A man in a blue shirt is seen posing, holding a fish that is almost as tall as him. This is one of the several images taken after fishermen from Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district caught five yellowfin tuna fish.
“This is a fish that was earlier not seen very commonly in these regions, but we do see them more often now,” says Shivakumar Haragi, an assistant professor from the Department of Marine Biology at the Karnatak University PG Centre in Karwar.
The yellowfin tuna is a metallic blue fish which has a yellow side. They are found throughout the Pacific Ocean and parts of the Indian Ocean. They are known to swim in groups (called schools) with several other types of tuna. This fish has been given a “near threatened” status by the World Wildlife Fund.
These are an important commercial fish used to make traditional Japanese foods such as sashimi and sushi. This may have contributed significantly to overfishing in the Eastern Pacific as per a report issued by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF).
According to the professor, the yellowfin tuna is a deep-sea fish which tends to prefer deeper waters as the fish mature, while younger fish might prefer staying closer to the surface level.
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“The scientific name of this fish is Thunnus albacares and it can grow up to 2 metres long and has a lifespan of up to nine years. The heaviest of these fish has been recorded to weigh around 200 kilograms,” he added.
In addition to the yellowfin tuna, fishermen also caught a Shark Sucker’s fish, which has a suction at the top of its head which it uses to attach itself to bigger fish and sharks. Another type of fish called spotted mackerel were also caught by the fishermen.
