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The only way to preserve tuna is not to eat wild captured fish and farmed carnivore fish (they're fed bycatch, 1 kg of farmed fish upto 5kg of bycatch).
Commercial fishing is extremely destructive industry, with huge amount of bycatch, no real oversight, no limits, and huge plastic pollution (46% of pacific garbage patch is fishing nets).
https://www.seaspiracy.org/facts
Bluefin tuna is one of the most expensive fish on the planet.
Highest value of bluefin tuna: $3,100,000, conservation status: endangered
Bluefin tunas are warm-blooded and can accelerate faster than a Ferrari
Today only 3% of Pacific bluefin tuna remain
A Mitsbishi subsidiary controls 40% of the worlds blue fin tuna
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/revealed-t...
Bluefin tuna frozen at -60C now could be sold in several years' time for astronomical sums if Atlantic bluefin becomes commercially extinct as forecast, a result of the near free-for-all enjoyed by the tuna fleet.
https://fiskerforum.com/mitsubishi-hoards-frozen-bluefin-tun...
It is observed that if the fish goes commercially extinct, the company is hopeful that it can turn a hefty profit from its frozen bluefin cache.
Conservationists informed that legally commercial hauls are limited to 22,000 tons per year, but the actual catch is 60,000 tons, more than four times the maximum sustainable level. By its own estimates, Mitsubishi controls 35 to 40 percent of that stock.
I would avoid such black and white statements as "Commercial fishing is an extremely destructive industry".
The term "commercial fishing" encompasses a multitude of different places, methods, regulatory regimes, monitoring practices, and more, and they range from _extremely_ well managed and sustainable to utterly disastrous.
Bluefin Tuna happens to be one of the worst, because it's one of the very few where the species is so valuable that as it gets rarer, the price just climbs and continues to justify ever smaller catches. This is pretty bad for Bluefin Tuna, and could result in it being the first every commercially fished marine fish species to go extinct (yes; that's correct: no marine fish species has _ever_ gone extinct from human fishing).
I'm an ecologist who got his degree in fisheries ecology. I'm very much in favor of better, more cohesive fisheries management. But I don't believe we will make any progress by tarring entire industries. All you do is create enemies out of allies.
I understand that commercial fishing, like everything else, is complex and diverse with both good and bad actors.
However, if it were balanced, fish populations wouldn't be in such a dire state. This suggests to an outsider that the majority of the industry is harmful, and as such, I have no sympathy for it at all.
Considering the fact that fishing is decimating fish populations globally (even sharks are facing extinction due to overfishing, bycatch, and plastic pollution) and causing havoc on sea floors with trawling for example, I don't feel sorry for having such a black and white viewpoint.
> But I don't believe we will make any progress by tarring entire industries
Considering that meat consumption is not essential for our sustenance or health, I believe that the only way to prevent further environmental damage and restore biodiversity is to ban all forms of animal farming, marine aquaculture, and fishing.
We need to explore sustainable ways to harness the sea for our nourishment, sure, but I don't believe it has to involve fishing. I'm excited about the prospect of more affordable omega-3 from algae and seaweeds. I bet you'd prefer to see vibrant seaweed farms teeming with life rather than ecosystems devastated by overfishing or polluted by aquafarms.
That's my point though, fish populations are _not_ universally in such dire straights. Yes, bottom trawling does cause extensive habitat damage, but bottom trawling is completely banned in lots of places.
Yes, sharks are in _extreme_ decline in lots of places and face lots of overfishing, but I'm not actually sure that many species (if any) are at risk of _extinction_. (That doesn't mean we shouldn't be against shark fishing, it's ecologically disastrous, but be wary of claims of extinction).
It's fine if you don't want to eat meat. But lots of people do. I've worked with lots of commercial fisherman. They can be (and in many places already are) powerful allies for sane, sustainable fisheries regulation. When you say things like "commercial fishing is universally bad", you communicate that you don't care if they are willing to limit fishing pressure and sustain populations, that you are going to try and ban them anways. At that point, why shouldn't they just fish as much as they can?
