title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The PKK could count with a strong support from the diaspora in Germany where the Hunerkom, its cultural branch was based. During the 1990s, the PKK was able to organize blockades of highways and its sympathizers self-immolated for which the PKK official Cemil Bayik apologized in 2015 after sympathizers of the PKK launched several waves of attacks against Turkish institutions in Germany. The PKK's activities were banned by the Minister of the Interior Manfred Kanther in November 1993. In a meeting between German MP Heinrich Lummer of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and Abdullah Öcalan in Damascus in 1996, Öcalan assured Lummer that it was the PKKs aim to find a peaceful solution for their activities in Germany. The PKK also demanded that it should be recognized as a legitimate entity and not as a terrorist organization in Germany, a demand to which Germany did not accede to. In Germany several Kurdish entities such as the Association of Students from Kurdistan (YXK), the Mesopotamia publishing house or the Mir Multimedia music label were deemed to be close to the PKK. The latter two were eventually closed down by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer who accused them of acting as a forefront of the PKK and to support the PKKs activities in Europe with its revenue. The Kurdish satellite channel Roj TV was also accused of being a branch of the PKK by Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and had to end its activities in Germany in 2008. The PKK has received political support for a lift of its prohibition by the Die Linke and its party leader Bernd Riexinger in 2016.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: Netanyahu also replayed it on his state visit to Argentina. In May 2018, Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party and Kurdistan Workers Party condemned the killings of Palestinians during Gaza border protests with Israeli troops after the US moved its embassy to Jerusalem. They also invited the involved sides to negotiate and compromise. In October 2019, at the onset of Operation Peace Spring, Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted:


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: He also offered the People's Defense Units (YPG) Israeli assistance. During the offensive, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, stated: Israel indeed has a salient interest in preserving the strength of the Kurds and the additional minorities in the north Syria area as moderate and pro-Western elements, The possible collapse of the Kurdish hold in north Syria is a negative and dangerous scenario as far as Israel is concerned. The Turkish Army used 170 M60-A1 tanks upgraded by Israeli IMI Systems during the operation. These tanks were upgraded between 2003 to 2010 during the military cooperation between Israel and Turkey at a cost of $687 million. Seymour Hersh said that the U.S. and Israel supported PJAK, the Iranian branch of the PKK. The head of the PKK's militant arm, Murat Karayılan, said that Iran attempted to recruit the PKK to attack coalition forces, adding that Kurdish guerrillas had launched a clandestine war in north-western Iran, ambushing Iranian troops. In 2022, During the peace negotiations of Turkey and Israel, Informed sources said that a delegation from Israel's Mossad spy agency had met with Turkish intelligence officials to discuss security issues. The Mossad agents told their Turkish counterparts that Israel is ready to cooperate with the PKK should Ankara continue its support for the Hamas military wing. Turkey admitted that it was concerned about the potential for Israel to back the Kurdish PKK militia in response to Ankara's alleged support for the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, Rai Al-Youm reported on Tuesday.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: Despite these statements from Israeli officials, several PKK leaders including Abdullah Öcalan, Mustafa Karasu, Duran Kalkan, Cemîl Bayik, and Besê Hozat have made negative statements towards Israel and Zionism, even in recent years. Murat Karayilan, however, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post in 2020 said that the PKK supports a Two-state Solution when asked about the PKK's attitude towards Israel.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The organization said that its violent actions against the government forces were used by "the need to defend Kurds in the context of what it calls as the massive cultural suppression of Kurdish identity (including the 1983 Turkish Language Act Ban) and cultural rights carried out by other governments of the region". The areas in which the group operates are generally mountainous rural areas and dense urban areas. The mountainous terrain offers an advantage to members of the PKK by allowing them to hide in a network of caves. In 1995 the PKK declared that it would comply with Geneva Conventions of 1949 and also its amendment of 1977. The PKK divides the combat area within Turkey into several regions which comprise a number of Turkish provinces, of which each one is headed by its commander. A province is further also divided into several sub regions, in which a number of fighting battalions of between 100 and 170 militants are stationed. The battalions are again divided into companies of 60 to 70 fighters of which at least one needs to constituted by female and two by male militants.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The PKK has faced condemnation by some countries and human rights organizations for the killing of teachers and civil servants, using suicide bombers, and recruiting child soldiers. According to the TEPAV, an Ankara-based think tank, a survey conducted using data from 1,362 PKK fighters who lost their lives between 2001 and 2011 estimated that 42% of the militants were recruited under 18, with roughly 9% under 15 at the time of recruitment. In 2013 the PKK stated it would prohibit the recruitment of children under the age of 16 as well as keep 16-18 year olds away from combat. Human Rights Watch has documented 29 cases of children being recruited into the HPG (the PKK's armed wing) and the YBŞ since 2013. Some children were recruited under the age of 15, constituting a war crime according to international law.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: Since its foundation, the PKK has recruited new fighters mainly from Turkey, but also from Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Western countries using various recruitment methods, such as using nationalist propaganda and its gender equality ideology. At its establishment, it included a small number of female fighters but over time the number increased significantly and by the early 1990s, 30 percent of its 17,000 armed fighting forces were women. While in 1989 the PKKs armed wing issued a so-called "Compulsory Military Service Law", the PKK had to temporarily suspend recruitment several times since the early 1990s, as the PKK had difficulties to provide training to the large number of volunteers, which wanted to join their ranks.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: By 2020, 40% of the fighting force were women. In much of rural Turkey, where male-dominated tribal structures, and conservative Muslim norms were commonplace, the organization increased its number of members through the recruitment of women from different social structures and environments, also from families that migrated to several European countries after 1960 as guest workers. It was reported by a Turkish university that 88% of the subjects initially reported that equality was a key objective, and that they joined the organization based on this statement. In 2007, approximately 1,100 of 4,500–5,000 total members were women.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: According to the Jamestown Foundation, in the early years of the PKK existence, it recruited young women by abducting them. Families would also encourage family members to join the PKK in order to avenge relatives killed by the Turkish army.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In July 2007, the weapons captured between 1984 and 2007 from the PKK operatives and their origins published by the Turkish General Staff indicates that the operatives erased some of the serial numbers from their weapons. The total number of weapons and the origins for traceable ones were:


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: Parties and concerts are organized by branch groups. According to the European Police Office (EUROPOL), the organization collects money from its members, using labels like ‘donations’ and ‘membership fees’ which are seen as a fact extortion and illegal taxation by the authorities. There are also indications that the organization is actively involving in money laundering, illicit drugs and human trafficking, as well as illegal immigration inside and outside the EU for funding and running its activities.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: PKK's involvement in drug trafficking has been documented since the 1990s. A report by Interpol published in 1992 states that the PKK, along with nearly 178 Kurdish organizations were suspected of illegal drug trade involvement. Members of the PKK have been designated narcotics traffickers by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic security agency, echoed this report in its 2011 Annual Report on the Protection of the Constitution, stating that despite the U.S Department of Treasury designation, there was "no evidence that the organizational structures of the PKK are directly involved in drug trafficking".


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: On 14 October 2009, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) targeted the senior leadership of the PKK, designating Murat Karayılan, the head of the PKK, and high-ranking members Ali Riza Altun and Zübeyir Aydar as foreign narcotics traffickers at the request of Turkey. On 20 April 2011, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the designation of PKK founders Cemîl Bayik and Duran Kalkan and other high-ranking members as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNT) pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). Pursuant to the Kingpin Act, the designation freezes any assets the designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from conducting financial or commercial transactions with these individuals. On 1 January 2012, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the designation of Moldovan-based individuals Zeyneddin Geleri, Cerkez Akbulut, and Omer Boztepe as specially designated narcotics traffickers for drug trafficking on behalf of the PKK in Europe. According to the OFAC, Zeynedding Geleri was identified as a high-ranking member of the PKK while two others were activists. The OFAC stated that the drug trafficking is still one of the organization's criminal activities it uses to obtain weapons and materials.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: According to research conducted by journalist Aliza Marcus, the PKK accepted the support of smugglers in the region. Aliza Marcus stated that some of those Kurdish smugglers who were involved in the drug trade, either because they truly believed in the PKK—or because they thought it a good business practice (avoid conflicts)—frequently donated money to the PKK rebels. However, according to Aliza Marcus, it does not seem that the PKK, as an organization, directly produced or traded in narcotics.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The EUROPOL which has monitored the organization's activities inside the EU has also claimed the organization's involvement in the trafficking of drugs.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In 2008, according to information provided by the Intelligence Resource Program of the Federation of American Scientists the strength of the organization in terms of human resources consists of approximately 4,000 to 5,000 militants of whom 3,000 to 3,500 are located in northern Iraq. With the new wave of fighting from 2015 onwards, observers said that active support for the PKK had become a "mass phenomenon" in majority ethnic Kurdish cities in the southeast of the Republic of Turkey, with large numbers of local youth joining PKK-affiliated local militant groups.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: At the height of its campaign, it is alleged that the organization received support from a range of countries. According to Turkey, those countries the PKK previously or currently received support from include: Greece, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Syria, Finland, Sweden and the United States. The level of support given has changed throughout this period. Between the PKK and the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) a cooperation has been agreed on in April 1980 in Sidon, Lebanon.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The PKK has been placed on Turkey's terrorist list, as well as a number of allied governments and organizations. It is often referred as "Separatist terrorist organization" () by the Turkish authorities.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In the 1980s, the PKK was labeled as a terror organization by the Swedish government of Olof Palme. After Palme was murdered in 1986, the PKK was considered a potential suspect – however, this theory was soon abandoned and in September 2020, the state prosecutor Krister Petersson announced he believed he had found the murderer and closed the case as that person was no longer alive.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The PKK has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US State Department since 1997. In 2016, US Vice-president Joe Biden called the PKK a terrorist group "plain and simple" and compared it to the Islamic State. In 2018, the United States also offered a $12 million reward for information on three PKK leaders.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: First designated as a terror organization by the European Union in 2002, the PKK was ordered to be removed from the EU terror list on 3 April 2008 by the European Court of First Instance on the grounds that the EU had failed to give a proper justification for listing it in the first place. However, EU officials dismissed the ruling, stating that the PKK would remain on the list regardless of the legal decision. The EU in 2011 renewed its official listing of the PKK as group or entity subject to "specific [EU] measures to combat terrorism" under its Common Foreign and Security Policy. In 2018, Prakken d'Oliveira Human Rights Lawyers reported that the PKK won another case against its listing as a terror organization by the EU, but the EU kept the PKK on the list as the ruling only concerned the years from 2014 until 2017.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The PKK is also a Proscribed Organisation in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act 2000; the then British Prime Minister Theresa May used the phrase "Kurdish terrorism" in 2018.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: France prosecutes Kurdish-French activists and bans organizations connected to the PKK on terrorism-related charges, having listed the group as a terrorist organization since 1993. However, French courts often refuse to extradite captured individuals criticized of PKK connections to Turkey due to technicalities in French law, frustrating Turkish authorities.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The following other countries and organizations have listed or otherwise labelled the PKK in an official capacity as a terrorist organization:


