Maybe There Aren't Plenty More Fish In The Sea

[Taro Toporific]

[kurohinge1]

Is it possible to farm-raise tuna? I was under the impression that doing so was impossible.

They've been a reality in Oz since the early 90's.

Although they are hard work for the old "cattle" dogs.

[Mulboyne]

[Taro Toporific]

[2triky]

[Mulboyne]

[pheyton]

Why can't the Japanese just wall in a decent sized bay and farm varieties of fish there? I realize it wouldn't be near enough to fill the 44,000 tones consumed, but it would be a start.

[Mike Oxlong]

Are there any that are unpolluted?!

[Mulboyne]

SFGate: The end of monster sushi. Soon, no more giant rainbow rolls and inflated unagi. Do you really care?

That's what they say, the people in the know about such things, the people who track the various crashing fish stocks in the abused and plastic-swarmed oceans of the world. These are the people who also have firsthand knowledge about what modest steps are being taken to remedy it all and sadly noting how it's not nearly enough because the large game fish are disappearing, the fishing industry is still hugely under-regulated and no one's really paying much attention because, well, we've got a few hundred other major problems on deck at the moment. Then again, don't we always? It won't be long now, they say, until we simply won't have any of the essential, large predator fish left -- all those salmon, tuna, swordfish, Atlantic halibut, even on down to wild shrimp and eel, et al -- all those once-plentiful, tasty staples that we've been wolfing down like they were so many pizza logs and Taco Supremes to feed America's increasingly voracious appetite for giant, cheap nigiri and sushi rolls the size of a child's arm.

Do you already know? We are eating way too much of it. We are still overfishing the oceans, depleting stocks like they were Jell-O shots at an AA convention, barely stopping for breath, despite how sushi was never meant to be a fast food, never meant to be added to the list of mass-quantity protein we can cram into the cooler alongside the turkey sandwiches and the pasta salad and the Oreos. Nice while it lasted? Well, sort of. We have given this prized delicacy the classic, all-American treatment, carelessly mutating the original, elegant Japanese idea of sushi -- small amount of fish, eaten seasonally, with most of dishes technically having nothing to do with fish at all and instead focusing mostly on the rice -- and exploded it into a cheap, megaportioned, American commodity. It's just what we do. And as Greenpeace says, the fish don't stand a chance.

I often wonder about the thresholds for these kinds of things, when will come the day, the moment, the big slap-to-the-face forced awakening when some vital link in the ecosystem finally snaps and we're suddenly faced with a far more dire and largely unsolvable situation than if we'd simply approached it much more carefully from the beginning. I know, it's the timeless American truism, same as it ever was. Doesn't seem to make it any easier to swallow. I also realize that it usually doesn't really happen that way, that reality is often far less sudden and apocalyptic, that some sort of economic or cultural correction usually mollifies the shock of it all. This is the amazing thing about our reckless species: while we're terribly good at waiting until the very last second (or even just past it) to make any real change, we're also unusually good at performing well under pressure, at coming up with tolerable and even ingenious solutions when we absolutely have to. Well, sometimes.

Are there slivers of hope? Sure. A handful of sushi joints, especially here in fish-crazed San Francisco, are already trying to be more careful, seasonal, sustainable, though as reassuring and inspiring as they may be, it's also safe to say they're still in the extreme minority. All the major eco-orgs of the world have serious overfishing agendas, working to get world governments and fishing industries to pay more attention and regulate the industry before it's too late, which it might already be. Problem is, it's also terribly easy to don your cap o' cynicism, take a look at the numbers and say fish stock collapse is not only a foregone conclusion, but after all that abuse, we fully deserve a brutal backlash. Hell, maybe we should treat seafood stocks like, say, petroleum, and just use it all up and suffer the consequences in order to force a change and a new perspective, learn to leave the oceans alone as we pray they don't recoil and hiss and spit us back into oblivion.

Or maybe you take on that famously entitled, conservative worldview that sneers: Who the hell cares? If we run out of big game fish and mangle the ecosystem and gobble up all the tasty maguro rolls, well, so what? Sushi restaurants close, fish stocks vanish, we move on to the next thing. Just another finite foodstuff we didn't manage very well and, well, the Earth is bountiful and endlessly forgiving, right? God gave it to us to dominate and devour as much as we want, no? We'll figure something out, won't we? Sure we will. Stare too long at dire issues like this -- alongside global warming, overpopulation, pollution in the developing world, et al -- and you can't help but feel like we're playing some giant, sadomasochistic game of chicken with the planet, pushing the boundaries and messing with the systems and dismantling the building blocks just to see how much we can get away with, what sort of punishment we can self-inflict, how tightly we can squeeze the balloon until it pops. So fascinated are we with our own mortality, we push and poke that balloon from all angles. We can't wait to see how it ends.

