Atlantic bluefin tuna has been spotted off the coast for the first time since 1960. A technician working on the wind turbines off the Flemish coast saw them leaping out of the water whilst hunting. Later, researchers also caught three young rough-skinned sharks – the first such sighting since 1985. “Both species are making a comeback in our waters,” says Jan Seys of the Flanders Marine Institute.
Atlantic bluefin tuna spotted off the Flemish coast for the first time since 1960
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The Atlantic bluefin tuna was observed off the Thornton Bank, used by the offshore wind farm off the Flemish coast. “A wind turbine maintenance technician saw around three tuna fish, measuring between 1.5 and 2 metres, leaping out of the water,” says Jan Seys of the Flanders Marine Institute, the VLIZ.
“Although no footage is available as evidence due to the speed at which the event took place, the sighting is reliable,” emphasises Seys. “The observer in question has eight years’ experience with all kinds of marine life and their behaviour, including porpoises, dolphins, seals and mackerel.”
‘They were clearly hunting,’ said the maintenance engineer, describing his extraordinary sighting. ‘They were just like torpedoes, shooting across the water at tremendous speed and disappearing again in an instant.’
The return of tuna
Until the mid-1960s, the Atlantic bluefin tuna was still a regular sight in our North Sea. Between 1950 and 1963, the west coast of Norway and the North Sea even had a fairly well-developed commercial fishing industry, after which the species disappeared quite suddenly.
Experts regard intensive tuna fishing in southern Europe and the Bay of Biscay as the main cause of the bluefin tuna’s disappearance from our regions. The collapse of herring stocks – the tuna’s favourite food – may also have played a part in this.
“The bluefin tuna was on the brink of extinction,” says Seys. “They are now making a comeback, thanks to better protection. There have recently been new sightings in the neighbouring countries. It was simply a matter of waiting for the species to reappear in the Belgian part of the North Sea. And that has now happened.”