I'm 100% onboard with algal aquaculture. I think it has a lot of promise. But that is completely orthogonal to conventional commercial fishing. The two are not competitors and in fact can be complements to each other.
The options are not "either seaweed farms or devastated ecosystems". It's exactly this kind of false dichotomy thinking that is counter productive.
> I'm not actually sure that many species (if any) are at risk of _extinction_
Many sharks closer to extinction than feared: Red List
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-sharks-closer-extinction-red.h...
Overfishing puts more than one-third of all sharks, rays, and chimaeras at risk of extinction
https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/overfishing-puts-more-...
Overfishing is Driving Eels to Extinction
https://vegnews.com/2022/9/forsea-foods-cell-technology-eels
Around a third of freshwater fish species are threatened with extinction, and 80 species have already been declared Extinct. Since 1970, mega-fish populations have crashed by 94% on average, while migratory fish populations have fallen by 76%.
https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/freshwater_practice...
Endangered North Atlantic right whales are in 'crisis'; species approaching extinction
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/19/north-a...
Eating mackerel no longer sustainable, Good Fish Guide advises
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/05/mackerel...
> It's fine if you don't want to eat meat. But lots of people do.
Not necessary, destructive, unsustainable.
> why shouldn't they just fish as much as they can
And they don't? Really? They'd leave money in the ocean?
> either seaweed farms or devastated ecosystems
It sure looks like it.
Corporations controlling the existence of an entire species. Sickening.
Shouldn't they then be legally liable?
They're operating in legal space, for sure. Buying fish from others and freezing it for later use is not illegal.
The rules of the game need to change. However, imposing limits isn't the solution (we have them now, and they're ineffective and practically unenforceable).
Like elephant ivory worldwide ban, a worldwide ban on the trade of bluefin could be extremely effective, and would undermine Mitsubishi's stupid plans.
A lot of them would still end up as bycatch. Of course, a ban might not solve the problem entirely, but it would certainly help.
Btw, even though the elephant ivory ban is better than nothing, elephants are still facing extinction.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56510593
Extinction: Elephants driven to the brink by poaching
> A Mitsbishi subsidiary controls 40% of the worlds blue fin tuna
lmao if this were a chinese company you can be sure tuna would be banned overnight.
There's a school of thought presented in David Chang's documentary where we're going to be one of the last generations to consume wild bluefin tuna. Because we've industrialized fishing them at this point.
The financial incentives are too powerful to turn down, each one can come in at $20 to $5,000 Per Pound. A single tuna is tens of thousand, if not hundreds of thousands on the market.
On the consumer side (CA/NY) anything Ahi Tuna-related is going to fly off the shelf, even with premium mark up prices.
I'm not sure where we go from here. Maybe a shift in community values? It's trending higher and higher online too, which probably correlates with consumption - https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=a...
> There's a school of thought presented in David Chang's documentary where we're going to be one of the last generations to consume wild bluefin tuna. Because we've industrialized fishing them at this point.
I'd like to see some stats to back this up, considering the IUCN has taken the bluefin off its "red list," and even a brief Wikipedia search seems to indicate that the recent application of regional fishing quotas is having its desired effect, though apparently some local populations are struggling.
Pacific Bluefin Tuna (and all bluefin tuna) should be avoided. IUCN isn't really the best forum for advice on this as it takes into account government and industry interests - by the time they mark a food species as on the red list it's very, very late.
The Monterey Aquarium seafood guide is the best that I'm aware of and they recommend avoiding all bluefin tuna:
https://www.seafoodwatch.org/recommendations/download-consum...
https://www.seafoodwatch.org/recommendations/search?query=%3...
