All Aboard the Tuna Rollercoaster! Join the King of Fish for a Wild Ride that Involves Ernest Hemingway and (of course) Jane Fonda

A bluefin tuna can grow to the size of a car, weigh twice as much
as a grand piano, swim as fast as a running lion, and keep its
muscles at human body temperature even in the ocean's coldest
depths. It's also wildly delicious, with a sweet, briny, but meaty
taste and a melt-in-your mouth texture that has made it the most
expensive fish in the world, with a single bluefin selling for a
record-breaking $3 million in 2019. Not bad for a fish that, until
recently, New England fishermen used to have to pay to dispose of.
This episode, we've got the story of how the king of fish went from
the coin of the realm in ancient Byzantium to cat food before
bouncing back, in a tale that involves Alexander the Great, Ernest
Hemingway, and a couple of Canadian coffin-makers. But popularity
has proven a double-edged sword for the bluefin: in the past few
decades, it's been fished almost to extinction, while also becoming
the poster child for saving the oceans. These days there's big news
in tuna world, and, for the first time in years, environmentalists
and scientists have hope for the bluefin's future. So is it time to
start ordering maguro again at the sushi bar? Learn more
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