Bluefin Tuna : The last of the giants

A monstrous beast made of cobalt blue backs, steel flanks and fins cut like scythes. The great bluefin tuna, thick and powerful, are migrating. There are thousands of them and they move dead ahead as one. The water doesn’t hold them back…they are at one with it. It slides over their sleek bodies like a sheath. Not a ripple to be seen. All is liquid and hydrodynamic. Each head fits into the crescent of the fin in front. There are no individuals amidst this astounding storm of fish where only the golden crests on the backs and the grey eyes shine out. The movement is extraordinary.

As the giants pass us, they barely change their course. They envelope us like waves submerge the rocks.

Pure, brute strength. It seems as if nothing can stop them. And then suddenly the shoal of giants changes course. Some do a U-turn, upsetting the rigorous order that had taken them this far. Barring the tuna’s path, a dark net appears in the deep blue of the sea. The turning tuna swim into us. Some flee to the surface, others try to escape downwards. Striving upwards, the big fish pick up speed. The first of them smacks into the thick mesh of the net. There’s no escape. The trap closes in.
The entire ocean seems prisoner in this endless net.

François Sarano