Grad student cited in Maine Public report on Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks

Brenda Rudnicky, a marine biology graduate student at the University of Maine, was mentioned in the Maine Public report, “Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks are rebounding — But how high should the quota be raised?” Once severely depleted, populations of the prized sushi fish appear to be rebuilding up and down the New England coast. Now the industry and some scientists say the international commission that regulates the fish can allow a much bigger catch, but some environmental groups disagree, according to the article. Rudnicky works at Portland’s Gulf of Maine Research Institute, which houses the hemisphere’s largest collection of tiny tuna bones called otoliths, the article states. At GMRI, Rudnicky and other scientists are using otoliths to develop data and models to understand the true size and health of the two Atlantic bluefin populations — those that spawn in the Mediterranean and those that spawn in the Gulf of Mexico.