Today, I caught a tuna.


I haven't eaten tuna for about three years. Not because I don't like the taste of it -- I actually love it -- but because tuna stocks throughout the world's oceans are either overfished or being overfished.

Why? Because the majority of the world's skipjack tuna is caught by purse seine fishing boats that use fish aggregation devices (FADs).


But there's another way of catching tuna -- and a sustainable and fair one. And that's how I caught my first tuna.

I had arrived in the Maldives on the Rainbow Warrior to witness the world's most sustainable fishing practice: pole and line. It's a traditional fishing method, passed down through the generations, providing jobs and livelihoods for these small atolls with not many
other forms of sustenance.




Once there, I could see the unmistakable signs of a tuna shoal -- sea birds were circling, the dark backs of dolphins were visible and several other dhoni boats were already hauling tuna from the waters.

Our fishermen soon got together at the back of the dhoni and two of the crew started to throw live bait into the water to create a "feeding frenzy". The hungry tuna will then bite anything that moves in the water -- including a fisherman's hook.

When the tuna bites, the fishermen pull their poles up and throw the fish over their shoulders on to the dhoni. The captain keeps a close watch and carefully positions the boat to maximise the catch.


And there is not only tradition to be protect here: fishing represents around 6 to 8 % of the country's GDP and remains the country's most important export commodity.

Later on the day when most of the fish already had been caught - I was given time to hold the pole in the water.

It was heavier than I imagined and without the help of two fishermen -- one holding me and another one helping me holding the pole -- I couldn't even have stood there.


I was about to ask how I would know that a tuna had bitten the hook, when I felt a strong pull on the line. Two minutes later and the fish was pulled onto the dhoni by the fishermen. It was a big one -- about 70 cm in length and around 6 kg in weight. A mature skipjack.

their existence.

