Irving

Bluefin Tuna

In the Mediterranean, large quantities of bluefin are rounded up with huge purse-seine nets and herded into enclosures, where they are fed to increase their weight before they are harvested. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, European tuna ranching has made it difficult to obtain accurate catch and size composition data, because the fish cannot be accurately sampled until they are harvested—which takes place anywhere from several months to several years after they originally were caught in the wild. The U.S. fishing industry and some conservation scientists say that those problems made it easy for European bluefin fishermen to underreport the number of fish they caught.

Photographs by Brian Skerry

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Best Underwater Pictures: Winners of 2012 Amateur Contest

1. Overall Winner. A headshield sea slug pauses on a blade of grass in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the winning image of the University of Miami’s 2012 amateur Underwater Photography Contest, whose results were announced this month. Photograph courtesy Ximena Olds, RSMAS

2. First Place: Marine Animal Portrait. Young Sperm Whale. Photograph courtesy Douglas Kahle, RSMAS

3. Second Place: Marine Life Portrait. Scorpionfish. Photograph courtesy Rockford Draper, RSMAS

4. Second Place: Student Photography. Harlequin Shrimp. Photograph courtesy Philip Gillette, RSMAS

5. Third Place: Marine Life Portrait. Purple Nudibranch. Photograph courtesy Nicholas Samaras, RSMAS

6. Third Place: Macro Photography. Emperor Shrimp. Photograph courtesy Marcello Di Francisco, RSMAS

7. Fan Favorite. Jellyfish. Photograph courtesy Todd Aki, RSMAS