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BLUEFIN is the story of the thousand-pound tuna, a warm-blooded giant with gills which wholesales at up to a million dollars, and which is caught in an oceanic "last of the buffalo hunt."
BLUEFIN: THE LAST OF THE GIANTS is a tale of epic stakes set in "the tuna capital of the world," North Lake, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The film explores the baffling mystery of why the normally wary bluefin tuna no longer fear humans. Local fishermen swear tuna are so starving and abundant now that they will literally eat out of people's hands like pets. But something is not right. One thing is certain: this sudden and incredible abundance of tuna off their shores flies in the face of scientific assessments claiming endangered stocks are down by 90 percent.
This is a story about an extraordinary species caught between the addictive thrill of the hunt and our fear of their extinction. With stunning cinematography, director John Hopkins documents this mystery and brings the issues into sharp focus. At the heart of this documentary lies a passionate concern about giant mature bluefin, the key to replenishing the decimated stocks of the largest tuna species in the world.
53 minutes
DVD features: English SDH Captioning for the Deaf & Hard-of-Hearing
Directed by John Hopkins
Produced by Annette Clark, Paul McNeill
Writer: John Hopkins
Editor: Denis Takacs
Director of Photography: John Hopkins
Original Music: Robert Marcel Lepage
A National Film Board of Canada Production
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"BLUEFIN brings into stark and stunning focus the sharply differing perspectives of those involved in the pursuit and protection of one of the greatest creatures in the sea. It is a story of people snared in their own denial, who learn personally, the hard way, the old lesson of the goose that lays the golden egg. Exceptionally beautiful imagery makes this the first film that shows a great fish as the wild animal that it is."
Carl Safina, Chair for Nature and Humanity, Founding President, The Safina Center, Stony Brook University, Author, Song for the Blue Ocean
"This is an important story about [the] greed and short-sightedness that are driving one of the ocean's most magnificent animals to extinction. But bluefin tuna have surprised us in Canada, offering us a chance to save this charismatic creature if we care enough."
David Suzuki, geneticist, broadcaster, environmental activist
"On its surface Bluefin is a documentary about wildlife conservation and the people whose livelihoods depend on fishing. But below the waves, it is also a story of what's lost in translation between scientists, traditional fishing communities, and international regulators; it's about the difficulty in a short-term world of making long-term commitments."
The Panoptic