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Czech Republic, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, New Zealand, Spain, Syria.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In May 2022, Finland and Sweden submitted applications to join the NATO alliance as a response to the invasion of Ukraine, Turkey has opposed their admission to the alliance unless they crack down on local PKK, PYD and YPG networks. On 28 June, the first day of the 2022 NATO summit in Madrid, the Turkish delegation softened their opposition to Finland and Sweden's NATO membership applications and signed a tripartite memorandum addressing Turkey's concerns regarding arms exports and Kurdish relations. Finland and Sweden affirmed that the PKK is "a terrorist organization". On 30 June 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Sweden made a "promise" to extradite "73 terrorists" wanted by Turkey.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: Russia has long ignored Turkish pressure to ban the PKK. The government of Switzerland has also rejected Turkish demands to blacklist the PKK. Switzerland does not have a list of terrorist organizations, but it has taken its own measures to monitor and restrict the group's activities on Swiss soil, including banning the collection of funds for the group in November 2008.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In 2020, the supreme court of Belgium ruled that the PKK was not a terrorist organization, instead labeling the group as an actor in an internal armed conflict. Following this, the Belgian Government announced that the ruling would not affect the current designation of the PKK as a terrorist organization.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: During the 1970s, the PKK was involved in urban warfare. PKK tactics were based on ambush, sabotage, riots, protests, and demonstrations against the Turkish government. During these years, the PKK also fought a turf war against Kurdish and Turkish radical Islamist organisations in Turkey. Turkish newspapers said that the PKK effectively used the prison force to appeal to the general population, which the PKK has denied. In Turkey, this period was characterized by violent clashes that culminated in the 1980 military coup.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The 1980 Turkish coup d'état brought a difficult environment for the PKK, with members being executed, or being jailed. Other fled to Syria, where they were allowed to establish bases by Hafez al-Assad. The PKK also managed to come to agreements with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Fatah of Yassir Arafat or the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF) of Samir Ghawshah and also with Masoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraqi Kurdistan which would facilitate their activities.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In a second phase, which followed the return of civilian rule in 1983, escalating attacks were made on the government's military and vital institutions all over the country. The objective was to destabilize the Turkish authority through a long, low-intensity confrontation. The establishment of the Kurdistan Liberation Force ("Hêzên Rizgariya Kurdistan" – HRK) was announced on 15 August 1984. From 1984, the PKK became a paramilitary group with training camps in Turkish Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Syria, Lebanon and France. The PKK received significant support from the Syrian government, which allowed it to maintain headquarters in Damascus, as well as some support from the governments of Iran, Iraq, and Libya. It began to launch attacks and bombings against Turkish governmental installations, the military, and various institutions of the state. The organization focused on attacks against Turkish military targets, although civilian targets were also hit.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In addition to skirmishing with Turkish military, police forces and local village guards, the PKK has conducted bomb attacks on government and police installations. Kidnapping and assassination against government and military officials and Kurdish tribal leaders who were named as puppets of the state were performed as well. Widespread sabotages were continued from the first stage. Turkish sources had also stated that the PKK carried out kidnappings of tourists, primarily in Istanbul, but also at different resorts. However, the PKK had in its history arrested 4 tourists and released them all after warning them to not enter the war zone. The vast majority of PKK's actions have taken place mainly in Turkey against the Turkish military, although it has on occasions co-operated with other Kurdish nationalist paramilitary groups in neighboring states, such as Iraq and Iran. The PKK has also attacked Turkish diplomatic and commercial facilities across Western Europe in the late 1980s. In effect, the Turkish state has led a series of counter-insurgency operations against the PKK, accompanied by political measures, starting with an explicit denunciation of separatism in the 1982 Constitution, and including proclamation of the state of emergency in various PKK-controlled territories starting in 1983 (when the military relinquished political control to the civilians). This series of administrative reforms against terrorism included in 1985 the creation of village guard system by the then prime minister Turgut Özal. The establishment of the Village Guards resulted into a change of policy by the PKK, who reorganized its military wing at the 3rd party congress in October 1986 and made the joining of its military wing the Kurdistan People's Liberation Force compulsory.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: From the mid-1990s, the organization began to lose the upper hand in its operations as a consequence of a change of tactics by Turkey and Syria's steady abandonment of support for the group. The group also had lost its support from Saddam Hussein. As during the international operation Poised Hammer the collaboration between Barzani and Turkey embittered, the situation for the PKK became even more difficult, with Barzani condemning terrorist attacks by the PKK during a Newroz festival. At the same time, the Turkish government started to use more violent methods to counter Kurdish militants. From 1996 to 1999, the organization began to use suicide bombers, VBIED, and ambush attacks against military and police bases. The role of suicide bombers, especially female ones were encouraged and mythologised by giving them the status of a "goddess of freedom", and shown as role models for other women after their death. On 30 July 1996, Zeynep Kınacı, a female PKK fighter, carried out the organization's first suicide attack, killing 8 soldiers and injuring 29 others. The attacks against the civilians, especially the Kurdish citizens who refused to cooperate with them were also reported at the same years. On 20 January 1999, a report published by HRW, stated that the PKK was reported to have been responsible for more than 768 executions. The organization had also reportedly committed 25 massacres, killing more than 300 people. More than a hundred victims were children and women.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In March 1993 Öcalan, in presence of PUK leader Jalal Talabani declared a unilateral ceasefire for a month in order to facilitate peace negotiations with Turkey. At an other press conference which took place on 16 April 1993 in Bar Elias, Lebanon, the ceasefire was prolonged indefinitely. To this event, the Kurdish politicians Jamal Talabani, Ahmet Türk from the People's Labor Party (HEP) and also Kemal Burkay also attended and declared their support for the ceasefire. The ceasefire ended after the Turkish army killed 13 PKK members in Kulp, Diyarbakir province in May 1993.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The fighting and violence augmented significantly following the presidential elections of June 1993 after which Tansu Çiller was elected prime minister. In December 1995 the PKK announced another unilateral ceasefire to give a new Government an opportunity to articulate a more peaceful approach towards the conflict. The government elected in December 1995 did not initiate negotiations and kept on evacuating Kurdish populated villages. Despite the violent approach of the Government to the ceasefire, it was upheld by the PKK until August 1996. Turkey was involved in serious human rights violations during the 1990s. The ECHR has condemned Turkey for executions of Kurdish civilians, torturing, forced displacements and massive arrests.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, in an effort to win increased support from the Kurdish peasantry, the PKK altered its leftist secular ideology to better accommodate and accept Islamic beliefs. The group also abandoned its previous strategy of attacking Kurdish and Turkish civilians who were against them, focusing instead on government and military targets. In its campaign, the organization has been criticized of carrying out atrocities against both Turkish and Kurdish civilians and its actions have been criticised by human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Similar actions of the Turkish state have also been criticized by these same groups. In 1998 Turkey increased the pressure on Syria and ended its support for the PKK. The leader of the organization, Abdullah Öcalan, was captured, prosecuted and sentenced to death, but this was later commuted to life imprisonment as part of the government's seeking European Union membership.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Turkey for human rights abuses during the conflict. Some judgements are related to executions of Kurdish civilians, torturing, forced displacements, destroyed villages, arbitrary arrests, murdered and disappeared Kurdish journalists, activists and politicians. As a result of increasing Kurdish population and activism, the Turkish parliament began a controlled process of dismantling some anti-Kurdish legislation, using the term "normalization" or "rapprochement," depending on the sides of the issue. It partially relaxed the bans on broadcasting and publishing in the Kurdish language, although significant barriers remain. At the same time, the PKK was blacklisted in many countries. On 2 April 2004, the Council of the European Union added the PKK to its list of terrorist organizations. Later that year, the US Treasury moved to freeze assets of branches of the organization. The PKK went through a series of changes, and in 2003 it ended the unilateral truce declared when Öcalan was captured.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The third phase (1999–2012), after the capture of Öcalan, PKK reorganized itself and new leaders were chosen by its members. The organization made radical changes to survive, such as changing its ideology and setting new goals. During the 7th Party congress in January 2000, the former military wing the Peoples Liberation Army of Kurdistan ("Artêşa Rizgariya Gelê Kurdistan" – ARGK) was succeeded by the People's Defense Forces ("Hêzên Parastina Gel – " HPG) and also declared that it wanted to aim for a democratic solution for the conflict. At the same time, the PKK continued to recruit new members and sustain its fighting force.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: According to Paul White, in April 2002, the PKK changed its name to the "Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK)" and proclaimed a commitment to nonviolent activities. A PKK/KADEK spokesman stated that its armed wing, the HPG, would not disband or surrender its weapons for reasons of self-defense. This statement by the PKK/KADEK avowing it would not lay down its arms underscores that the organization maintained its capability to carry out armed operations. PKK/KADEK established a new ruling council in April, its membership virtually identical to the PKK's Presidential Council. The PKK/KADEK did not conduct an armed attack in 2002; however, the group periodically issued veiled threats that it will resume violence if the conditions of its imprisoned leader are not improved and its forces are attacked by Turkish military, and it continued its military training like before.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In November 2003, another congress was held which lead to renaming itself as the "People's Congress of Kurdistan" or "Kongra-Gel (KGK)". The stated purpose of the organizational change was to leave behind nationalistic and state-building goals, in favor of creating a political structure to work within the existing nation-states. Through further internal conflict during this period, it is reported that 1500 militants left the organization, along with many of the leading reformists, including Nizamettin Taş and Abdullah Öcalan's younger brother Osman Öcalan.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: Kongra-Gel called off the cease-fire at the start of June 2004, saying Turkish security forces had refused to respect the truce. Turkish security forces were increasingly involved in clashes with Kurdish separatist fighters. Ankara stated that about 2,000 Kurdish fighters had crossed into Turkey from hideouts in mountainous northern Iraq in early June 2004.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: While the fight against the Turkish security forces between 2004 and 2010 continued, the PKK and its ancillary organizations continued to enjoy substantial support among the Kurds of Turkey. In 2005, the original name of the organization "PKK" was restored, while the Kongra-Gel became the legislature of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK). Turkey's struggle against the Kongra-Gel/PKK was marked by increased clashes across Turkey in 2005. In the southeast, Turkish security forces were active in the struggle against the Kongra-Gel/PKK. There were bombings and attempted bombings in resort areas in western Turkey and Istanbul, some of which resulted in civilian casualties. A radical Kurdish separatist group calling itself the Kurdish Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed responsibility for many of these attacks. The TAK is a rival to PKK that since 2006 repeatedly damaged the PKK's efforts to negotiate cease-fires and unlike the PKK, is seeking to establish independent Kurdistan. In 2006 alone, the PKK claimed over 500 victims. On 1 October 2006, the PKK reportedly declared a unilateral cease-fire that slowed the intensity and pace of its attacks, but attacks continued in response to Turkish security forces significant counterinsurgency operations, especially in the southeast.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: On 13 April 2009, the PKK declared a cease fire after the DTP won 99 municipalities and negotiations were spoken about. The AKP first spoke of the "Kurdish Opening", then it was renamed in the "Democratic Opening" to appease nationalist interests and then the "National Unity Project."


