spawned is approximately 6.3 million. This species is fully migrant and circumglobal in temperate and tropical seas. However, it is not found in the Mediterranean Sea.
This species is threatened due to trade since it is highly valuable in the market. This has led to overfishing of the species. Both adults and young are affected. It is listed in Annex I of 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea as a highly migratory species. Several countries in the Pacific have created closure for this species and the NOAA put a limit on pelagic long-line fisheries on 2009. These conservation actions among others have reduced the decline of the Bigeye Tuna. Research done on the global population of this species showed a rise in tones of this species from 808 tones to around 450,000 from 1950 to around 2006.
Wikipedia Article
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Wikipedia Article Copyright Notice: This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bigeye tuna". |
April 1, 2017
Glenn, C. R. 2006. "Earth's Endangered Creatures - Bigeye Tuna Facts" (Online). Accessed 4/15/2024 at http://earthsendangered.com/profile.asp?sp=13712&ID=8.
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