Trenton Carter, age 7, of Peoria, Ill., for his question:

How big is a tuna fish?

As we know, tuna comes in quite a small can. So naturally we might think that the tuna himself is quite a small fish. But this is not so at all. The live tuna, swimming in the sea, is a whopper. In fact, it takes a very strong and clever fisherman to catch him. True, he is a huge fish but, as you know, fishermen's tales tend to be exaggerated. So let's believe only the facts that have been proved.

The biggest one is the bluefin tuna, a neat and splendid fish that swims very fast. We know for a fact that some of the bluefin tunas are almost 10 feet long, and these whoppers weigh nearly half a ton. There is a tale, perhaps a fisherman's tale, about a 14 foot tuna which weighted 1,800 pounds, which is nearly one ton. Most tunas are caught before they get to be full sized. As a rule, the largest ones that get caught are about 8 feet long. One of these fine fishes has enough delicious meat to fill dozens and dozens of tuna cans.