Bluefin tuna washes up far from home near B.C. Gulf Islands

Joe Gaydos found a bluefin tuna washed up on Orcas Island off the coast of Washington state. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the fish usually roam the more temperate waters of the Pacific Ocean.

U.S. department says tuna's habitat is mostly in more temperate Pacific waters

CBC News · Posted: Jul 19, 2023 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: July 19, 2023

A large bluefin tuna on the beach with a foot in the image for scale. — This bluefin tuna washed up on Orcas Island near B.C.'s southern Gulf Islands last week. (Joe Gaydos )

Joe Gaydos was at home on Orcas Island off the coast of Washington state last week when he answered an unusual call.

A friend was on the phone, urging him to get to nearby Crescent Beach as soon as possible.

"I jumped in the car, went down there and walked down the beach and sure enough I'm looking at this giant bluefin tuna," Gaydos told All Points West host Jason D'Souza.

"It was incredible."

Gaydos knows a thing or two about fish. He's the science director of the SeaDoc Society, a non-profit organization on Orcas Island that focuses on marine life research and education.

Far from home

According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, bluefin tuna usually roam the more temperate waters of the Pacific Ocean. NOAA says the U.S. catch is mostly 100 nautical miles (185 kilometres) off the California coast.

Gaydos said it's hard to know if the fish's appearance so far from its usual territory is a sign of warming waters and climate change or just a chance event.

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"Is this just something spurious? Or is this kind of a sign of things to come? We really don't know," Gaydos said.

"Ten years from now, if we have a bluefin tuna fishery, we'll think, 'Oh yeah, we remember that first day.'"

Hoping to shed light on a mystery

Gaydos said the fish was almost intact, looking like it should be at a fish market in Japan. A cursory look at the fish didn't reveal any clear signs of trauma that would have killed it.

The fish will be analyzed at Friday Harbour Laboratories, Gaydos said. The lab posted a photo on its Facebook page to say it would be dissecting the fish to hopefully "shed light on how the tuna died and came to be stranded on Crescent Beach."

The fish's skeleton will then go to the Burke natural history museum in Seattle, Gaydos said.

"Everybody's trying to learn as much as they can from this," he said.