Bluefin tuna

The auctioned-off bluefin tuna weighs 612 pounds.
I couldn't, post-election, muster a plausibly big enough piece of good news to warrant a Thanksgiving blog -- but then this morning one arrived.
Right now, we humans are creating the biggest experiment of all time. We are experimenting with our oceans, with our fisheries, and with our climate.
When I began my quest to defend and advocate for wildlife conservation, I didn't necessarily expect to be talking about diet as much as I do. But, the reality is they are so closely entwined, they cannot possibly be separated.
Bluefin tuna is one of the ocean's most prized fish, an icon of both modern and classic civilizations and a key predator in the ocean's delicate food chain. And yet its very existence on this planet is now up to us.
Tuna is a staple for many Americans. But unlike most other everyday ingredients, some tuna is on the verge of extinction -- yes, we said extinction -- and tuna fishing is plagued with stories of human trafficking.
I figured the series would run for one season and then be pulled in favor of something else that would be less brutal and more in line with good conservation practices.
In the late 1980's, when Earth Island Institute started the campaign to end the deaths of dolphins in tuna nets, about 80,000 to 100,000 dolphins were being killed each year.