But of course, we already know. There is not even the slightest question. Eventually, the Earth just shudders, shakes us off like a batch of wayward fleas, resets and starts all over. She's been here a few billion years, seen far nastier plagues than the self-important little human race. We've been here the equivalent of a blink of an eye, a hairsbreadth of time, a nothing. We already know the answer, and it is simultaneously hugely reassuring, and absolutely terrifying: In the end, nature always wins. Always.

[pheyton]

[IkemenTommy]

What is soooo newsworthy about that black gold "article," really?

[kurohinge1]

What is soooo newsworthy about that black gold "article," really?

IMO, the "penny finally dropping" for at least one town (last para. of pheyton's post).

But no copying my answer, Tommy.

[Mulboyne]

BBC: Tuna body shies from fishing ban

The body responsible for managing Atlantic bluefin tuna has decided not to suspend the fishery in response to concerns over dwindling stocks. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) instead decided to lower the annual catch quota by about one third. Conservation groups said the decision would encourage illegal fishing. Iccat scientists said recently that bluefin numbers were at about 15% of pre-industrial-fishing levels. They also said that drastic limits on fishing now would facilitate the growth of a more profitable industry in years to come, as stocks became more plentiful.

A number of conservation groups attending the Iccat meeting in Recife, Brazil said that delegations - led by the EU - had put short-term commercial concerns before the longer-term interests of both tuna and fishermen. "Since its inception, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas has been driven by short-term commercial fishing interests, not the conservation ethic implied by its name," said Sue Lieberman, director of international policy for the Pew Environment Group. "Only a zero catch limit could have maximised the chances that Atlantic bluefin tuna could recover to the point where the fishery could exist in the future."

However, the European Commission - which represents the EU - described the outcome as "strong". "It is a clear sign that the international community acknowledges the scale and magnitude of the problem and is ready and willing to work constructively with scientists, environmentalists and the industry to find the best possible compromise that will ensure the sustainable exploitation of this fragile stock and the viability of the industry concerned," it said in a statement. The Commission also noted that the option of a moratorium remains on the table "in case new assessments show... there is a serious threat of fishery collapse".

Illegal stimulant

The new quota allows 13,500 tonnes of bluefin to be caught next year in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, down from 19,950 tonnes. The fishing season will also be shortened by one month for purse seine ships, which use nets to encircle and trap shoals of the lucrative fish, often when they are spawning. However, the size of the quota is only one of the issues that has seen bluefin tuna numbers tumble over the last few decades. Some countries, notably in southern Europe, have simply exceeded their annual quotas, while illegal and unreported catches are estimated to add a further 30% to official numbers.

As stocks and quotas decline, vessel owners face the choice between keeping their expensive ships in port, or fishing ilegally. "This... will lead to individual vessel quotas that are too low to economically sustain fishing activities," said Xavier Pastoor, executive director of the Madrid-based conservation group Oceana. "This will definitely encourage under-reporting of catches and illegal fishing." Most European governments back a recent proposal from Monaco to restrict trade in bluefin under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The proposal will be tabled at the CITES meeting in March.

Last month, Iccat's scientific advisors concluded that the notable decline from the "natural" level - before the era of industrialised fishing - would justify a ban. But some countries are keen to keep management of commercial fish species within fisheries management organisations such as Iccat. According to the Singapore-based Straits Times, an un-named Japanese fisheries official welcomed the meeting's outcome, arguing that it would help "control the fish population under Iccat, not anything else". The US said it would consider whether to back the CITES bid after reviewing the outcome of this Iccat meeting, which it viewed as the organisation's "last chance" to implement effective management for bluefin.

[Christoff]

To insinuate that the japanese people would give up tuna today for more tuna tomorrow is ridiculous. They will most likely blame it on some western anglo conspiracy to deprive them of a time honor tradition of dredging the ocean with massive trawlers

[Mulboyne]

Atlantic: Why I Don't Miss Bluefin Sushi

Atlantic bluefin tuna is in serious trouble as demand for bluefin as a sushi topping drives down stocks of the fish. Conservation organizations and celebrities have pressured high-profile restaurateurs, particularly the global sushi tycoon Nobu Matsuhisa, to remove bluefin from their menus. But so far it looks like a losing battle. Bluefin sushi is big money, and that's because everyone thinks bluefin toro--the fatty belly cuts of the fish--is the pinnacle of fine Japanese dining.