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: On 21 October 2011 Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced Iran would co-operate with Turkey in some military operations against the PKK.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: 2012 was the most violent year in the armed conflict between the Turkish State and PKK since 1999. At least 541 individuals lost their lives as a result of the clashes including 316 militants and 282 soldiers. In contrast, 152 individuals lost their lives in 2009 until the Turkish government initiated negotiations with the PKK leadership. The failure of this negotiations contributed to violence that were particularly intensified in 2012. The PKK encouraged by the rising power of the Syrian Kurds increased its attacks in the same year.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: During the Syrian Civil War, the Kurds in Syria have established control over their own region with the help of the PKK as well as with support from the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil, under President Masoud Barzani.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In late 2012, the Turkish government began secret talks with Öcalan for a ceasefire. To facilitate talks, government officials transmitted letters between Öcalan in jail to PKK leaders in northern Iraq. On 21 March 2013, a ceasefire was announced. On 25 April, it was announced that the PKK would leave Turkey. Commander Murat Karayılan remarked "As part of ongoing preparations, the withdrawal will begin on May 8, 2013. Our forces will use their right to retaliate in the event of an attack, operation or bombing against our withdrawing guerrilla forces and the withdrawal will immediately stop." The semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq welcomed the idea of refugees from its northern neighbor. The BDP held meetings across the region to state the pending withdrawal to concerned citizens. "The 8th of May is a day we both anticipate and fear," said party leader Pinar Yilmaz. "We don't trust the government at all. Many people here are afraid that once the guerrillas are gone, the Turkish military will crack down on us again."


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The withdrawal began as planned with groups of fighters crossing the border from southeastern Turkey to northern Iraq. Iraqi leadership in Baghdad, however, declared that it would not accept armed groups into its territory. "The Iraqi government welcomes any political and peaceful settlement", read an official statement. "[But] it does not accept the entry of armed groups to its territories that can be used to harm Iraq's security and stability." The prospect of armed Kurdish forces in northern Iraq threatens to increase tensions between the region and Baghdad who are already at odds over certain oil producing territory. PKK spokesman Ahmet Deniz sought to ease concerns stating the plan would boost democracy. "The [peace] process is not aimed against anyone," he said "and there is no need for concerns that the struggle will take on another format and pose a threat to others."


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: It is estimated that between 1,500 and 2,000 PKK fighters resided in Turkey at the time. The withdrawal process was expected to take several months even if Iraq does not intervene to try to stop it. On 14 May 2013, the first groups of 13 male and female fighters entered Iraq's Heror area near the Metina mountain after leaving Turkey. They carried with them Kalashnikov assault rifles, light machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers before a welcoming ceremony.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: On 29 July 2013, the PKK issued an ultimatum in saying that the peace deal would fail if reforms were not begun to be implemented within a month. In October, Cemil Bayik warned that unless Turkey resumed the peace process, the PKK would resume operations to defend itself against it. He also criticized Turkey of waging a proxy war against Kurds during the Syrian Civil War by supporting other extremist rebels who were fighting them.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani backed the initiative saying, alongside Erdogan: "This is a historic visit for me ... We all know it would have been impossible to speak here 15 or 20 years ago. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has taken a very brave step towards peace. I want my Kurdish and Turkish brothers to support the peace process."


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The PKK engaged the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces in Syria in mid-July 2014 as part of the Syrian Civil War. In August the PKK engaged IS in Northern Iraq and pressured the Government of Turkey to take a stand against IS. PKK forces helped tens of thousands of Yazidis escape an encircled Mount Sinjar. In September 2014, during the Siege of Kobanî, some PKK fighters engaged with Islamic State forces in Syria who were attacking Kurdish city Kobane, which resulted in conflicts with Turks on the border and an end to a cease-fire that had been in place over a year. The PKK said Turkey was supporting ISIS. The PKK participated in many offensives against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: A number of Turkish Kurds rallied in large-scale street protests, demanding that the government in Ankara take more forceful action to combat IS and to enable Kurdish militants already engaged against IS to more freely move and resupply. These protests included a PKK call for its supporters to turn out. Clashes between police and protesters killed at least 31 people. The Turkish government continued to restrict PKK-associated fighters' movement across its borders, arresting 260 People's Protection Units fighters who were moving back into Turkey. On 14 October, Turkish Air Force fighter-bombers attacked PKK positions in the vicinity of Daglica, Hakkari Province.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: Turkish military statements stated that the bombings were in response to PKK attacks on a Turkish military outpost in the area. The Firat news agency, which Al Jazeera describes as "close to the PKK", stated that Turkish forces had been shelling the PKK positions for days beforehand and that the PKK action had itself been retaliation for those artillery strikes. The PKK had already reported several Turkish attacks against their troops months before Turkish bombing started.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In the months before the parliamentary election of 2015, as the "Kurdish-focused" HDP's likelihood of crossing the 10% threshold for entry into the government seemed more likely, Erdogan gave speeches and made comments that repudiated the settlement process and the existence of a Kurdish problem and refusing to recognize the HDP as having any role to play despite their long participation as intermediaries. These announcements increased distrust of the government's good faith among Kurdish leaders.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In July 2015, Turkey finally became involved in the war against ISIL. While they were doing so, they decided to bomb PKK targets in Iraq. The bombings came a few days after PKK was suspected of assassinating two Turkish police officers in Ceylanpınar, Şanlıurfa, criticized by the PKK of having links with ISIS after the 2015 Suruç bombing. The PKK has blamed Turkey for breaking the truce by bombing the PKK in 2014 and 2015 continuously.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In August 2015, the PKK announced that they would accept another ceasefire with Turkey only under US guarantees. The leadership of Iraqi Kurdistan has condemned the Turkish airstrikes in its autonomous region in the north of Iraq.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: The number of casualties since 23 July was stated by Turkish government to be 150 Turkish officers and over 2,000 Kurdish rebels killed (by September). In December 2015, Turkish military operation in southeastern Turkey has killed hundreds of civilians, displaced hundreds of thousands and caused massive destruction in residential areas.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In March 2016, the PKK helped to launch the Peoples' United Revolutionary Movement with nine other Kurdish and Turkish revolutionary leftist, socialist and communist groups (including the TKP/ML, THKP-C/MLSPB, MKP, TKEP/L, , DKP, DK and MLKP) with the aim of overthrowing the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.


title: Kurdistan Workers' Party

text: In November 2022, an explosion took place on İstiklal Avenue in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district that left at least six people dead and 81 injured. Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu formally accused the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of being behind the attack and announced the arrest of the bomber who had alleged links to the PKK and twenty-one others.


title: Brad Renfro

text: Brad Barron Renfro (July 25, 1982 – January 15, 2008) was an American actor. He made his film debut at the age of 11 with a starring role in "The Client" (1994). He went on to appear in 21 feature films and won several awards.


