A pricey tuna swims into a salmon farm to dine. Sorry, Charlie, now you’re on the menu
A jailbreak in reverse ended badly for a 514-pound Atlantic bluefin tuna.
The giant fish, which can fetch as much as $64 a pound in Tokyo’s fish markets, was caught red-handed snacking on fresh salmon after breaking through the netting of an offshore fish farm run by Leroy Seafood Group ASA in Norway’s Trondelag region.
The fish was observed by surveillance cameras swimming about 21 feet down in a harvest cage, according to a report from the Norwegian Fisheries Directorate. It has now been put on ice, NRK reported.
It could also be that the great fish sought to escape the increasingly perilous open seas. Norway’s tuna catch is once again picking up after a gradual recovery in the stock since overfishing in the 1950s and 1960s.
On Thursday, Norway’s Fisheries Ministry issued a statement hailing the catch of four bluefin tunas, praising the high profitability of the fish.
“The stock of Atlantic bluefin tuna is growing, and is increasingly present in Norwegian waters,” Fisheries Minister Harald Tom Nesvik said in the statement. “This means that Norwegian fishermen again can make good money on this.”
Norway has a quota of 239 tons this year, up from 104 tons last year. It will rise to 300 tons next year.
The Atlantic bluefin tuna is the largest of the tuna species, and can weigh as much as 1,500 pounds and measure 9 feet long. It can also reach a top speed of 43 mph. It’s considered the most expensive fish in the world, according to the ministry.
