7 Reasons to Celebrate World Tuna Day

May 1, 2017

May 2nd marks the first ever World Tuna Day, one of the year’s most important (and under-appreciated) holidays. What better way to celebrate World Tuna Day than by learning some fun facts about your favorite fish, tuna!

Tuna like to travel, a lot! All tuna species are nomadic, which means they do not spend their entire life in a single place. Instead, they often change their location and some even migrate the oceans all year long. Tuna can travel large distances in a short period of time. They can pass across the entire Atlantic Ocean in just 30 days by traveling over 16 miles per hour on average.
Tuna have large families and enjoy family time! There are eight different species of tuna: Atlantic bluefin, Pacific bluefin, southern bluefin, bigeye, yellowfin, albacore, longtail & blacktail.
Tuna can grow to be extremely large! The largest (ever recorded) specimen of tuna was 21 feet long, weighing 1,600 pounds – http://www.softschools.com/facts/animals/tuna_facts/303/
Tuna like to dress up! Tuna fish blend into their natural environments and camouflage in the water. The dorsal (back) side of tuna’s body is dark blue and blends in with the ocean floor when observed from above. The belly of tuna is silver-white and blends in with the surface of the ocean when observed from below.
Tuna are fast swimmers! They can reach the speed between 44 and 62 miles per hour, despite their large size.
Tuna fish are old and wise! Some tuna species can live anywhere between 15 to 30 years in the wild.
Tuna can swim near the surface or they can dive to the depth of 3000 feet while searching for food!

What is World Tuna Day?

While indulging at your favorite sushi bar may be your first thought when hearing about World Tuna Day, this was not what the United Nations General Assembly had in mind when starting World Tuna Day. The day was created by the United Nations last year in an effort to raise awareness around seafood sustainability and ocean security. Tuna face serious challenges with long-term sustainability due to the worldwide popularity of tuna for consumption. To preserve healthy populations of tuna for the future, efforts are needed to help strengthen tuna populations and put an end to overfishing and illegal fishing practices. To preserve healthy populations of tuna in the future, more continued efforts are needed to end overfishing and illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing and Safe Catch is doing just that. Safe Catch strongly supports World Tuna Day with sustainable fishing practices and a mission to protect purity in our Oceans. Safe Catch is Ocean Wise Approved and proud partners with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.

Safe Catch was founded with the mission to provide pure, healthy seafood and to help protect purity in our rivers, lakes and oceans. We have a deep commitment to sourcing sustainably caught, socially and environmentally responsible seafood. We see the need to expand our focus from the traditional elements of seafood sustainability (by-catch, fish mortality and biomass) to include ocean purity. This is why we developed our proprietary technology that allows us to test fish individually for mercury levels. At Safe Catch, we believe that you can vote with your wallet. You can help by supporting the brands you believe and trust in! Happy World Tuna Day!

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