title: Brad Renfro

text: Prior to being cast in "The Client", Renfro had no acting background and was living with his grandmother in a trailer park. Wanting to cast a "tough kid" who had the life experience to understand the character he would portray, director Joel Schumacher chose Renfro to play the role of Mark Sway. Renfro soon attracted a large fanbase as he continued to star in movies like "The Cure", "Tom and Huck", "Sleepers", "Apt Pupil", "Bully" and "Ghost World".


title: Brad Renfro

text: Beginning in the late 1990s, Renfro had difficulties in his private life, including a series of arrests and stints in drug treatment. He died of acute heroin and morphine intoxication at the age of 25.


title: Brad Renfro

text: Renfro was born on July 25, 1982, in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Angela Denise Olsen (née McCrory) and Mark Renfro, a factory worker. He was raised from the age of five by his paternal grandmother, Joanne Renfro, a church secretary, after his parents divorced. He reportedly did not have a close relationship with his father.


title: Brad Renfro

text: When he was 10 years of age, Renfro was discovered by Mali Finn, a casting director for Joel Schumacher. Renfro was recommended to Finn by a former D.A.R.E. officer of his, who was captivated by his charm and street smarts. He had no prior acting experience or training at the time. Finn had contacted various agencies that worked with youth; she was looking to cast a "tough" kid and settled on Renfro after looking at five thousand such boys all over the United States. At the time, Renfro had been living in a trailer park outside Knoxville with his grandmother. "I wanted a kid who understood in the marrow of his psyche what it was like to grow up too soon," Schumacher later told "The New York Times".


title: Brad Renfro

text: Renfro was cast by Finn in the lead role of Mark Sway in Schumacher's "The Client". His casting was announced in May 1993, and the movie was filmed in the summer of that year. Based on the bestselling John Grisham novel, "The Client" became one of the top-grossing films of 1994. In 1995, Renfro won "The Hollywood Reporter"s "Young Star" award, and was nominated as one of "People" magazine's "Top 30 Under 30."


title: Brad Renfro

text: Renfro played Huckleberry Finn in 1995's "Tom and Huck". He also won a second "Young Star" award, as well as a "Young Artist" award, for his performance in "The Cure".


title: Brad Renfro

text: In 1996, Renfro appeared in "Sleepers", which was based on the novel of the same name by Lorenzo Carcaterra. The film was directed by Barry Levinson and Renfro played the younger version of co-star Brad Pitt's character.


title: Brad Renfro

text: In 1998, he starred in "Apt Pupil", directed by Bryan Singer, for which he won the Best Actor award at Tokyo International Film Festival and was also nominated for a Saturn Award. The several films he starred in that followed gained little attention, with the majority going straight to video. He played Leon S. Kennedy in a live-action ad for "Resident Evil 2", which aired in Japan. Renfro went on to act in other films, including 2001's "Ghost World", "Bully", "Happy Campers" and "Tart", 2002's "American Girl", and 2005's "The Jacket". He also appeared in the 2006 "" episode "Watch" and completed filming on the film "The Informers."


title: Brad Renfro

text: Renfro appeared in the first version of the music video for the 10 Years song "Wasteland"; his cousin, Jesse Hasek, is the band's lead singer. He also featured in the video for N.E.R.D song "Provider", playing the part of a petty drug dealer.


title: Brad Renfro

text: Renfro had one child, a son born in 2003 in Japan, and raised there by his mother, a Japanese citizen. Prior to Renfro's death, the public had been unaware he had a son, and mention of him did not appear in his obituary, though his son was eventually named in the obituary of Renfro's mother, Angela, who died in 2012.


title: Brad Renfro

text: On June 3, 1998, Renfro, then 15, and his 19-year-old cousin were arrested and charged with drug possession. He was carrying two small bags of cocaine in a cigarette box and a bag of marijuana in his sock. He entered into a plea bargain in which he agreed to random drug tests.


title: Brad Renfro

text: On August 28, 2000, Renfro and a friend attempted to steal a yacht from the Fort Lauderdale harbor. Renfro was charged with grand theft and criminal mischief; in January 2001, he was sentenced to two years' probation and ordered to pay investigative costs and yacht repair costs. Renfro violated his probation in May 2001 when he was arrested for underage drinking. On January 14, 2002, Renfro violated his probation again and was arrested on charges of public intoxication and driving without a valid license in Knoxville. He was placed into a three-month substance abuse treatment program as a result.


title: Brad Renfro

text: On November 24, 2005, Renfro was charged with a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence and two counts of driving with a suspended license, leading to 10 days in jail and 18 months of alcohol education classes. He was arrested by LAPD officers on December 22, 2005, during an undercover drug sweep of Skid Row. Following that arrest, he was charged with attempted possession of heroin. A photograph showing him in handcuffs made the front page of the "Los Angeles Times". Renfro admitted to a detective that he was using heroin and methadone. He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to three years' probation, and was fined $450. In May 2006, he spent 10 days in jail for driving while under the influence and attempted heroin possession.


title: Brad Renfro

text: In June 2007, Renfro was found to have violated his probation by failing to enroll in a long-term drug treatment program. A judge warned him that if he violated probation two more times, he could be sentenced to a live-in rehabilitation program or to jail.


title: Brad Renfro

text: Following Renfro's death in January 2008, Hasek stated that Renfro and his son had visited him several days earlier and that Renfro had made positive changes in his life. According to Hasek, "He had hit rock bottom and had come way back up."


title: Brad Renfro

text: Renfro was found dead on January 15, 2008, in his Los Angeles apartment. He was 25 years old. His body was returned to Tennessee, where he was buried on January 22, 2008, at Red House Cemetery in the small community of Blaine, Tennessee. On February 8, 2008, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office ruled his death accidental, attributing it to acute heroin/morphine intoxication.


title: Brad Renfro

text: Seventeen days after Renfro's death, his grandmother Joanne—who had accompanied him regularly during his early acting career—died at her home at the age of 76. Local officials said she died of natural causes.


title: Brad Renfro

text: Renfro was omitted from the "In Memoriam" tribute montage at the 80th Academy Awards in the year following his death. Perceived by the press as a "snub", Renfro's omission from the Oscars received widespread media coverage.


title: Brad Renfro

text: Renfro's roommate, Mark Foster of Foster the People, wrote a song about his death called "Downtown". The song was included on a deluxe edition of the band's 2011 debut album "Torches".


title: Brad Renfro

text: In 2012, the art magazine "The Thing Quarterly" reported that actor James Franco had the name "Brad" tattooed on his right shoulder in memory of Renfro. Franco also produced a limited-edition series of switchblades bearing the words "Brad Renfro" and "Forever."


title: Brad Renfro

text: In 2018, ten years after Renfro's death, and again the following year, the website "BuzzFeed" devoted a long article to recounting his rise and descent. The article discussed whether the film industry adequately protects the welfare of at-risk child actors. "BuzzFeed" found no evidence that laws or contractual provisions had been violated on Renfro's films, but suggested that the industry had failed the actor by not ensuring that he was appropriately supervised when he was off the movie set.


title: Brad Renfro

text: Fernando Altschul, the first assistant director of "Apt Pupil", told "BuzzFeed" that he saw a 14-year-old Renfro at an on-set party where alcohol was available. According to Altschul, Renfro was the only underage attendee.


title: Brad Renfro

text: During Renfro's early career, his worldliness and self-confidence caused many adults who came into contact with him to believe that he was some years older than his actual age. Gemma Jackson, production designer on "Tom and Huck", remembered Renfro as being 15 or 16 years of age during filming when he was actually 13. Jackson recounted to "BuzzFeed" that during production, Renfro had a girlfriend who was several years his senior. Renfro developed an ardent following among adolescent girls; Peter Horton, director of "The Cure", recalled that the actor—who had just turned 12—received cards from local girls that contained sexually suggestive messages.


title: Brad Renfro

text: Renfro's apparent maturity was reflected in his onscreen portrayals. In his early roles, he was often sexualized and shown shirtless. In "Apt Pupil", he was shown showering. He also performed scenes with sexual and violent content.


title: The Love Boat

text: The Love Boat is an American romantic comedy/drama television series that aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986; in addition, four three-hour specials aired in 1986, 1987, and 1990. The series was set on the luxury passenger cruise ship MS "Pacific Princess", and revolved around the ship's captain Merrill Stubing (played by Gavin MacLeod) and a handful of his crew, with passengers played by guest actors for each episode, having romantic and humorous adventures. The ship's regular ports of call were Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco and Mazatlán. The series was part of ABC's popular Saturday-night lineup of the time, which also included "Fantasy Island" until 1984.


title: The Love Boat

text: The original 1976 made-for-TV movie on which the show was based (also titled "The Love Boat" was itself based on the nonfiction book "The Love Boats" by Jeraldine Saunders, a real-life cruise director for a passenger cruise-ship line. Saunders was also partly inspired by the German cruise ship MV "Aurora". The TV movie was followed by two more (titled "The Love Boat II" and "The New Love Boat", all of which aired before the series began in September 1977.


title: The Love Boat

text: The executive producer for the series was Aaron Spelling, who produced several television series for Four Star Television and ABC from the 1960s into the 1990s.


title: The Love Boat

text: In 1987, the episode with segment titles "Hidden Treasure", "Picture from the Past", and "Ace's Salary" (Season 9, Episode 3) was ranked No. 82 on "TV Guide"'s 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time list. Another made-for-TV movie, titled "The Love Boat: A Valentine Voyage", starring four of the original cast members, aired in February 1990.


title: The Love Boat

text: MacLeod, Kopell and Lange are the only cast members to appear in every episode of the TV series as well as the last three made-for-TV movies. Grandy appeared in every episode throughout the run of the series but did not appear in the last of the TV movies, as he was campaigning for the first of his four consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. MacLeod was not the captain of the "Pacific Princess" in the first two TV movies and did not appear in them, although when his character was introduced, it was mentioned that he was the new captain; indeed, none of the series cast members appeared in the first pilot, which had a different captain and crew.


