The bluefin is the largest of all tuna, achieving weights of 1,500 pounds. Fishing for bluefin dates back thousands of years to the Mediterranean, where they were trapped and roasted whole on spits. Their stocks remained relatively stable until the 1970s when their value soared as sushi and fresh steaks on international markets, particularly in Japan, and fishing pressure increased dramatically. North Atlantic bluefin range from Iceland to the Gulf of Mexico to the Mediterranean, and are current managed as eastern and western stocks. These beautiful steel-gray and blue giants migrate thousands of miles, but most spawn in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean. Bluefin are prized by big game anglers, and 1,496 pounds remains the record catch. Atlantic bluefin tuna have been subjected to overfishing in both the eastern and western Atlantic. In 1998, an international rebuilding program was adopted for countries fishing on the western Atlantic stock.