[CINC] Tuna Documentary on way

[paul jr petrich]

Ocean People,
 Last week, at UCSB, filmmaker Rick Rosenthal's documentary Hot Tuna was introduced locally. It has been shown internationally since May already to 10 million viewers. Rosenthal, who has numerous nature films focusing on dwindling living resources in the depths of our seas ( Super Fish, Planet Earth series, Deep Blue ), follows in this production with the evolutionary anomaly of the deep sea blue fin tuna. 
 Rosenthal cites the bluefin's increased scarcity as a major catalyst for making Hot Tuna, calling the film "a visual record of a species or community of animals that possibly might be gone in our lifetime." This film took Rosenthal nearly 13 years to make, due mostly to the scarceness of his subject. Local waters, including the San Pedro and Santa Barbara Channels, were seasonally teeming with this fish. It was  one of the species of fish which made California's ports home to the world's most productive fishing industry in the early 20th Century . Also, Santa Catalina's Tuna Club, formed by recreational fishers in Avalon, gained fame for landing world record Bluefin by rod and reel.
 Rosenthal offers no concrete plan for saving the bluefin in his film, but asks his viewers, instead, to take action. Maybe start, by seeing the film and encouraging others to get a rare look at a truly  wonderful and mysterious  creature of the deep. 
 Much of the above is a summary of "Something Fishy" in the Santa Barbara Independent , by Odette Blaisdell.        Paul 
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