title: The Love Boat

text: Among the series' attractions was the casting of well-known actors in guest-starring roles, with many famous film stars of prior decades making rare television appearances. "The Love Boat" was not the first comedy series to use the guest-star cast anthology format—"Love, American Style" had used the formula seven years earlier—but it had such success with the formula that future series in similar style (such as "Supertrain" and "Masquerade") drew comparisons to "The Love Boat". The series was followed on Saturday nights on ABC by "Fantasy Island", which was also produced by Aaron Spelling and had a similar format. In all, 32 past and future Academy Award winners guested on "The Love Boat", including the Best Actress from the first Oscar ceremony in 1929, Janet Gaynor.


title: The Love Boat

text: In the final season, a troupe of dancers who performed choreographed performances was introduced. The Love Boat Mermaids were made up of Tori Brenno (Maria), Debra Johnson (Patti), Deborah Bartlett (Susie), Macarena (Sheila), Beth Myatt (Mary Beth), Andrea Moen (Starlight), Teri Hatcher (Amy) and Nanci Lynn Hammond (Jane).


title: The Love Boat

text: The one-hour sitcom was set aboard "Pacific Princess", at the time a real-life Princess Cruises cruise ship. The "Pacific Princess" twin sister vessel "Island Princess" was also used for the show, especially if the show's schedule conflicted with "Pacific Princess"s cruises or her dry dock.


title: The Love Boat

text: Other ships used were: (for a Mediterranean Sea cruise), (for a Chinese cruise), "Royal Viking Sky" (for European cruises, now ) and "Royal Princess" (now ) and (for Caribbean Sea cruises). In 1981, P&O Cruises' line "Sea Princess" (now ) was also used for the special two-hour episode "Julie's Wedding", set in and around Australia.


title: The Love Boat

text: The series was filmed primarily on sets in southern California: 20th Century Fox Studios for seasons one through five, and the Warner Hollywood Studios for the remainder of the series. The "star of the show", the cruise ship itself, after being renamed and being sold then owned by another cruise line in Spain, the now-world famous "Pacific Princess" was scrapped in Aliağa, Turkey in 2013 after no further buyer could be found. Her sister ship, which was later renamed , was scrapped in Alang, India in 2015 after she too failed to get a new owner. Both vessels' scrappings were controversial, but the previous owners justified it by saying that they were getting too old to continue operating.


title: The Love Boat

text: Episodes set and filmed in other European and East Asian locations became more frequent instead of the usual west coasts along the Pacific shores of the Americas as the show continued. They traditionally aired as season premieres or during the sweeps months of February, May and November.


title: The Love Boat

text: Every episode contained several storylines, each written by a different set of writers working on one group of guest stars. Thus episodes have multiple titles referencing its simultaneous storylines, e.g. the first episode of season one is "Captain & the Lady / Centerfold / One If by Land".


title: The Love Boat

text: There were typically three storylines. One storyline usually focused on a member of the crew, a second storyline would often focus on a crew member interacting with a passenger, and the third storyline was more focused on a single passenger (or a group of passengers). The three storylines usually followed a similar thematic pattern: One storyline (typically the "crew" one) was straight-ahead comedy. The second would typically follow more of a romantic comedy format (with only occasional dramatic elements). The third storyline would usually be the most dramatic of the three, often offering few (if any) laughs and a far more serious tone.


title: The Love Boat

text: The series was also distinctive as being one of the few hour-long series ever made for American television that used a laugh track. "Eight Is Enough", on the same network and produced at the same time, is another example. Coincidentally, Dick Van Patten, who played the ship's doctor in the first "Love Boat" pilot, would go on to star in "Eight is Enough".


title: The Love Boat

text: "The Love Boat" theme song was sung by Jack Jones (except for the last season, where a cover version by Dionne Warwick was used). The lyrics were written by Paul Williams with music by Charles Fox. The song has since been recorded and released commercially, by Charo in 1978 and Amanda Lear in 2001.


title: The Love Boat

text: The opening sequence for the series underwent three changes over the years. From seasons one to eight, the opening sequence began with a long shot of the ship before the camera slowly zoomed in onto its bridge area. This was followed by posing shots of the crew members (updated several times due to cast additions and changes throughout all seasons) at different points on the ship set. The long shot footage of the ship was used for the credits of the celebrity guest stars. For only the first season, the guest stars were credited by having their names appear on the screen while the series' logo, a radar/compass style circle with four hearts, wrapped around them. Beginning with season two (and originally experimented with in the fifteenth episode of the first season), the compass was graphically put in place and at its center, the guest stars were shown posing for the camera on different parts of the set (or a city spot used in on-location episodes) while their names appeared at the bottom of the screen. For the final season, the compass was replaced by a crescent wave and the long shots of the ship were replaced by a montage of the various locations traveled to on the series. At the center of the wave graphic, the guest stars were shown posing for the camera wearing their formal outfits against different colored backgrounds. Following the guest stars, cast regulars were revealed with a weighing anchor graphic wipe.


title: The Love Boat

text: For its first seven years, "The Love Boat" was very successful in the ratings. During that time, it usually ranked among the top 20, and sometimes even the top 10. However, the show fell out of the Top 30 during the 1984–85 season, and after falling out of the Top 50 during the 1985–86 season, "The Love Boat" was canceled after nine years on ABC, although four three-hour specials aired during the 1986–87 season. In 1980–81, "The Love Boat" aired in reruns on ABC daytime, and beat "The Price Is Right" in the ratings for a few months.


title: The Love Boat

text: "The Love Boat" entered the syndication market in the United States in September 1983, with Worldvision Enterprises handling distribution. As an alternative for stations with tight scheduling commitments, Worldvision offered edited 30-minute episodes in addition to the original hour-long programs beginning in the fall of 1986 after the series completed its original run on ABC. It is currently distributed in syndication by its successor CBS Media Ventures.


title: The Love Boat

text: On rare occasions, there were crossovers between stories. In one episode, actors Robert Reed and Florence Henderson, formerly of "The Brady Bunch", guest-starred in separate segments. In one scene, the two bump into each other in the hallway, exchange a questioning look, do a double-take and shrug and continue on their separate ways.


title: The Love Boat

text: In March 2022, both CBS and Australia's Network 10 (both Paramount-owned networks) commissioned The Real Love Boat, a reality dating competition series to be produced by Eureka Productions. The series will feature single contestants on a luxury Mediterranean cruise as they participate in challenges and dates to stay on the boat in the hopes of finding love, with those unsuccessful being progressively dumped from the cruise. As contestants are dumped, new contestants will come aboard the cruise. In the end, the last couple remaining will win the series and be awarded a large cash prize as well as a cruise from Princess Cruises.


title: The Love Boat

text: The American version is hosted by married actors Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn. The American version of the show briefly aired on Wednesday nights at 9/8C on CBS starting on October 5, 2022.


title: The Love Boat

text: The Australian version is presented by Darren McMullen. The Australian version also premiered on 5 October 2022 and aired on Wednesdays and Thursday nights on 10.


title: The Love Boat

text: CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released seasons 1–4 of "The Love Boat" on DVD in Region 1. Each season has been released in two-volume sets.


title: The Love Boat

text: In 2014, Fred Grandy, Bernie Kopell, Ted Lange, Gavin McLeod, Cynthia Lauren Tewes, and Jill Whelan became godparents (the passenger ship industry's equivalent of naval ship sponsors) of the Princess Cruises ship .


title: The Love Boat

text: On May 23, 2017, the original cast (MacLeod, Kopell, Grandy, Lange, Tewes and Whelan) reunited on "Today", where it was announced they would be receiving a joint star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contributions to television, sponsored by Princess Cruises.


title: Playing card

text: A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a finish to make handling easier. They are most commonly used for playing card games, and are also used in magic tricks, cardistry, card throwing, and card houses; cards may also be collected. Some patterns of Tarot playing card are also used for divination, although bespoke cards for this use are more common. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling, and usually are sold together in a set as a deck of cards or pack of cards.


title: Playing card

text: The most common type of playing card is that found in the French-suited, standard 52-card pack, of which the most common design is the English pattern, followed by the Belgian-Genoese pattern. However, many countries use other, traditional types of playing card, including those that are German, Italian, Spanish and Swiss-suited. Tarot cards (also known locally as "Tarocks" or "tarocchi") are an old genre of playing card that is still very popular in France, central and Eastern Europe and Italy. Asia, too, has regional cards such as the Japanese hanafuda. The reverse side of the card is often covered with a pattern that will make it difficult for players to look through the translucent material to read other people's cards.


title: Playing card

text: Playing cards are available in a wide variety of styles, as decks may be custom-produced for casinos and magicians (sometimes in the form of trick decks), made as promotional items, or intended as souvenirs, artistic works, educational tools, or branded accessories. Decks of cards or even single cards are also collected as a hobby or for monetary value. Cards may also be produced for trading card sets or collectible card games, which can comprise hundreds if not thousands of unique cards, or as supplements for board games.


title: Playing card

text: Playing cards may have been invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology. The earliest known text containing a possible reference to card games is a 9th-century text known as the "Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang", written by Tang dynasty writer Su E. It describes Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang, playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of the Wei clan, the family of the princess's husband. The first known book on the "leaf" game was called the "Yezi Gexi" and allegedly written by a Tang woman. It received commentary by writers of subsequent dynasties. The Song dynasty (960–1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserts that the "leaf" game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and associated its invention with the development of printed sheets as a writing medium. However, Ouyang also claims that the "leaves" were pages of a book used in a board game played with dice, and that the rules of the game were lost by 1067.


