AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from The Conversation, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

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People have been harvesting tuna for 44,000 years, a history far deeper than the modern industry suggests. Researchers studied skeletal remains, ancient art, and historical records to understand these early fisheries. While most evidence of tuna fishing appears in the archaeological record only after 10,000 years ago, definitive proof from East Timor dates back 44,000 years. In Japan and Korea, fishers began capturing tunas at least 7,000 years ago. In Europe, sites with tuna bones increase rapidly after about 8,000 years ago, with some Neanderthal remains dating to 26,000 years ago. Ancient Greeks used tuna as offerings to Poseidon, and by 3,000 years ago, a commercial fishery had formed in the Mediterranean using specialized nets. Indigenous peoples on North America’s northwest coast also developed complex fisheries for Pacific bluefin tuna over 5,000 years, while Southern California communities caught various species for 6,000 years.

Tuna are large ocean predators that can reach nearly 10 feet (3 meters) in length and live over 40 years. Some species migrate up to 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) across the Pacific in months. Although tuna serve as sentinels of ocean health, most scientific research focuses on the past 75 years, benchmarking population health against 1950 levels. This focus raises questions about the deeper history of fishing prior to the last century. Commercial and sport fisheries developed in Southern California during the 19th and 20th centuries, gaining popularity during World War I and World War II. These industries benefited from immigrant communities and centered around canneries in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Using the quantity of tuna bones in archaeological sites as a metric, researchers found that ancient fisheries likely removed only thousands of tonnes of tuna over millennia. This stands in stark contrast to the millions of tons harvested today, supporting a global industry worth approximately US$40 billion annually. Three commercially important species—southern bluefin, Pacific bluefin, and bigeye tuna—remain endangered, vulnerable, or near threatened. However, effective governance and harvest controls have stabilized populations in several regions despite intensive fishing. The deep history of tuna fishing highlights human innovation in locating and catching fish. Scientists suggest that similar capacity, channeled into international cooperation and science-based management, may help maintain global tuna stocks at sustainable levels, even if they will likely never again reach pre-commercial abundance.