Did i see a tuna

owen

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Coming out of Salcombe harbour yesterday I saw a large fish about 2-3 feet long, jump out of the water . It was definitely not a dolphin ,but do tuna come this far north,? Any other suggestions of what it could have been.
Incidentally the wind at 8am off Frogmore creek was zero but just out of the harbour at 8.30 it was a good force 4-5 northerly. Great reach across to Plymouth in bright sunshine.
 

rotrax

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In the 1920's rich sportsmen like Charles Ritz the hotelier would catch 'Tunny' in the North sea. Many over 300KGS.

The large Tuna would follow the herring shoals that the herring drifters were catching in their nets.

When the herring were all caught, the Tuna went elsewhere.

I heard a dead tuna of over 75KGS was washed ashore near The Witterings recently.

So, perhaps they are coming back.
 

C08

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In the early 90's we were sat in the bar of the Porthmadog Yacht Club looking over the harbour and a guy near to us in the bar suddenly dashed out and down to the harbour slipway , waded into the shallow water and pulled out a beautiful silver Tuna fish about 4ft long still kicking a bit. I am told the tuna steaks in the club restuarant that evening were rather good!
 

laika

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2 years ago about this time of year we were heading east a few miles off start point (having left salcombe) and I saw something very distinctive but much larger: maybe 2m long. I watched and it jumped again so I burned the image of its tail and fins into my mind and later googled it. Quite convinced it was a bluefin tuna which apparently there *have* been sightings of in recent years. I believe this is a "return" rather than "new appearance".
 

longjohnsilver

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I too was passing Salcombe a few hours after you and saw something jump out of the water, certainly not a dolphin, looked nothing like anything I'd seen before. Maybe that was also a tuna.
We were also surprised by the wind, anchored off Jennycliff at about 14-00 it was a good F4-5 from the NE. When we left Dartmouth at around 09-00 it was flat calm, but once outside the river there was a very fresh NE breeze. We were away for a week, and virtually every wind forecast was way out.
 

Halo

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Historically the Russian Tsar and German Kieser came to the East Coast around Scarborough fishing for tunny . I have not heard any reports recently. What we do see are large salmon jumping clear of the water. A fisherman told me this behaviour is to get rid of sea lice. A salmon would look thinner than a tuna.
 

Nimrod18

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I sailed into Salcombe mid October last year and one of the crew claimed to have spotted a tuna jumping. Much ribbing ensued; tuna, Uk, cold water etc. Next day, heading east from the Salcombe bar, the whole crew got a glorious sight of a tuna jump across the bow, about 5 metres away. Unmistakably a tuna. It was joined by, we estimated, another 3 who had a feeding frenzy about 200 metres away. The whole experience was really quite something. Crew member forgave us our previous day’s doubts. IIRC, he found, via google, a Dr at Exeter university who was tracking their return and requesting sightings. You might want to check that out a see if your sighting would be useful. We also had a pod of porpoises ride the bow once we rounded start point - quiet the day for it.
 

laika

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We also had a pod of porpoises ride the bow once we rounded start point - quiet the day for it.

I've found off Salcombe / start point to be fantastic for marine wildlife: dolphins, porpoises, sun fish and now tuna...we see something good passing by there more often than not.
 
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