title: Playing card

text: Other games revolving around alcoholic drinking involved using playing cards of a sort from the Tang dynasty onward. However, these cards did not contain suits or numbers. Instead, they were printed with instructions or forfeits for whomever drew them.


title: Playing card

text: The earliest dated instance of a game involving cards occurred on 17 July 1294 when "Yan Sengzhu and Zheng Pig-Dog were caught playing cards [zhi pai] and that wood blocks for printing them had been impounded, together with nine of the actual cards."


title: Playing card

text: William Henry Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which doubled as both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for, similar to trading card games. Using paper money was inconvenient and risky so they were substituted by play money known as "money cards". One of the earliest games in which we know the rules is "madiao", a trick-taking game, which dates to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). 15th-century scholar Lu Rong described it is as being played with 38 "money cards" divided into four suits: 9 in coins, 9 in strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), 9 in myriads (of coins or of strings), and 11 in tens of myriads (a myriad is 10,000). The two latter suits had "Water Margin" characters instead of pips on them with Chinese to mark their rank and suit. The suit of coins is in reverse order with 9 of coins being the lowest going up to 1 of coins as the high card.


title: Playing card

text: Despite the wide variety of patterns, the suits show a uniformity of structure. Every suit contains twelve cards with the top two usually being the court cards of king and vizier and the bottom ten being pip cards. Half the suits use reverse ranking for their pip cards. There are many motifs for the suit pips but some include coins, clubs, jugs, and swords which resemble later Mamluk and Latin suits. Michael Dummett speculated that Mamluk cards may have descended from an earlier deck which consisted of 48 cards divided into four suits each with ten pip cards and two court cards.


title: Playing card

text: By the 11th century, playing cards were spreading throughout the Asian continent and later came into Egypt. The oldest surviving cards in the world are four fragments found in the Keir Collection and one in the Benaki Museum. They are dated to the 12th and 13th centuries (late Fatimid, Ayyubid, and early Mamluk periods).


title: Playing card

text: A near complete pack of Mamluk playing cards dating to the 15th century and of similar appearance to the fragments above was discovered by Leo Aryeh Mayer in the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, in 1939. It is not a complete set and is actually composed of three different packs, probably to replace missing cards. The Topkapı pack originally contained 52 cards comprising four suits: polo-sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten pip cards and three court cards, called "malik" (king), "nā'ib malik" (viceroy or deputy king), and "thānī nā'ib" (second or under-deputy). The "thānī nā'ib" is a non-existent title so it may not have been in the earliest versions; without this rank, the Mamluk suits would structurally be the same as a Ganjifa suit. In fact, the word "Kanjifah" appears in Arabic on the king of swords and is still used in parts of the Middle East to describe modern playing cards. Influence from further east can explain why the Mamluks, most of whom were Central Asian Turkic Kipchaks, called their cups "tuman", which means "myriad" (10,000) in the Turkic, Mongolian and Jurchen languages. Wilkinson postulated that the cups may have been derived from inverting the Chinese and Jurchen ideogram for "myriad", , which was pronounced as something like "man" in Middle Chinese.


title: Playing card

text: The Mamluk court cards showed abstract designs or calligraphy not depicting persons possibly due to religious proscription in Sunni Islam, though they did bear the ranks on the cards. "Nā'ib" would be borrowed into French ("nahipi"), Italian ("naibi"), and Spanish ("naipes"), the latter word still in common usage. Panels on the pip cards in two suits show they had a reverse ranking, a feature found in madiao, "ganjifa", and old European card games like ombre, tarot, and maw.


title: Playing card

text: A fragment of two uncut sheets of Moorish-styled cards of a similar but plainer style was found in Spain and dated to the early 15th century.


title: Playing card

text: Export of these cards (from Cairo, Alexandria, and Damascus), ceased after the fall of the Mamluks in the 16th century. The rules to play these games are lost but they are believed to be plain trick games without trumps.


title: Playing card

text: Playing cards decks most likely came to Europe from the East, introduced by the Arabs through the Christian kingdoms of Spain, although it is also said that they were brought by the Crusaders. The first version can be based on the fact that the oldest western deck is the one known as the Spanish deck, a direct adaptation of the suits of the Arabic deck.


title: Playing card

text: The city of Barcelona banned card games in 1310, being the oldest mention of the card game in Europe, and proof that it had been in existence for years, before the ban was reached. Also in other parts of Spain, playing cards were known, since the statutes of the Order of the Band founded by Alfonso XI of Castile in 1331, prohibited knights from playing cards. The same prohibition was issued by John I of Castile in 1387.


title: Playing card

text: The earliest record of playing cards in central Europe is believed by some researchers to be a ban on card games in the city of Bern in 1367, although this source is questionable. Generally accepted as the first italian reference is a Florentine ban dating to 1377. Also appearing in 1377 was the treatise by John of Rheinfelden, in which he describes playing cards and their moral meaning. From this year onwards more and more records (usually bans) of playing cards occur, first appearing in England as early as 1413.


title: Playing card

text: Among the early patterns of playing card were those probably derived from the Mamluk suits of cups, coins, swords, and polo-sticks, which are still used in traditional Latin decks. As polo was an obscure sport to Europeans then, the polo-sticks became batons or cudgels. Their presence is attested in Catalonia in 1371, 1377 in Switzerland, and 1380 in many locations including Florence and Paris. Wide use of playing cards in Europe can, with some certainty, be traced from 1377 onward.


title: Playing card

text: In the account books of Johanna, Duchess of Brabant and Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg, an entry dated May 14, 1379, by receiver general of Brabant Renier Hollander reads: "Given to Monsieur and Madame four peters and two florins, worth eight and a half sheep, for the purchase of packs of cards". In his book of accounts for 1392 or 1393, Charles or Charbot Poupart, treasurer of the household of Charles VI of France, records payment for the painting of three sets of cards.


title: Playing card

text: From about 1418 to 1450 professional card makers in Ulm, Nuremberg, and Augsburg created printed decks. Playing cards even competed with devotional images as the most common uses for woodcuts in this period. Most early woodcuts of all types were coloured after printing, either by hand or, from about 1450 onwards, stencils. These 15th-century playing cards were probably painted. The Flemish Hunting Deck, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the oldest complete set of ordinary playing cards made in Europe from the 15th century.


title: Playing card

text: As cards spread from Italy to Germanic countries, the Latin suits were replaced with the suits of leaves (or shields), hearts (or roses), bells, and acorns, and a combination of Latin and Germanic suit pictures and names resulted in the French suits of (clovers), (tiles), (hearts), and (pikes) around 1480. The "trèfle" (clover) was probably derived from the acorn and the (pike) from the leaf of the German suits. The names and "spade", however, may have derived from the sword () of the Italian suits. In England, the French suits were eventually used, although the earliest packs circulating may have had Latin suits. This may account for why the English called the clovers "clubs" and the pikes "spades".


title: Playing card

text: In the late 14th century, Europeans changed the Mamluk court cards to represent European royalty and attendants. In a description from 1377, the earliest courts were originally a seated "king", an upper marshal that held his suit symbol up, and a lower marshal that held it down. The latter two correspond with the "ober" and "unter" cards found in German and Swiss playing cards. The Italians and Iberians replaced the / system with the "Knight" and "" or "" before 1390, perhaps to make the cards more visually distinguishable. In England, the lowest court card was called the "knave" which originally meant "male child" (compare German ), so in this context the character could represent the "prince", son to the king and queen; the meaning "servant" developed later. Queens appeared sporadically in packs as early as 1377, especially in Germany. Although the Germans abandoned the queen before the 1500s, the French permanently picked it up and placed it under the king. Packs of 56 cards containing in each suit a king, queen, knight, and knave (as in tarot) were once common in the 15th century.


title: Playing card

text: In 1628, the Mistery of Makers of Playing Cards of the City of London (now the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards) was incorporated under a royal charter by Charles I; the Company received livery status from the Court of Aldermen of the City of London in 1792. The Company still exists today, having expanded its member ranks to include "card makers... card collectors, dealers, bridge players, [and] magicians".


title: Playing card

text: During the mid 16th century, Portuguese traders introduced playing cards to Japan. The first indigenous Japanese deck was the named after the period.


title: Playing card

text: Packs with corner and edge indices (i.e. the value of the card printed at the corner(s) of the card) enabled players to hold their cards close together in a fan with one hand (instead of the two hands previously used). The first such pack known with Latin suits was printed by Infirerra and dated 1693, but this feature was commonly used only from the end of the 18th century. The first American-manufactured (French) deck with this innovation was the Saladee's Patent, printed by Samuel Hart in 1864. In 1870, he and his cousins at Lawrence & Cohen followed up with the Squeezers, the first cards with indices that had a large diffusion.


title: Playing card

text: This was followed by the innovation of reversible court cards. This invention is attributed to a French card maker of Agen in 1745. But the French government, which controlled the design of playing cards, prohibited the printing of cards with this innovation. In central Europe (Trappola cards) and Italy (Tarocco Bolognese) the innovation was adopted during the second half of the 18th century. In Great Britain, the pack with reversible court cards was patented in 1799 by Edmund Ludlow and Ann Wilcox. The French pack with this design was printed around 1802 by Thomas Wheeler.


title: Playing card

text: Sharp corners wear out more quickly, and could possibly reveal the card's value, so they were replaced with rounded corners. Before the mid-19th century, British, American, and French players preferred blank backs. The need to hide wear and tear and to discourage writing on the back led cards to have designs, pictures, photos, or advertising on the reverse.


