The Black Market in Bluefin Tuna

Many animals are becoming endangered at an accelerated pace nowadays. One of them is the bluefin tuna, which has experienced severe decline in numbers over the last decades. Why is this happening you may wonder?

Bluefin Tuna

Widespread fraud, overfishing and loose controls have given rise to a massive off-the-books trade in Eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna. At its peak, from 1998 to 2007, more than one in three tuna was caught illegally. The fish market has become so greedy that they will do anything it takes to catch bigger and bigger amounts of tuna. For eg., small aircrafts are used illegally to spot schools of tuna, vessels and ranches deliberately misstate catch size, catching undersized tuna further damages the stock, and the list goes on.

Share this infographic with your students and raise their awareness of the harmful effects of overfishing and other careless fishing habits!