If this situation weren't so sad, it would be hilarious, because just a few decades ago, the Japanese considered toro such a disgusting part of the tuna that the only people who would eat it were impoverished manual laborers. And prior to about the 1920s, no self-respecting Japanese person would eat any kind of tuna at all if they could possibly avoid it. Tuna was so despised in Japan that all tuna species qualified for an official term of disparagement: gezakana, or "inferior fish."

In the old days in Japan, if you had no choice but to eat tuna you'd do everything you could do get rid of the bloody metallic taste of the fresh red meat. One trick was to bury the tuna in the ground for four days so that the muscle would actually ferment, which led to tuna being called by the nickname shibi--literally, "four days."

Not until the 1840s did an unintentional bumper crop of bluefin in Japan cause sushi makers to try to sell the fish at all, and these were rather pathetic street vendors catering to the lowest classes. They did their best to mask the inherent flavor of the flesh by smothering the red flesh in soy sauce and marinating it for as long as possible. Even today, purveyors that handle bluefin may soak it in ice water all night in an attempt to expunge the less desirable components of the fish's smell.

The arrival of refrigeration technology made it possible to distribute tuna more widely, and as people gradually grew used to seeing the red meat of tuna on sushi, disdain for the fish decreased. But the fatty cuts of the fish were still considered garbage. There are reports that tuna belly was a common ingredient in Japanese cat food.

After World War II, with the American Occupation and the influx of Western culture into Japan, the Japanese began eating a more Westernized diet, including red meat and fattier cuts of it, which paved the way for the acceptance of tuna and toro in more recent decades in both Japan and the West.

But the current bluefin fad--Atlantic bluefin in particular--remains a historical anomaly, and one partly manufactured deliberately, for corporate profit. During the heyday of Japan's export economy, Japanese airline cargo executives promoted Atlantic bluefin for sushi so they'd have something to fill their planes up with on the flight from East Coast US cities back to Tokyo. And as the recent documentary film The End of the Line has reported, Mitsubishi Corporation, one of the largest bluefin distributors in the world, now appears to be stockpiling massive amounts of bluefin in enormous high-tech deep freezers so it can make a killing dolling them at inflated prices out after the wild fish is all but gone.

As this mayhem continues to unfold, back in Japan you can still find a few old-school sushi aficionados who disdain bluefin toro. They'll tell you that toro is child's play. Anyone can enjoy that simplistic, melt-in-your-mouth succulence, they say. It takes the real skill of a connoisseur to appreciate the more subtle and complex tastes and textures of the traditional kings of the sushi bar--delicate whitefish like flounder and sea bream being some of the best, along with mackerels, jacks, clams, squid, and other types of shellfish that have been popular all along. Personally, I won't eat bluefin anymore, and I don't miss it at all. My sushi eating experiences have actually become more interesting as a result.

[Greji]

Atlantic: Why I Don't Miss Bluefin Sushi

I don't know who Trevie Boy Corson is, but he sure fucks up what is supposed to be an important on-going topic.

"....particularly the global sushi tycoon Nobu Matsuhisa...." is an interesting point. I'm sure Nobu would be wondering how he became a sushi tycoon and a sushiya at that. His restaurants do have sushi available, but it is far from being any specialty, or even a lead item on any part of the menu. I was there about two nights ago and they gave me a "mochi-kaeri" when I left since they know I have a resident rice cooker. As such they took great pains in pointing out that it was "sushi!" When old whats-her-name opened it up, it was California Rolls, none of which had ever been near a tuna (most didn't even have fish in them)! She informed me it was quite good, but was definately not J-sushi.

[Christoff]

Look, we only catch and eat them for research and scientific discovery.

[FG Lurker]

Sushi-Loving Japan Fears Push For Tuna Export Ban
AP via NPR, January 15, 2010

[floatr][/floatr]Seafood-loving Japan -- having faced years of international pressure to stop whaling -- finds itself with a potentially bigger fight over a highly prized type of tuna that conservation groups say is being fished to extinction.

A proposal to ban the export of Atlantic bluefin tuna -- vaunted for its succulent red and pink meat -- could slash supplies and drive up prices in Japan, the world's biggest consumer and importer of the fish.

