Harvesting
The onset of industrial fishing in the 1950s, in conjunction with ever improving technologies such as GPS, fishfinders, satellite imagery, etc., and the knowledge of migration routes, has led to the exploitation of southern bluefin tuna across its entire range. Improved refrigeration techniques and a demanding global market saw global SBT catch plummet from 80,000 tonnes a year during the 1960s to 40,000 tonnes a year by 1980. Australian catch peaked in 1982 at 21,500 tonnes, and the total population of SBT has since declined by about 92 percent.
Read more about this topic: Southern Bluefin Tuna