# Wild Caught Tuna? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203 "2017-04-25T12:51:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/1 "2017-04-25T12:51:57Z")
I thought all tuna was wild caught. So are there tuna farms now? Tuna prisons? ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/2 "2017-04-25T13:23:55Z")
Google “Tuna Farming”, and you’ll find lots of articles about the process, including [this one](https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-farmed-fish-are-taking-over-our-dinner-plates-1415984616). ---
**Author:** ![anomalous1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@anomalous1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anomalous1)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/3 "2017-04-25T13:28:52Z")
Just clever marketing, elaborating with choice words such as that, gives people a “warm and fuzzy” feeling and encourages them to buy. Even if it is obvious stuff. Same deal with everything listing as “GLUTEN FREE” even though the majority of the population does not have Celiac disease. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/4 "2017-04-25T13:37:11Z")
> [@anomalous1](#): > > Just clever marketing, elaborating with choice words such as that, gives people a “warm and fuzzy” feeling and encourages them to buy. Even if it is obvious stuff. > > Same deal with everything listing as “GLUTEN FREE” even though the majority of the population does not have Celiac disease. That’s what I first thought, but no, it appears that tuna farming is now possible. I highly doubt that they can advertise farm raised tuna as wild caught. I asked several people at work about this and they thought tuna farming would be impossible or too expensive. Not sure why this hasn’t gotten more attention than it has since tuna is a very popular fish. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/5 "2017-04-25T14:51:32Z")
How is tuna still popular? What with dolphins in the 90s, and mercury in the 00s, I’m surprised it hasn’t gone the way of possum dinner. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/6 "2017-04-25T15:01:31Z")
Because tuna salad sandwiches are awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/7 "2017-04-25T15:07:34Z")
I buy fresh salmon once in a while, and I learned a while ago that [wild-caught salmon is better for you.](https://authoritynutrition.com/wild-vs-farmed-salmon/) I hardly ever buy fresh tuna, so I never paid attention to whether it’s farmed/wild - and now that I’m looking, I can’t find a clear answer on the nutrition differences between the two. As far as mercury content, my guess would be that since they try to make farm-raised fish grow as fast as possible, it might have less mercury content than wild. On other aspects of nutrition, no idea… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/8 "2017-04-25T15:19:54Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > How is tuna still popular? What with dolphins in the 90s, and mercury in the 00s, I’m surprised it hasn’t gone the way of possum dinner. One word: Sushi. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/9 "2017-04-25T16:54:45Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > How is tuna still popular? What with dolphins in the 90s, and mercury in the 00s, I’m surprised it hasn’t gone the way of possum dinner. Two words. Tuna Helper. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/10 "2017-04-25T18:11:25Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Two words. Tuna Helper. ::Shudder:: ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/11 "2017-04-25T19:30:16Z")
> [@anomalous1](#): > > Just clever marketing, elaborating with choice words such as that, gives people a “warm and fuzzy” feeling and encourages them to buy. Even if it is obvious stuff. > > Same deal with everything listing as “GLUTEN FREE” even though the majority of the population does not have Celiac disease. That sounds backwards; people want to buy wild fish, not farmed. Most Atlantic salmon (that is, the sole species in that ocean that is also called Atlantic salmon) is farmed, and doesn’t enjoy the cachet that Pacific salmon has, which is more likely to be wild (6 species, but the more popular ones for this purpose are sockeye and chinook, aka king) as well as steelhead (rainbow trout). > [@DrCube](#): > > How is tuna still popular? What with dolphins in the 90s, and mercury in the 00s, I’m surprised it hasn’t gone the way of possum dinner. Because it’s delicious. The GQ answer is that dolphin bycatch, while non-zero, is mitigated by net technologies, acoustic deterrence, improved monitoring standards, etc. And mercury is really only an issue if you are pregnant or eat _a lot_ of tuna. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/12 "2017-04-25T21:46:55Z")
There are a lot of issues with fish farming, both environmental (pollution, genetic weirdness getting into the wild populations, a lot of other stuff), and questions about what you actually are eating with a farmed fish. Farmed fish don’t eat what wild fish eat, they eat the cheapest thing that will fatten them. They are often doctored up with chemicals of various sorts. So wild caught is usually preferable from an ingestion standpoint. On the other hand, most food fish are overfished, so farmed fish could give them a chance of recovery . . . complex issue. I don’t eat a lot of tuna. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/13 "2017-04-25T23:38:19Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > ::Shudder:: Three words: Tuna Pot Pie ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/14 "2017-04-26T01:45:21Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > How is tuna still popular? It makes good sushi. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/15 "2017-04-26T01:56:55Z")
I loves me some bluefin. Extinction is so very tasty. ---
**Author:** ![bluezooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@bluezooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluezooky)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/16 "2017-04-26T06:29:56Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > There are a lot of issues with fish farming, both environmental (pollution, genetic weirdness getting into the wild populations, a lot of other stuff), and questions about what you actually are eating with a farmed fish. Farmed fish don’t eat what wild fish eat, they eat the cheapest thing that will fatten them. They are often doctored up with chemicals of various sorts. > > So wild caught is usually preferable from an ingestion standpoint. On the other hand, most food fish are overfished, so farmed fish could give them a chance of recovery . . . complex issue. > > I don’t eat a lot of tuna. It’s a bit of a grey area with tuna farming at the moment. There have been efforts to breed tuna however at the moment farming consists of surrounding a whole school with nets and slowly towing the whole lot back to the pens to grow out. Tuna won’t eat pellets so wild baitfish are netted to feed them up. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wild-caught-tuna/785203/17 "2017-04-26T08:36:30Z")
> [@anomalous1](#): > > …gives people a “warm and fuzzy” feeling… I draw the line at tuna that’s “warm and fuzzy”. :eek: