We know the tuna are in real trouble--worldwide, the bluefin population has plunged more than 90 percent in the last 30 years. But the question is who has the authority to stop the plunder and how. It will have to be a global effort since, as the Times points out, the blame is also global:
Blame for the crisis is global. The European Commission has promoted ruinously excessive fishing quotas. The United States is a major source of sushi demand, and must do much more to protect the bluefin in one of its important spawning grounds, the Gulf of Mexico. And a huge slab of raw guilt should be placed on Japan, the world's most voracious fish consumer, whose appetite for the bluefin has done the most to make it disappear.
Let's see what happens...
UPDATE (Nov. 19): According to this Australian Daily Telegraph article, the quota for bluefin tuna has actually been increased by 1,000 tonnes (for a total quota of nearly 30,000 t). This decision is criminal. And deflating (Milan, abandon your morality and eat some Atlantic bluefin, if you can find it).
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I love tuna. As a vegetarian, it is the only meat I really miss.
Given how likely it is to vanish during the next thirty years or so, perhaps the sensible thing to do is abandon morality for the sake of enjoyment.
Posted by: Milan | November 17, 2007 6:17 PM