July 26, 2025 at 5:00 a.m. EDTYesterday at 5:00 a.m. EDT
FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu — Kauaka Petaia guided his motorboat out of Tuvalu’s main lagoon at dawn and into the vast Pacific Ocean, where he and his nephew scanned the rolling horizon for signs of their country’s most precious resource: tuna.
They searched for more than two hours before finally spotting seagulls circling in the distance. Petaia threw open the throttle as his nephew Ranol Smoliner tossed a hooked line into the water. Soon, the younger man felt the tug of a 25-pound yellowfin, which he pulled up and bashed with a club. By morning’s end, the pair had caught eight tuna — a haul far smaller than when Petaia’s father taught him to fish 30 years earlier.
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2025/pacific-tuna-climate-change-tuvalu/
