• Question: what's the most endangered marine animal?

    Asked by supercalifishagelisticexpialidocious to Dave, Glo, Sean on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Sean Clement

      Sean Clement answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      That. Is. A. BRILLIANT. Username.

      Most endangered Marine animal? I’m not sure exactly, truth be told. The IUCN Redlist (http://www.iucnredlist.org/) is the bible of animals endangered or close to extinction and is a wonderful resource for finding out more about some of the most threatened animals on the planet.

      The first creature that jumps to mind when I hear the words endangered animal though, is probably the Bluefin Tuna. Bluefin Tuna are amongst the largest members of the Tuna family and can grown up to 2m in size. They are also highly prized as a delicacy across the world and have been mercilessly fished almost completely out of existence in order to satisfy certain peoples gastronomic tastes. Despite overwhelming evidence of their approaching extinction, fishing fleets still hunt them with little regard for what will happen when there are no more left. To give you an idea, a single tuna sold for over $300,000 dollars recently. A SINGLE FISH! Sadly, this kind of price means that people will keep hunting them until there are none left.

      There will still be Bluefin Tuna left for people to eat though. Mitsubishi (you know, the people who make cars) are currently stockpiling hundreds of Bluefin Tuna in warehouses in Japan so that, when they become extinct, they can sell them onto restaurants for years to come and make a very tidy profit off the back of it…

    • Photo: Dave Sproson

      Dave Sproson answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Wow, don’t think I can add anything to Sean’s answer here!

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