Three 300-Kilogram Tuna — and 2,550 Tons a Year: What Is Happening in the Sea off the Costa Blanca?

In August 2026, several large dead bluefin tuna were found along the Costa Blanca coastline.

Three tuna were found at different locations along the coast of Torrevieja. Another large specimen was discovered at Mil Palmeras beach, in Pilar de la Horadada. Some of the fish found were estimated to weigh around 300 kilograms.

The image is almost surreal: an ordinary beach, the sea, holidaymakers — and suddenly a three-hundred-kilogram tuna.

But this is where the story becomes more interesting. Because at the same time these fish are appearing on the shore, the Mediterranean fishing industry itself is changing.

A fish that knows how to travel

Bluefin tuna is not simply a large fish that fishermen occasionally catch.

It is one of the Mediterranean's great travellers.

Some tuna undertake migrations of thousands of kilometres across the Atlantic: they leave the Mediterranean for the open ocean, reach waters off North America, even as far as Newfoundland, and then return.

In other words, the tuna found today off our beach could potentially be part of a journey that, in terms of distance, rivals a trip around the world.

Just without the suitcase.

And now a fish farm appears

This is where an interesting coincidence emerges.

On 27 August 2026, it became known that the Generalitat Valenciana had authorised the first large-scale bluefin tuna fattening farm in Valencian Community waters, directly off the coast of Pilar de la Horadada.

The project covers 45 hectares of maritime public domain.

The original plan called for 25 cages, each 30 metres in diameter, with production of up to 3,000 tonnes of gilthead seabream and European sea bass per year.

The project has now changed: there will be 10 cages, but their diameter will increase to 50 metres, while the maximum authorised capacity for bluefin tuna will be 2,550 tonnes per year.

At this point, the three 300-kilogram tuna found dead on the beaches no longer look like merely an odd photograph.

Because alongside them comes a new reality: fish production is increasingly moving into the sea itself.

This is not a small experiment

Spanish aquaculture has long since ceased to be a small activity carried out by a few fishermen.

In 2023, Spain had 4,908 aquaculture establishments, of which 4,663 were marine facilities. The sector also provided more than 8,200 jobs directly related to marine aquaculture.

Spain is, in fact, one of Europe's major aquaculture players. In 2020, national aquaculture production reached 307,168 tonnes, with an approximate value of €510.9 million.

For comparison, Spanish aquaculture produced 313,538 tonnes in 2017, worth €451.5 million. This is therefore not some new business fashion, but an established industry.

In the Mediterranean, Spain accounted in 2022 for around 9.36% of total aquaculture production among the countries of the GFCM region, behind Egypt and Türkiye but still among the major producers.

Why could this actually be good news?

Because the arithmetic is fairly simple.

There are more people. We eat a lot of fish. The sea does not get any bigger.

So one possible future is to keep catching everything that still swims, or to learn to produce some of our fish ourselves.

Aquaculture offers precisely that second option.

So the appearance of new fish farms along the Spanish coast does not necessarily look like a catastrophe. Quite the opposite: if we want to keep eating fish while preserving wild populations, aquaculture can be part of the solution.

But there is one small «if».

The sea is not an industrial estate

An aquaculture facility should coexist with the sea, not turn the sea into its own private production zone.

And that raises perfectly reasonable questions: where are the cages located, how is environmental pressure calculated, how are waste and feed controlled, and how are swimming areas, fishing and natural habitats protected?

Spain has an entire system of permits, environmental assessments and controls for aquaculture, with significant powers held by the autonomous communities.

So, for now, we are not going to declare war on fish farms.

Quite the opposite.

If we can genuinely develop well-managed aquaculture, it could be good news both for people and for the sea.

And what about the ones that ended up on the beach?

Here it is better not to rush into explanations.

The discovery of a dead tuna does not by itself establish the cause of death. Without examining each individual fish, its death cannot automatically be linked to fish farms, fishing, disease or anything else.

But the coincidence is certainly interesting.

On one side, 300-kilogram tuna continuing to travel between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

On the other, a new 45-hectare farm, with a planned capacity of up to 2,550 tonnes of tuna per year.

And between them is our familiar Mediterranean, where tourists swim, fishermen work, enormous fish migrate and a new marine industry is taking shape.

Perhaps that is the big question for the coming years:

Can we learn to use the sea without turning it into a place we exploit until there are no fish left?

For now, the Costa Blanca is watching all of this from the shore.

And judging by the size of some of its new visitors, there is certainly plenty to watch.