G3+Bluefin+Tuna

By: Kyle Abels, Bryce Atchison, and Sanford Atkinson
 * __ Bluefin Tuna __**

__Temperate Oceans:__ Covering 75% of the planet's surface. This underwater ecosystem is a self-containing world with a complicated food chain and tons of organisms that have gotten used to the unusual conditions. It is home to some of the smallest creatures and also the largest. Temperate oceans vary from 10-18 degrees celsius (50-64.4 degrees fahrenheit).

__Summary:__

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__Food Web:__





__Biotic/Abiotic Factors:__ A Bluefin Tuna's diet consists of small/large squid, mesopelagics, small pelagics, and miscellaneous fish. The only threat to the bluefin tuna is the fishing industry.

__Threats to the Ecosystem:__ The one threat to the Bluefin Tuna ecosystem is overfishing, as they are an endangered species and since the demand for them is high, illegal fishing is plentiful, and they are being killed in large numbers to meet the high demand for them. And technology is not helping. High tech equipment used in the Navy such as sonars, satellite, and depth sensors to catch this endangered species.

__Importance to Ecosystem:__ Without the Bluefin Tuna, their diet of small fish and squid will flourish and overpopulate, and eventually their will be too many of them, and they, possibly, could become extinct.

__Conservation Plan:__ To prevent the extinction of the Bluefin Tuna, their are a few things that we can do to help protect them; limit the amounts of Tuna that are fished for each month, and tighten over-fishing laws with a fine and punishment, deploying Coast Gaurds to help stem the amount of illegal fishing to help prevent the extinction of the amazing Bluefin Tuna, and preserve this miraculous species for generations to some. Also, creating a network of marine reserves and closing the tuna industry indefinetly until stocks recover could be an effective plan, but is a little too extreme and would give a major blow to the economy, but a smaller scale option is to create a tuna sanctuary in the Mediterranean.

__Bibliography:__ http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/icatt-tuna-091107/, [], [], [], [], []