A Tuna boil

It’s not just fishing boats out in Lyme Bay.

Atlantic Bluefin Tuna are back in South Devon. That’s extraordinary. They’ve suffered a near-extinction event, with not a single one being seen in British waters for 60 years. However, we’re at it again. In October 2025, a 210kg bluefin tuna was landed and sold at auction in Brixham for over £2,000.

There’s a Tuna school here travelling in a co-ordinated group and hunting as a pack. They have surrounded a bait-ball of Garfish and formed a tight circle around it. They are picking off fish from the outside and I can see the desperate lunges of the Garfish as they flee the impending crushing jaws.

Occasionally I can see Atlantic Bluefin Tuna fins appearing breeching the surface, surrounded by their prey.

It’s an epic feeding frenzy. I wonder how many Tuna there are out there? Here’s one more clearly visible.

We saw a few breeching in huge jumps but only from a distance. They are stunning out of the water.

That’s definitely one of my future photographic assignments.