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Tuna Study Suggests New Management Strategy

A 10-year research collaboration between the Aquarium and Stanford University maps in unprecedented detail the undersea journeys of Atlantic bluefin tuna. In a paper by the Tuna Research and Conservation Center team, published in the April 28 edition of the journal Nature, scientists conclude that new fishing restrictions are needed to protect this top migratory predator—one of the most commercially valuable fishes in the sea.

"In my lifetime we've brought this majestic species to the doorstep of ecological extinction in the western Atlantic Ocean," says Barbara A. Block, a professor in Marine Sciences at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station and lead author of the study. "Electronic tagging provides the best scientific information we've ever had to properly manage these tuna and we must, as an international community, start to act responsibly to ensure the future of this species." For more than 10 years, she and her colleagues have braved the rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean to carry out an unprecedented study of bluefin tuna migrations.