Bluefin tuna are delicious. Whether raw or seared, their deep red, yet light-tasting meat is magic on the tongue. They are so revered that one magnificent specimen of their species, a hulking, 512-pound giant, recently sold for $176,000 in a fish market in Japan, whose citizens account for 75 percent of the global appetite for the fish.
And that, in a nutshell, is why they are facing extinction.
In the early 1990's, Marine biologist and fisheries expert Carl Safina convinced Sweden to propose banning the international trade of bluefins to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). It didn't take -- two-thirds of the 175 member countries must vote in favor of such a resolution for it to pass and because of the money at stake, lobbyists in many countries immediately moved against it.
It's going to be harder to thwart this time around. In preparation for the CITES meeting next month in Qatar, Monaco is proposing the ban again and yesterday the United States announced they're supporting it.
This is big news. Countries like Greece and Spain generate millions of dollars each year harvesting bluefins in the Mediterranean Sea, where stocks have declined precipitously in recent years. Japan is dependent on imports from the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean -- where tuna populations have plummeted over 80 percent since 1970 -- to support its sushi and sashimi-rich diet. All are bound to be opposed to an international trade ban, and will try to attract more countries to their cause.
A ban doesn't mean that all fishing for bluefins will stop -- what it will do is prevent countries with outsized appetites for tuna (::cough:: Japan ::cough::) from being able to import all the fish they can eat. Local, sustainable fishing can continue. And many experts believe that a ban is critical if these giants of the sea are to recover.
Over the next couple of weeks, we can expect a lot of jockeying between countries to try and broker a deal. WIth a big country like the U.S. backing a ban, it stand a real chance of passing. But it's future is far from certain. Whatever the outcome, the fate of the bluefin may just hang in the balance.
Image: NOAA
Tags: Biodiversity, Conservation, Food Chain, Oceanography
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