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| [bluefin tuna sushi in Japan] |
[bluefin tuna sushi- sushi restaurant in New York]
Do you love sushi? Do you love tuna?
Here is a bad news for you, sushi and tuna lovers--you might not be able to taste bluefin tuna again by next year!
Bluefin tuna is in the verge of depletion in the result of overfishing. The fish is unable to repopulate, resulting depletion after the fish is overly fished. The depletion of bluefin tuna means imbalance in the ecosystem and loss of livelihood for many who heavily depend on it. Despite the danger of extinction, overfishing is continued. Why? Because of our crave and demand. And fishermen continue to overfish because it brings them income. As the fish becomes scarce, the price sky-rockets and yet people pay that price to taste the last of bluefin tuna.
Meanwhile, Kinki University in Japan has developed a way to farm bluefin tuna, although it is still considered environmentally unsustainable. Basically, the system is to farm bluefin tuna in large cylindrical enclosures in the water from its birth. Its flaw is that those farmed tunas are fed with tons of small fishes captured from the wild, still stressing the balance in the ecosystem. The university is in process of investigating alternative ways to feed the bluefin.
The depletion is not an issue just for bluefin tuna. All of our favorite fish species are overfished everyday. We need to think of better ways to secure them from depletion. One option I advocate is eating alternative fish. By eating alternative fish species, we can alleviate the pressure on the popular fish species such as tuna, salmon, tilapia, cod, etc. But will our taste-buds be satisfied with other fishes replacing the good ones? We will have to find out. Meanwhile, let's keep our taste-buds out of bluefin tunas.
Sushi is one of my favorite foods! To my understanding the issue of international trade of the bluefin tuna was taken to the United Nations convention on International Trade on endangered species. I am not sure of the outcome of the votes but I hope for the sake of sushi lovers that the bluefin tuna will continue being shipped from international locations such as Japan.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of keeping these endangered species in specialty farms is good, however, I think that the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) should stand by its set catch quota and enforce this quota more heavily. Hopefully, in the future, it could build a system that allows all fisherman to check in to make sure they did not exceed the quota. This way, the bluefin tuna will come out of extinction and we will not have to pay a premium price for fish.
I agree that there needs to be a more conscious effort to stopping overfishing. The lack of a unified international oversight and accountability for environmental matters allow companies, individuals, and governments to persist in their destructive habits. Unfortunately, the United Nations has failed to pass their proposal for a ban of blue fin tuna trade since Spain, Italy, and France have strong economic incentives to blocking such proposals. I believe an economic barrier like higher taxes and fines on major fisheries for violating set quotas will help reduce the fishing of blue fin tuna.
ReplyDelete-Vasant Soni