There’s a tuna! I need to record my sighting. Now you can, with an app created by researchers with the National Institute of Aquatic Resources at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Aqua) for its annual tuna tagging project.
Like similar monitoring programs, DTU Aqua’s project included tagging and releasing tuna, but that requires actually getting one’s hands on a fish. With the app, anyone who so much as sees a tuna — whether from a fishing boat, a cruise ship, a ferry, even from a dock or beach – can record their sighting with valuable information. The kind of information requested by the app includes:
– place/position (where you have observed tuna),
– what you have seen (e.g. individual tuna, approximate number of tuna),-
– the sizes of the tuna (e.g. approx. 0.5-1 m, 1-2 m, 2-3 m),
– time of day you saw the tuna, and
– any observed possible prey, such as herring, mackerel, or garfish, jumping out of the water to escape.
In addition, one can send a photo and/or video if/when possible. More information including the app is found at https://www.aqua.dtu.dk/nyheder/nyhed?id=52aaefec-1bc4-4b3c-9c2b-80740893c2e0