tuna

tuna or tunny, game and food fishes, the largest members of the family Scombridae (mackerel family) and closely related to the albacore and bonito. They have streamlined bodies with two fins, and five or more finlets on the back. The body is very narrow in the tail region, and the tail is deeply forked.

The most important commercially of the group called little tunnies is the little tuna, or false albacore, Euthynnus alleteraturs, which averages 10 lb (4.5 kg) and is found in open Atlantic waters north to Cape Cod. The oceanic bonito, or skipjack, Katsuwonus pelamis, is a warm-water fish reaching 20 lb (9 kg) in weight. The Pacific albacore, or long-finned tuna, Thunnus alalunga (up to 60 lb/27 kg), is found off the Pacific coast of the United States and in the Mediterranean; its flesh is marketed as "whitemeat tuna." The bluefin tuna, T. thynnus, the largest of the great tunnies and the giant of bony fishes, averages 200 to 500 lb (90–225 kg) with adults sometimes reaching 14 ft (427 cm) and 3-4 tons (680 kg). The bluefin, also called horse, or jack, mackerel, is cosmopolitan in distribution; in the Atlantic, schools of bluefins travel as far N as Nova Scotia in the spring and summer. It is highly prized as a sports fish as well as by commerce. The yellowfin tuna, T. albacares, is smaller (125 lb/56 kg) and more southerly in range.

Tuna fisheries have been important commercially in Europe for centuries and are the backbone of a major canning industry on both coasts of North America. The tuna fishery is controlled by international agreements, but catch limits and other regulations are not always observed. As a result, some tuna fisheries have been overfished. Another major marine conservation problem has been the use of huge drift nets to capture tuna, because the nets also trap and kill thousands of seals, dolphins, whales, and sea birds in the process. Although nets longer than 1.5 mi (2.4 km) have been banned worldwide, nets up to 20 mi (32 km) are still commonly used in defiance of the ban in much of the Mediterranean and parts of the Atlantic.

Tunas are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Osteichthyes, order Perciformes, family Scombridae.

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tuna

Any of seven species (genus Thunnus, family Scombridae) of commercially valuable food fishes. Species range from the 80-lb (36-kg) albacore to the bluefin tuna (T. thynnus), which grows to 14 ft (4.3 m) long and weighs up to 1,800 lbs (800 kg). Tunas have a slender, streamlined body and a forked or crescent-shaped tail. They are unique among fishes in having a vascular system modified to maintain a body temperature above the water temperature. Though slow swimmers, they migrate long distances over all the world's oceans. They eat fishes, squid, shellfish, and plankton.

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tuna¹

1. any of various large marine spiny-finned fishes of the genus Thunnus, esp T. thynnus, chiefly of warm waters: family Scombridae. They have a spindle-shaped body and widely forked tail, and are important food fishes

2. any of various similar and related fishes

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tuna²

1. any of various tropical American prickly pear cacti, esp Opuntia tuna, that are cultivated for their sweet edible fruits

2. the fruit of any of these cacti

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tuna [′tü·nə]

(vertebrate zoology)

Any of the large, pelagic, cosmopolitan marine fishes which form the family Thunnidae including species that rank among the most valuable of food and game fish.