This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: From a humble mayonnaise-laden sandwich to an expensive piece of sashimi, tuna is a prized source of food for people around the world. Once an inexpensive, easily shipped canned protein source, today's bluefin tunas can fetch millions of dollars at auction.
Millions of tons of tuna are harvested every year, supporting a global industry worth around $40 billion annually. But tunas are more than just the pink flesh found in cans and sushi, and humanity's story with these fish goes back further than you might expect. As a biologist and an archaeologist interested in long-term human-environment interactions, we wanted to investigate the deep record of people's relationship with tunas.
We drew on the expertise of 18 leading researchers worldwide and studied a variety of sources, from the skeletal remains of tunas in archaeological sites to ancient rock art, paintings on frescoes and vases, written historical records and ethnographic accounts from Indigenous communities. These data helped us understand where, when and why people caught tunas, and what cultural and environmental forces shaped these early fisheries. In turn, this provided new insights into how past harvests compare with the millions of tons caught today.
"Tuna" is a common name given to a group of 15 fish species. The major market species include eight "true tunas" in the genus Thunnus along with skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis). Tunas are among the largest predators in the open ocean, with some species reaching almost 10 feet (over 3 meters) in length and living for over 40 years.
Tuna are champion swimmers; Pacific bluefin tuna can migrate 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) across the northern Pacific in a matter of months. Tuna are also ecologically important apex predators and serve as sentinels of ocean health. However, most scientific research has focused on the past 75 years, with assessments of the health of tuna populations benchmarked against the year 1950.
The focus on recent decades raises a variety of questions about the deeper history of fishing for tuna before the past century. The oldest definitive evidence of tuna fishing, in the form of skeletal remains of what were likely skipjack tuna, comes from East Timor in Southeast Asia about 44,000 years ago. Likely aided by deepwater channels that brought tuna close to shore, this early example of tuna fishing is somewhat unusual—most areas of the world don't contain evidence of tuna fishing until 10,000 years ago or more recently.
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