Animal: Save the Bluefin Tuna (Amended)

Animal: Save the Bluefin Tuna

This Christmas, when you are happily enjoying your meals on a romantic candlelit table, do not forget to think about what you are eating, it may just be one of those endangered species. Since the first time I wrote about saving the humpback whales, then the clever sharks, followed by the leatherback turtle, I suppose you know many of the animals on this planets need our attention and need us to learn more about them so that we can appreciate their living. I have always been an environmentalist and I love this planet, and so I hope you do too! This time, I would like you to care for the poor bluefin tuna.

Bluefin Tuna Interesting Facts

1. They are listed as "Critically Endangered".[1]
2. All tunas are warm-blooded, like human.[3]
3. The Pacific bluefin tuna is are some of the biggest and fastest fish in the Pacific Ocean.[3]
4. Three species of this oceanic giant: southern bluefin tuna (global Southern Ocean), Pacific bluefin tuna (Indo-Pacific Ocean), northern bluefin tuna (Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea) have been largely fished out to satisfy our insatiable taste buds.[1]
5. It takes about 8 to 14 years for northern and southern bluefin tuna to mature and about 3 to 5 years for Pacific tuna[1] , with a maximum lifespan believed to be about 25 years [3].
6. Since the 1970s, populations of the northern bluefin tuna have declined by almost 90% while southern bluefin tuna have declined by about 85%.[1]
7. There is currently no quota system and no way of controlling Pacific bluefin tuna fishing in international waters. A large number of immature Pacific bluefin tuna juveniles are caught by small, local fisheries in Japan, pushing this population close to the endangered category.[1]
8. The northern bluefin breeding population will disappear by 2012 unless the current fishing frenzy stops.[1]

What can you do?

You can come here to pledge to be a "Bluefin Saver" by visiting this website by WWF and choose the restaurant(s) from whose menu you want the bluefin tuna to be removed. I have already done so.

Vocabulary:

insatiable -- adj. (especially of a desire or need) too great to be satisfied

immature -- adj. not yet completely grown

juveniles -- n. young people, hereby refers to fish

fisheries -- n. areas of water where fish are caught so they can be sold

breeding -- vb. [I] (of animals) to have sex and reproduce

frenzy -- adj. uncontrolled and excited behaviour or emotion, which is sometimes violent

pledge -- vb. to make a serious or formal promise to give or do something

Picture resources:

http://www.sea-way.org/blog/Bluefin_Tuna_03.JPG

http://www.wwf.org.hk/images/conservation/seafood/bluefintuna/e-bluefin-ill.jpg

http://armchairspasm.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/blue-fin-tuna1.jpg

Resources:

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2009/03/animal-humpback-whales.html

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2009/05/animals-and-environment-do-sharks.html

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2009/11/video-save-leatherback-turtles.html

[1] http://www.wwf.org.hk/eng/conservation/seafood/bluefintuna/index.php?source=eNews200912_1

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluefin_tuna

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_bluefin_tuna

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_bluefin_tuna

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_bluefin_tuna

http://www.wwf.org.hk/eng/conservation/seafood/bluefintuna/consumer.php

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=40979&dict=CALD

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=39156&dict=CALD

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=43254&dict=CALD&topic=young-people

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=29206&dict=CALD&topic=commercial-fishing

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=9592&dict=CALD&topic=breeds-and-breeding

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=31170&dict=CALD

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=60763&dict=CALD&topic=making-and-breaking-promises-and-commitments