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Meet the tuna
Bluefin tuna can swim at 70 km/h, cross entire oceans, and keep their bodies warmer than the water around them.
🏡 Open ocean, from the surface to hundreds of metres deep.🍽️ Smaller fish, squid and crustaceans.⏳ Up to 40 years for Atlantic bluefin.🛡️ Atlantic bluefin were fished to near collapse; careful limits have helped some populations recover.
Friends and family
Tuna travel in fast-moving schools that turn together like one animal.
A single female can release millions of eggs; almost none survive to adulthood.
How they talk
Schools coordinate using sight and pressure waves sensed along their bodies.
How clever are they?
Tuna navigate across thousands of kilometres of featureless ocean.
What they feel
Like other fish, tuna respond to injury and threat in ways that suggest they feel it.
Superpower: Warm blood in cold seas
Tuna warm their own muscles, so they can chase prey in icy water.
🤓 Did you know?
- Bluefin tuna can swim at 70 km/h.
- Tuna keep their bodies warmer than the sea around them.
- A tuna can cross the Atlantic Ocean in under two months.
Living alongside people
Tuna fishing also catches dolphins, turtles and sharks by accident — this is called bycatch.