Pacific Spirit Marine Institute

Japan fuels Tuna Panic: Southern Bluefin Horse?

Saturday, July 28, 2007

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that in Japan Sushi Chefs have been driven to experimenting with meats other than tuna to make their delectable. Horse meat anyone?

Tadashi Ymagata, vice chairman of Japan’s national union of sushi chefs puts it this way: “It’s like America running out of steak.”

Blue fin tuna are slow-maturing fish. They simply cannot keep up with demand. Fewer Bluefins are driving the prices out of reach for the average sushi eater.

One wholesaler in a Tokyo fish market said 3 years ago he sold 2 or 3 bluefins everyday, this year he can only find 2 or 3 everyday, this year he can only find 2 or 3 per month to sell.

The fact that NOAA is celebrating its 200th year of service in and of itself is mind boggling. Their website boasts 200 years of science, service and stewardship. Regardless of NOAA’s recommendations, warnings and reports somewhere stewardship of the oceans has fallen through the cracks.

More than 60 countries and the European Commission are engaged in ‘global monitoring network’ Great idea. While chicken little runs around screaming at the top of his lungs ‘the sky is falling, the sky is falling.’ who will participate in devising a method to hold up the sky?

We know the ocean is dying. Who will hold up the ocean?

Labels: Bluefin Tuna, Japan, NOAA, Ocean