[...]

"Any ban is going to have a big impact culturally and economically," said Masaru Nakazawa, a 63-year-old wholesaler at Tokyo's sprawling Tsukiji fish market.

But environmentalists say the Atlantic bluefin is a vanishing species and insist a ban on its export by the world body that governs wildlife trade is the last chance to save it in the face of skyrocketing global demand and a failure by governments to abide by existing quotas.

[...]

If the proposal is approved, Atlantic bluefin would be listed in Appendix 1 of the convention, which would allow only domestic consumption within countries of the European Union. Activists say that would lower the catch substantially because shipments to Japan would be prohibited.

[...]

Some in Japan also worry that a ban could open the door for bans on trade in other tuna species.

"This could set a dangerous precedent. The list could grow to include the yellowfin and bigeye tuna, too," said Hisao Masuko of the Japan Tuna Fisheries Cooperative Association. "If nothing is done, we won't have any tuna at Tsukiji fish market."

(Full Story)

The comment by Hisao Masuko is pretty funny really because what he says is true, but not in the way he thinks it is.

I'm sure Japan will put up a helluva stink about this and the chance of getting anything actually done is pretty remote. It's the Japanese way really, ignore a problem and just hope it goes away... The pension ponzi scam is a great example.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Govt looks to block ban on trade in bluefin tuna

The government is increasingly concerned about a recommendation issued by the Washington Convention's secretariat Friday that urged the treaty's signatories to adopt a proposal by Monaco to ban trade in bluefin tuna in the Atlantic, according to sources. Japan is the world's largest consumer of bluefin tuna and is set to boost diplomatic efforts to urge signatories to the treaty, formally called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, to reject the proposal at the March 13-25 meeting in Qatar, the sources said. The Monaco proposal will be adopted if it garners more than two-thirds of the valid votes, or 114 out of 172 nations.

During November's annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, it was agreed to cut the annual catch quota for the fish by about 40 percent for 2010 from the previous year. Japan therefore reportedly had believed most of the 49 regions and nations that belong to ICCAT would not support the ban on the international trade of the fish. ICCAT signatories Italy, France and Egypt, however, said they would support the Monaco proposal, which now looks more likely to be adopted in light of other European Union nations also possibly supporting the proposal.

In an effort to improve the situation, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry plans to send about 10 people, including senior ministry officials and personnel from concerned organizations to Latin American and African nations to drum up support against the proposal. Agriculture, Foresty and Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu told reporters Friday that the government is keen to secure even one or two more votes against Monaco's idea.

[Mike Oxlong]

[Greji]

[SIZE="5"]Japan Plans to Ignore Any Ban on Bluefin Tuna [/SIZE]

Somebody needs to notify Sea Shepard so they go their Captains bail and get him back on the water. Then again, that might be bad for him, because the tuna fishermen will probably drown his ass. They're not as reserved as the whalers!

[BO-SENSEI]

Not really a surprising move, when doing something that is your bread and butter, you are not simply going to stop doing it because others tell you that it is a bad idea or that it is wrong, even with evidence suggesting that the continuation of such an activity with further contribute to a negative situation, such as decreased populations or smaller fish sizes. The North Koreans and Iranians are not going to give up their nuclear weapons or pursuit of nuclear weapons, even with or the threat of economic sanctions. Businesses all over the world don't shut down their factories even with mountains of evidence saying they contribute to greenhouse gasses. The United States doesn't get rid of its cluster bomb arsenal even after a world-wide ban simply because it does such a good job of killing numerous people. And why do people do keep doing things that are bad, even though other people tell them to stop? It is because they are not going to stop unless they agree that it is in their interest to stop.

[Mulboyne]

[Mike Oxlong]

http://www.marketwatch.com/video/asset/some-japanese-lose-their-taste-for-fish/C60FB0F3-0215-4FAC-A940-6F0054D0878B

[Mulboyne]

[Yokohammer]

Prof. Masao Nishimura of Waseda thinks Japan may have missed a trick:

Where the heck has this guy been hiding?!
Intelligent, focused, and right on target! It's such a breath of fresh air to hear an opinion on this issue that's based on good, clear thinking rather than knee-jerk emotion or straight-up jingoism.

[Taro Toporific]

Prof. Masao Nishimura of Waseda thinks....:
.... If this bad reputation sticks, protestations of the traditional Japanese love and sensitive adoration for nature will no longer be compelling...

"Sensitive adoration for nature"?

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]