Southern bluefin tuna

Southern bluefin tuna
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Scombriformes
Family: Scombridae
Genus: Thunnus
Subgenus: Thunnus
Species:
T. maccoyii
Binomial name
Thunnus maccoyii
(Castelnau, 1872)
Synonyms
  • Thynnus maccoyii Castelnau, 1872
  • Thunnus phillipsi Jordan & Evermann, 1926

The southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) is a tuna of the family Scombridae found in open southern Hemisphere waters of all the world's oceans mainly between 30°S and 50°S, to nearly 60°S. At up to 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) and weighing up to 260 kilograms (570 lb), it is among the larger bony fishes.

Southern bluefin tuna, like other pelagic tuna species, are part of a group of bony fishes that can maintain their body core temperature up to 10 °C (18 °F) above the ambient temperature. This advantage enables them to maintain high metabolic output for predation and migrating large distances. The southern bluefin tuna is an opportunistic feeder, preying on a wide variety of fish, crustaceans, cephalopods, salps, and other marine fishes and crustaceans.