Image: A school of Bluefin Tuna (Bluefin tuna are one of the World's Ocean's apex predators)
To read an article entitled, " Sharks And Other Predators Are Essential For Ocean Health" which was written by Beth Buczynski at the www.care2.com website, please click on the article title in the line above.
Source of image: Tom Puchner at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom_puchner/3362790282/lightbox/
To learn more about the Bluefin tuna species please visit these websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_bluefin_tuna
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/bluefin-tuna/
http://www.bigmarinefish.com/bluefin.html
http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=236
Sadly as you can read at the following website: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch/species/atl_bluefin_tuna.htm , Bluefin tuna are being overfished, so much so that the adult population in 2011 will likely be 75% lower relative to 2005!! (source:http://www.upc.edu/sostenible2015/menu3/Seminaris/Seminari_STD_10/docs/references/grup-6/Imending%20Collapse%20of%20Bluefin%20Tuna%20in%20the%20Northeast%20Atantic%20and%20Mediterranean.pdf Despite this fact the United States recently refused to give the Bluefin tuna species "endangered status"! (Read about this by going to this link:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/28/science/earth/28tuna.html?_r=1 ) An official in the Obama Administration explains this decision as follows in the article: "Mr. Robinson said the bluefin tuna did not warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act because it was “not likely to become extinct.” Experts in wildlife suggest, regarding this matter that the The Obama administration is kowtowing to the fears of the U.S. fishing industry instead of following the science on this!!!,” said Kieran Suckling, the Center for Biological Diversity executive director. (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/)
Once again it seems that politicians and industry (in this case the fishing industry) could care less whether a species of life on this planet (in this case the Bluefina tuna species) survives in the hear-and-now and in the future!! This is shameful of the Obama Admininstration and the U.S. Fishing Industry!
