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A massive school of semitropical northern bluefin tuna, which are rarely seen in South Korea¡¯s chilly waters, were caught near Jeju Island Sunday, surprising fishermen with an early spring bonanza and creating a mystery: What are they doing here?
The Fisheries Research and Development Institute announced yesterday that a total of 1,530 northern bluefin tuna, which measure from 110 to 150 centimeters (3.60 to 4.92 feet) in length, and weigh about 35 kilograms (77 pounds), were caught Sunday night by a fishing boat belonging to Wooyang, a Busan-based fishing company.
Experts in the fishing industry a__umed that since the semitropical fish have rarely been caught off South Korea, the large catch may be the result of global warming.
They said that the large tuna were usually caught only in the South Pacific until the 1990s, but now the fish is occasionally seen off Korea¡¯s south coast, but never before in such numbers. ¡°We think that this phenomenon is attributed to continuing global warming,¡± said Kim Jeong-yeon, a researcher at the institute. ¡°We are still investigating why this happened.¡±
According to the institute, this is the first time a Korean fishing vessel caught tuna longer than one meter in Korean waters.
Prior to this week¡¯s capture, 540 tons of smaller northern bluefin tuna, which reached about 84 centimeters in length and 11 kilograms in weight, were caught in the ocean 70 miles south of Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang, and exported to j__an last December, the institute said.
As the largest species of tuna native to the Western Pacific and the Eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea, the northern bluefin tuna is now usually caught off the j__anese coast, in particular in the spring and fall. The giant tuna, a metallic deep blue color above and silvery white below, can live for 30 years.
Institute officials said that 1,460 of the tuna, or about 95 percent of the catch, was already exported to j__an, the world¡¯s largest consumer of tuna.
The export price for this batch of tuna was 250,000 won ($257) apiece, making the total value of the big haul 365 million won. Some of the other tuna were sold to j__anese restaurants in Seoul.
¡°We searched previous reports published in the 1980s, but we couldn¡¯t find any record of one-meter-long tuna being caught in Korea,¡± said Park Jong-hwa, a researcher at the institute.
Once the tuna arrived at the fish market in f__uoka, j__an, it quickly sold out, destined to be sliced into sushi. The big fish are prized by connoisseurs.
Reputed to be good for preventing heart disease and colon cancer, more than 4 million tons of tuna on average are caught worldwide every year, with the j__anese eating one-quarter of the total, according to the institute.
The big fish were good news for traders. ¡°It is not easy for us to buy a one-meter-long tuna,¡± an import trader at Haneon Fishing, said.
¡°Last year, we imported only 10 northern bluefin tuna more than a meter long.¡±