Bluefin Tuna

My fellow outbrainer, John LoGioco, has just launched a site focused on the Bluefin Tuna and ways to help save it.

You are most likely to bump into a Bluefin on your plate of sushi. As demand for sushi exploded globally, this magnificent fish has become dangerously close to vanishing from the face of the earth. Over 90% of the Bluefin's population are already gone, and within a few years it is likely become forever extinct if we don't stop over-fishing it.

There is one simple way you can help in saving this fish:

When you eat sushi, ask which dishes include Bluefin Tuna and simply avoid them.

Here are a few more helpful links if you're interested in the subject:

• John's SaveTheBluefin.com website. You can register as a member here.You can also help us spread the word by putting the SaveTheBluefin badge on your blog (you can see the badge on the left-hand rail of this page). Grab the badges here.
• Tag-A-Giant is committed to reversing the decline of northern Bluefin tuna populations by supporting the scientific research necessary to develop innovative and effective policy and conservation initiatives. You can support Tag-A-Giant with a donation here.
• Professor Barbara Block's blog focused on the efforts around tagging and saving of the Bluefins.

Comments

[Rogel]

If people would continue to eat Bluefin Tuna in higher rate the prices will go up and will cause at least two things:
1. increase in the price which probably will effect the demand.
2. make it worth while for sellers of Bluefin Tuna to make sure it is not extinct.

Therefore it seems to me that stop eating Bluefin Tuna might be somewhat counter productive.

[Luis]

I know it is easier to just tell people not to eat Bluefin, but this being a blog that supports entrepreneurship why dont you push people to support marine aquaculture?

Research is being conducted around the world on ways to successfully breed and raise bluefin in captivity. Tuna in general is a great source of healthy protein and people will not stop eating it if its available. I know aquaculture in general is controversial, but would encourage you to take a pragmatic look at the industry and its potential to save wild species of fish.

[Quotes.net]

"Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them" - Samuel Butler

http://www.quotes.net/quote/8137

[Yaron Galai]

Thanks Luis - I am far from being an expert on aquaculture, so I can't really recommend it. I've heard as many people for it as I have against it.
Reducing demand and switching to more abundant species seems like a very safe bet regardless of the aquaculture debate.

[Yaron Galai]

Rogel - good points (as usual!), but -
1) This experiment in supply-and-demand is good for oil, but I doubt there are enough bluefin's in the ocean to see if this experiment would succeed or not...
2) Ah - that would have been a wonderful world indeed... With bluefin's selling at up to $100,000 per fish(!!), I doubt that the long term viability of the species crosses the mind of anyone on that boat chasing down one of those last remaining ones...

[Rogel]

Yaron,
I read somewhere, and I'll try to find the link, a compelling argument that basically argues that we never consume something until it completely disappear. At certain point, as the resource, and for our discussion the bluefin Tuna is a resource, is too costly - hard to find, expensive etc. - that some other options become more appealing.
I don't think that the people on the boats thinking in terms of supply and demand nor finding better way to make money from the bluefin tuna, but other people do. The question is what our approach is - Drive less, eat less return to more primitive way of life when we consumed less (and died younger) or are we going to try to find ways better energy sources, increase the supply of bluefin tuna etc.?
You can guess what my preferred approach:)

[John LoGioco]

The idea behind "ask before you eat" when visiting a sushi restaurant or establishment that serves tuna is to appeal to the emotional side of the equation. If people become emotional about a cause - like consumers did with the images of dolphins being caught in commercial fishing nets, then change can happen. The problem with the bluefin is that consumer awareness has been embarrassingly low, as the stocks continued to decline. They are at a point now that anyone who takes a bite out of a bluefin is taking one of the last bites of an entire species. Anyone at a sushi restaurant who orders bluefin, and sits around a table with others who are in the know, will most likely have an uncomfortable moment they won't forget. I know because I did this to someone who ordered bluefin, and since then they have never ordered again - and in fact now evangelize the issue.

[Yaron Galai]

BTW - I highly recommend reading this great book (Last Chance to See, by the one and only - Douglas Adams) - http://www.amazon.com/Last-Chance-See-Douglas-Adams/dp/0345371984/

Animals are not oil... the risk of extinction is very real...