{"id":25492,"date":"2025-08-27T01:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T01:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/25492\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T01:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T01:24:07","slug":"worlds-most-expensive-fish-seen-leaping-out-the-water-in-cornwall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/25492\/","title":{"rendered":"‘World’s most expensive fish’ seen leaping out the water in Cornwall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stunning photos show the “world’s most expensive fish” leaping out of the water in Cornwall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wildlife photographer Ross Wheeler, 37, caught the bluefin tuna breaching the surface as they hunted prey off the coast of Penzance.<\/p>\n

He described the fish – which can grow up to four metres long – as “the size of dolphins,” and described how the school chased their prey towards the rocky coastline before going in for the kill.<\/p>\n

“I was on a marine tour just out of Penzance, just off the south coast of Cornwall,” said Ross.<\/p>\n

“I thought they were dolphins at first.\u00a0They were a similar size, if not bigger for some of them, than the common dolphins you see around the coast.<\/p>\n

A bluefin tuna breaching the surface (Image: Ross Wheeler \/ SWNS) “They were breaching just a few metres off the cliffs, so I went over and had a look – then was surrounded by these breaching bluefin tuna.<\/p>\n

“I think they were going for garfish, driving them closer to the coast.<\/p>\n

“The whole bay was full of them – but there was no way to tell how many were below the surface.\u00a0It was quite a spectacle.”<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to conservation efforts, Atlantic bluefin tuna can often be found off the coast of Cornwall in the summer, before they migrate to warmer waters in the winter.<\/p>\n

In 2023, a small number of fisheries were permitted to fish for the tuna on a trial basis, with strict quotas in place to prevent overfishing.<\/p>\n

Bluefin tuna is commonly known as the most expensive fish in the world, with sushi tycoon Kiyoshi Kimura forking out \u00a32,022,784 for one in 2019 – the most expensive tuna ever sold.<\/p>\n

Ross described the fish – which can grow up to four metres long – as “the size of dolphins.” (Image: Ross Wheeler \/ SWNS) As the majestic fish return to UK waters, Ross says he counts himself “extremely lucky” to have had the chance to witness their hunt.<\/p>\n

“I do a lot of wildlife photography, but I never thought I’d get a breaching bluefin, so I was extremely happy to not only observe it, but to also get a photo,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I count myself extremely lucky to have seen them, and to get a shot as they were coming out the water.<\/p>\n

“I started seeing them around 2014-2015 – they were absent from our waters before then, but they’ve really made a comeback and we’re seeing them more and more frequently now.<\/p>\n

“It’s because of conservation efforts that they’re coming back, so we can hope that scenes like this become more prevalent in the future.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stunning photos show the “world’s most expensive fish” leaping out of the water in Cornwall. Wildlife photographer Ross…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[21123,21125,18,19,17,21122,133,461,21124],"class_list":{"0":"post-25492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-bluefin-tuna","9":"tag-common-dolphins","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-ross-wheeler","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-wildlife","16":"tag-worlds-most-expensive-fish"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}