Marine researchers noticed something…fishy…in the waters of Denmark: the return of the long-disappeared bluefin tuna after 50 years; and Crown Prince Frederik has joined in the expedition to help tag them.
Crown Prince Frederik was joined by Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Rasmus Prehn, for the trip on August 23rd to the marking boat ‘Haraldur’ which is anchored nearly an hour north of Skagen, to help the team at DTU Aqua tag the bluefin tuna for study.
Prehn said that “It is important that we help get the tuna stock back to a healthy level. I am very much looking forward to hearing from the researchers and becoming wiser about the return of the tuna. And then I cross my fingers that we are both allowed to see them jump and see them up close.”
The researchers at DTU Aqua have been monitoring the population growth of bluefin tuna for five years near Skagen. In 2017, they tagged only four tunas, but last summer, there were 116 tagged tuna.
The Danish Royal House shared photos of the Crown Prince’s excursion with the caption “In Denmark, the fast-swimming tuna disappeared in the 1960s for as yet unknown reasons, but in recent years, predatory fish have gradually begun to return.”
Prehn added: “It is nothing short of fantastic that the bluefin tuna has returned to Danish waters after more than 50 years of absence. Now we must ensure that we preserve the tuna stock by collecting as much knowledge about its movements as possible.”
DTU Aqua, otherwise known as the National Institute of Aquatic Resources, studies, researches, advocates and educates for the sustainable exploitation and management of aquatic resources, per its website.
Its researchers are still working to figure out what drove out the bluefin tuna in the ’60s and what has now facilitated its return to the cold waters of northern Denmark. Per the Royal House, the tagging project is meant to “generate new knowledge about the species’ biology and ecology.”