title: Playing card

text: The United States introduced the joker into the deck. It was devised for the game of euchre, which spread from Europe to America beginning shortly after the American Revolutionary War. In euchre, the highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit, called the "right bower" (from the German ""); the second-highest trump, the "left bower", is the jack of the suit of the same color as trumps. The joker was invented c. 1860 as a third trump, the "imperial" or "best bower", which ranked higher than the other two "bowers". The name of the card is believed to derive from "juker", a variant name for euchre. The earliest reference to a joker functioning as a wild card dates to 1875 with a variation of poker.


title: Playing card

text: Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds the Albert Field Collection of Playing Cards, an archive of over 6,000 individual decks from over 50 countries and dating back to the 1550s. In 2018 the university digitized over 100 of its decks.


title: Playing card

text: Since 2017, Vanderbilt University has been home to the 1,000-volume George Clulow and United States Playing Card Co. Gaming Collection, which has been called one of the "most complete and scholarly collections [of books on cards and gaming] that has ever been gathered together".


title: Playing card

text: Contemporary playing cards are grouped into three broad categories based on the suits they use: French, Latin, and Germanic. Latin suits are used in the closely related Spanish and Italian formats. The Swiss-German suits are distinct enough to merit their subcategory. Excluding jokers and tarot trumps, the French 52-card deck preserves the number of cards in the original Mamluk deck, while Latin and Germanic decks average fewer. Latin decks usually drop the higher-valued pip cards, while Germanic decks drop the lower-valued ones.


title: Playing card

text: Within suits, there are regional or national variations called "standard patterns." Because these patterns are in the public domain, this allows multiple card manufacturers to recreate them. Pattern differences are most easily found in the face cards but the number of cards per deck, the use of numeric indices, or even minor shape and arrangement differences of the pips can be used to distinguish them. Some patterns have been around for hundreds of years. Jokers are not part of any pattern as they are a relatively recent invention and lack any standardized appearance so each publisher usually puts its own trademarked illustration into their decks. The wide variation of jokers has turned them into collectible items. Any card that bore the stamp duty like the ace of spades in England, the ace of clubs in France or the ace of coins in Italy are also collectible as that is where the manufacturer's logo is usually placed.


title: Playing card

text: Typically, playing cards have indices printed in the upper-left and lower-right corners. While this design does not restrict which hand players hold their cards, some left-handed players may prefer to fan their cards in the opposite direction. Some designs exist with indices in all four corners.


title: Playing card

text: French decks come in a variety of patterns and deck sizes. The 52-card deck is the most popular deck and includes 13 ranks of each suit with reversible "court" or face cards. Each suit includes an ace, depicting a single symbol of its suit, a king, queen, and jack, each depicted with a symbol of their suit; and ranks two through ten, with each card depicting that number of pips of its suit. As well as these 52 cards, commercial packs often include between one and six jokers, most often two.


title: Playing card

text: Decks with fewer than 52 cards are known as stripped decks. The piquet pack has all values from 2 through 6 in each suit removed for a total of 32 cards. It is popular in France, the Low Countries, Central Europe and Russia and is used to play piquet, belote, bezique and skat. It is also used in the Sri Lankan, whist-based game known as "omi". Forty-card French suited packs are common in northwest Italy; these remove the 8s through 10s like Latin suited decks. 24-card decks, removing 2s through 8s are also sold in Austria and Bavaria to play schnapsen.


title: Playing card

text: The 78-card Tarot Nouveau adds the knight card between queens and jacks along with 21 numbered trumps and the unnumbered Fool.


title: Playing card

text: Today the process of making playing cards is highly automated. Large sheets of paper are glued together to create a sheet of pasteboard; the glue may be black or dyed another dark color to increase the card stock's opacity. In the industry, this black compound is sometimes known as "gick". Some card manufacturers may purchase pasteboard from various suppliers; large companies such as USPCC create their own proprietary pasteboard. After the desired imagery is etched into printing plates, the art is printed onto each side of the pasteboard sheet, which is coated with a textured or smooth finish, sometimes called a varnish or paint coating. These coatings can be water- or solvent-based, and different textures and visual effects can be achieved by adding certain dyes or foils, or using multiple varnish processes.


title: Playing card

text: The pasteboard is then split into individual uncut sheets, which are cut into single cards and sorted into decks. The corners are then rounded, after which the decks are packaged, commonly in tuck boxes wrapped in cellophane. The tuck box may have a seal applied.


title: Playing card

text: Card manufacturers must pay special attention to the registration of the cards, as non-symmetrical cards can be used to cheat.


title: Playing card

text: Gambling corporations commonly have playing cards made specifically for their casinos. As casinos go through large numbers of decks each day, they may sometimes resell used cards that were "on the [casino] floor". The cards sold to the public are altered, either by cutting the deck's corners or by punching a hole in the deck, to prevent these cards from being used in the casino to cheat.


title: Playing card

text: Because of the long history and wide variety in designs, playing cards are also collector's items. According to "Guinness World Records", the largest playing card collection comprises 11,087 decks and is owned by Liu Fuchang of China. Individual playing cards are also collected, such as the world record collection of 8,520 different Jokers belonging to Tony De Santis of Italy.


title: Playing card

text: Custom decks may be produced for myriad purposes. Across the world, both individuals and large companies such as United States Playing Card Company (USPCC) design and release many different styles of decks, including commemorative decks and souvenir decks. Bold and colorful designs tend to be used for cardistry decks, while more generally, playing cards (as well as tarot cards) may focus on artistic value. Custom deck production is commonly funded on platforms such as Kickstarter, with companies offering card printing services to the public.


title: Playing card

text: In 1976, the JPL Gallery in London commissioned a card deck from a variety of contemporary British artists including Maggie Hambling, Patrick Heron, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, John Hoyland, and Allen Jones called "The Deck of Cards". Forty years later in 2016, the British Council commissioned a similar deck called "Taash ke Patte" featuring Indian artists such as Bhuri Bai, Shilpa Gupta, Krishen Khanna, Ram Rahman, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Arpita Singh, and Thukral & Tagra.


title: Playing card

text: Police departments, local governments, state prison systems, and even private organizations across the United States have created decks of cards that feature photos, names, and details of cold case victims or missing persons on each card. These decks are sold in prison commissaries, or even to the public, in the hopes that an inmate (or anyone else) might provide a new lead. Cold case card programs have been introduced in over a dozen states, including by Oklahoma's State Bureau of Investigation, Connecticut's Division of Criminal Justice, Delaware's Department of Correction, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and Rhode Island's Department of Corrections, among others. Among inmates, they may be called "snitch cards".


title: Playing card

text: The Unicode standard for character encoding defines 8 characters (symbols) for card suits in the Miscellaneous Symbols block, at . The Unicode names for each group of four glyphs are 'black' and 'white' but might have been more accurately described as 'solid' and 'outline' since the colour actually used at display or printing time is an application choice.


title: Playing card

text: Later, Unicode 7.0 added the 52 cards of the modern French pack, plus 4 knights, and a character for "Playing Card Back" and black, red and white jokers, in the Playing Cards block ().


title: Tuna

text: A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max length: , weight: ) up to the Atlantic bluefin tuna (max length: , weight: ), which averages and is believed to live up to 50 years.


title: Tuna

text: Tuna, opah and mackerel sharks are the only species of fish that can maintain a body temperature higher than that of the surrounding water. An active and agile predator, the tuna has a sleek, streamlined body, and is among the fastest-swimming pelagic fish – the yellowfin tuna, for example, is capable of speeds of up to . Greatly inflated speeds can be found in early scientific reports and are still widely reported in the popular literature.


title: Tuna

text: Found in warm seas, the tuna is commercially fished extensively as a food fish, and is popular as a bluewater game fish. As a result of overfishing, some tuna species, such as the southern bluefin tuna, are threatened with extinction.


title: Tuna

text: The term "tuna" comes from Spanish "atún" < Andalusian Arabic "at-tūn", assimilated from "al-tūn" [Modern Arabic ] : 'tuna fish' < Middle Latin "thunnus". "" is derived from used for the Atlantic bluefin tuna, that name in turn is ultimately derived from "thýnō", meaning "to rush, dart along".


title: Tuna

text: The cladogram is a tool for visualizing and comparing the evolutionary relationships between taxa, and is read left-to-right as if on a timeline. The following cladogram illustrates the relationship between the tunas and other tribes of the family Scombridae. For example, the cladogram illustrates that the skipjack tunas are more closely related to the true tunas than are the slender tunas (the most primitive of the tunas), and that the next nearest relatives of the tunas are the bonitos of the tribe Sardini.


title: Tuna

text: The "true" tunas are those that belong to the genus "Thunnus". Until recently, it was thought that there were seven "Thunnus" species, and that Atlantic bluefin tuna and Pacific bluefin tuna were subspecies of a single species. In 1999, Collette established that based on both molecular and morphological considerations, they are in fact distinct species.


title: Tuna

text: The genus "Thunnus" is further classified into two subgenera: "Thunnus (Thunnus)" (the bluefin group), and "Thunnus (Neothunnus)" (the yellowfin group).


title: Tuna

text: The tuna is a sleek and streamlined fish, adapted for speed. It has two closely spaced but separated dorsal fins on its back; The first fin is "depressible" – it can be laid down, flush, in a groove that runs along its back; it is supported by spines. Seven to 10 yellow finlets run from the dorsal fins to the tail, which is lunate – curved like a crescent moon – and tapered to pointy tips. A tuna's pelvic fins are located below the base of the pectoral fins. Both dorsal and pelvic fins retract when the fish is swimming fast.


title: Tuna

text: The tuna's body is countershaded to camouflage itself in deeper water when seen from above, its dorsal side is generally a metallic dark blue while the ventral or under side is silvery or whitish. The caudal peduncle, to which the tail is attached, is quite thin, with three stabilizing horizontal keels on each side.


title: Tuna

text: "Thunnus" are widely but sparsely distributed throughout the oceans of the world, generally in tropical and temperate waters at latitudes ranging between about 45° north and south of the equator. All tunas are able to maintain the temperature of certain parts of their body above the temperature of ambient seawater. For example, bluefin can maintain a core body temperature of , in water as cold as . Unlike other endothermic creatures such as mammals and birds, tuna do not maintain temperature within a relatively narrow range.


title: Tuna

text: Tunas achieve endothermy by conserving the heat generated through normal metabolism. In all tunas, the heart operates at ambient temperature, as it receives cooled blood, and coronary circulation is directly from the gills. The "rete mirabile" ("wonderful net"), the intertwining of veins and arteries in the body's periphery, allows nearly all of the metabolic heat from venous blood to be "re-claimed" and transferred to the arterial blood via a counter-current exchange system, thus mitigating the effects of surface cooling. This allows the tuna to elevate the temperatures of the highly-aerobic tissues of the skeletal muscles, eyes and brain, which supports faster swimming speeds and reduced energy expenditure, and which enables them to survive in cooler waters over a wider range of ocean environments than those of other fish.


title: Tuna

text: Also unlike most fish, which have white flesh, the muscle tissue of tuna ranges from pink to dark red. The red myotomal muscles derive their color from myoglobin, an oxygen-binding molecule, which tuna express in quantities far higher than most other fish. The oxygen-rich blood further enables energy delivery to their muscles.


title: Tuna

text: For powerful swimming animals like dolphins and tuna, cavitation may be detrimental, because it limits their maximum swimming speed. Even if they have the power to swim faster, dolphins may have to restrict their speed, because collapsing cavitation bubbles on their tail are too painful. Cavitation also slows tuna, but for a different reason. Unlike dolphins, these fish do not feel the bubbles, because they have bony fins without nerve endings. Nevertheless, they cannot swim faster because the cavitation bubbles create a vapor film around their fins that limits their speed. Lesions have been found on tuna that are consistent with cavitation damage.


title: Tuna

text: Tuna is an important commercial fish. The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) compiled a detailed scientific report on the state of global tuna stocks in 2009, which includes regular updates. According to the ISSF, the most important species for commercial and recreational tuna fisheries are yellowfin ("Thunnus albacares"), bigeye ("T. obesus"), bluefin ("T. thynnus", "T. orientalis", and "T. macoyii"), albacore ("T. alalunga"), and skipjack ("Katsuwonus pelamis").


title: Tuna

text: The Australian government alleged in 2006 that Japan had illegally overfished southern bluefin by taking 12,000 to 20,000 tonnes per year instead of the agreed upon 6,000 tonnes; the value of such overfishing would be as much as US$2 billion. Such overfishing has severely damaged bluefin stocks. According to the WWF, "Japan's huge appetite for tuna will take the most sought-after stocks to the brink of commercial extinction unless fisheries agree on more rigid quotas". Japan's Fisheries Research Agency counters that Australian and New Zealand tuna fishing companies under-report their total catches of southern bluefin tuna and ignore internationally mandated total allowable catch totals.


title: Tuna

text: In recent years, opening day fish auctions at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market and Toyosu Market have seen record-setting prices for bluefin tuna, reflecting market demand. In each of 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2019, new record prices have been set for a single fish – the current record is 333.6 million japanese yen (US$3.1 million) for a bluefin, or a unit price of JP¥ 1,200,000/kg (US$5,057/lb). The opening auction price for 2014 plummeted to less than 5% of the previous year's price, which had drawn complaints for climbing "way out of line". A summary of record-setting auctions are shown in the following table (highlighted values indicate new world records):


title: Tuna

text: In November 2011, a different record was set when a fisherman in Massachusetts caught an tuna. It was captured inadvertently using a dragnet. Due to the laws and restrictions on tuna fishing in the United States, federal authorities impounded the fish because it was not caught with a rod and reel. Because of the tuna's deteriorated condition as a result of the trawl net, the fish sold for just under $5,000.


title: Tuna

text: Besides for edible purposes, many tuna species are caught frequently as game, often for recreation or for contests in which money is awarded based on weight. Larger specimens are notorious for putting up a fight while hooked, and have been known to injure people who try to catch them, as well as damage their equipment.


title: Tuna

text: In 2005, Nauru, defending its vote from Australian criticism at that year's meeting of the International Whaling Commission, argued that some whale species have the potential to devastate Nauru's tuna stocks, and that Nauru's food security and economy relies heavily on fishing. Despite this, Nauru does not permit whaling in its own waters and does not allow other fishing vessels to take or intentionally interact with marine mammals in its Exclusive Economic Zone. In 2010 and 2011, Nauru supported Australian proposals for a western Pacific-wide ban on tuna purse-seining in the vicinity of marine mammals – a measure which was agreed by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission at its eighth meeting in March 2012.


title: Tuna

text: Dolphins swim beside several tuna species. These include yellowfin tuna in the eastern Pacific Ocean, but not albacore. Tuna schools are believed to associate themselves with dolphins for protection against sharks, which are tuna predators.


title: Tuna

text: Commercial fishing vessels used to exploit this association by searching for dolphin pods. Vessels would encircle the pod with nets to catch the tuna beneath. The nets were prone to entangling dolphins, injuring or killing them. Public outcry and new government regulations, which are now monitored by NOAA have led to more dolphin-friendly methods, now generally involving lines rather than nets. There are neither universal independent inspection programs nor verification of dolphin safety, so these protections are not absolute. According to Consumers Union, the resulting lack of accountability means claims of tuna that is "dolphin safe" should be given little credence.


title: Tuna

text: Fishery practices have changed to be dolphin friendly, which has caused greater bycatch including sharks, turtles and other oceanic fish. Fishermen no longer follow dolphins, but concentrate their fisheries around floating objects such as fish aggregation devices, also known as FADs, which attract large populations of other organisms. Measures taken thus far to satisfy the public demand to protect dolphins can be potentially damaging to other species as well.


title: Tuna

text: Increasing quantities of high-grade tuna caught at sea are reared in net pens and fed bait fish. In Australia, former fishermen raise southern bluefin tuna ("Thunnus maccoyii") and another bluefin species. Farming its close relative, the Atlantic bluefin tuna, "Thunnus thynnus", is beginning in the Mediterranean, North America and Japan. Hawaii approved permits for the first U.S. offshore farming of bigeye tuna in water deep in 2009.


title: Tuna

text: Japan is the biggest tuna consuming nation and is also the leader in tuna farming research. Japan first successfully farm-hatched and raised bluefin tuna in 1979. In 2002, it succeeded in completing the reproduction cycle and in 2007, completed a third generation. The farm breed is known as Kindai tuna. Kindai is the contraction of Kinki University in Japanese (Kinki daigaku). In 2009, Clean Seas, an Australian company which has been receiving assistance from Kinki University managed to breed southern bluefin tuna in captivity and was awarded the second place in World's Best Invention of 2009 by "Time" magazine.


title: Tuna

text: The fresh or frozen flesh of tuna is widely regarded as a delicacy in most areas where it is shipped, being prepared in a variety of ways. When served as a steak, the meat of most species is known for its thickness and tough texture. In the U.K., supermarkets began flying in fresh tuna steaks in the late 1990s, which helped to increase the popularity of using fresh tuna in cooking; by 2009, celebrity chefs regularly featured fresh tuna in salads, wraps, and char-grilled dishes.


title: Tuna

text: Commercial sashimi tuna may have their coloration fixated by pumping carbon monoxide (CO) into bags containing the tuna, and holding it at 4 °C. For a 2-inch tuna steak, this requires 24 hours. The fish is then vacuum sealed and frozen. In Japan, color fixation using CO is prohibited.


title: Tuna

text: Tuna is canned in edible oils, in brine, in water, and in various sauces. Tuna may be processed and labeled as "solid", "chunked" ("chunk") or "flaked". When tuna is canned and packaged for sale, the product is sometimes called tuna fish (U.S.), a calque (loan translation) from the German "Thunfisch". Canned tuna is sometimes used as food for pets, especially cats.


title: Tuna

text: In the early 1980s canned tuna in Australia was most likely southern bluefin, it was usually yellowfin, skipjack, or tongol (labelled "northern bluefin" or "longtail").


title: Tuna

text: Australian standards once required cans of tuna to contain at least 51% tuna, but those regulations were dropped in 2003. The remaining weight is usually oil or water.


title: Tuna

text: The product became more plentiful in the United States in the late 1940s. In 1950, 8,500,000 pounds of canned tuna were produced, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture classified it as a "plentiful food".


title: Tuna

text: In the United States, 52% of canned tuna is used for sandwiches; 22% for tuna salads; and 15% for tuna casseroles and dried, prepackaged meal kits, such as General Mills's Tuna Helper line. Other canned tuna dishes include tuna melts (a type of sandwich where the tuna is mixed with mayonnaise and served on bread with cheese melted on top); salade niçoise (a salad made of tuna, olives, green beans, potatoes, hard-boiled eggs and anchovy dressing); and tuna burgers (served on buns).


title: Tuna

text: As tunas are often caught far from where they are processed, poor interim conservation can lead to spoilage. Tuna is typically gutted by hand, and later precooked for prescribed times of 45 minutes to three hours. The fish are then cleaned and filleted, canned (and sealed), with the dark lateral blood meat often separately canned for pet food (cat or dog). The sealed can is then heated under pressure (called "retort cooking") for 2–4 hours. This process kills any bacteria, but retains the histamine that may have been produced by those bacteria, and so may still taste spoiled. The international standard sets the maximum histamine level at 200 milligrams per kilogram. An Australian study of 53 varieties of unflavored canned tuna found none to exceed the safe histamine level, although some had "off" flavors.