> I'd like to see some stats to back this up, considering the IUCN has taken the bluefin off its "red list,"
No they haven't. Nothing gets taken off the Red List (e.g. the Brown Rat is on the Red List: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/19353/165118026). It's the Red List rating that matters, and Atlantic Bluefin is listed as Endangered. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/21860/76599358
Stats on the ocean are hard to measure, because, well, it isn't easy. However, as this documentary points out, there's so many reasons to not make people aware. I had no idea about halibut.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt14152756/
So many things I didn't appreciate, and this is probably the most important documentary to watch this decade.
Also Cowspiracy, Dominion, Blackfish, The Game Changers, What the Health, Forks over knives ...
> The financial incentives are too powerful to turn down, each one can come in at $20 to $5,000 Per Pound. A single tuna is tens of thousand, if not hundreds of thousands on the market.
> On the consumer side (CA/NY) anything Ahi Tuna-related is going to fly off the shelf, even with premium mark up prices.
> I'm not sure where we go from here. Maybe a shift in community values?
Juxtaposition: for the producers the money is “too powerful to turn down”; meanwhile consumers can/should shift their “community values”.
Obviously you need to regulate things on the producer side. If it gets into production (and on to the consumer) then it’s too late already (see “food waste”).
> A single tuna is tens of thousand, if not hundreds of thousands on the market.
If you take out the early season prices that are essentially a buyer showing off how much money they have, even “tens of thousands” becomes somewhat of a fantasy.
There’s a reason why tuna fishermen aren’t driving Bentleys.
I lived in a place where they fished it, and definitely not rewarded adequately.
They used a really beat up 30+ year old boat at the crack of dawn, to first catch some other fish that is used to bait the tuna. I would be surprised after it's said and done that they got more than a few thousand for the tuna, in the end. It's a really dirty and smelly job paying peanuts.
Yes and it’s because, like I said, that the idea of a single tuna being worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars is fantasy — not reality. But many people believe it to be true because of a TV show they saw or something they heard on NPR.
https://bluefina.com/bluefin-tuna-price-why-the-cost-is-wort...
It’s true that in 2019, a 612-pound bluefin tuna sold for an incredible $3 million at Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji fish market. While this is not a typical price, it shows how prized bluefin tuna is as the very best tuna fish out there.
The bluefin tuna price that restaurants and customers pay depends on several factors. These include where the fish is from, the company you buy it from, and how sustainable it is.
First of all, it’s completely different from the average tuna that you buy canned at the supermarket. That type of tuna is albacore tuna. A typical adult albacore weighs 80lb.
Contrast that with the record-breaking bluefin tuna that sold a the Tokyo fish market in 2019. That whopping example weighed 612lb!
Clearly, they are different species and take a very different amount of time to grow to maturity. In fact, they are very slow-growing. It’s also impossible to breed bluefin tuna in captivity.
> https://themostexpensive.org/most-expensive-tuna/
Here Are the Top 5 Most Expensive Types of Tuna in the World:
Types of Tuna - Max Weight - Used For - Max Price
Bluefin - 1,472lbs - Sushi - $5,000 per pound
Bigeye - 462lbs - Steaks & sushi - $42 per pound
Yellowfin - 427lbs - Canned, steaks & sushi - $35 per pound
Skipjack - 73lbs - Canned & steaks - $23 per pound
Albacore - 88lbs - Canned & steaks - $22 per pound
> https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/reports/2021-tuna-retailer-sc...
The sustainability of many of the world’s capture fisheries continues to be hampered by overexploitation, overcapacity, ineffective management, harmful subsidies, by-catch…and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, with ongoing habitat degradation and loss of gear creating further pressures on the marine environment.” – UN World Ocean Assessment
"Stock depletion, lack of recovery, and associated loss of value are often driven by fisheries managers’ prioritization of short-term profits over the long-term health of fish populations.” – PEW
“All over the world, human and labor rights violations and abuses in the sector have been documented, and despite commendable efforts by many governments and the industry, there are still too many cases of unacceptable practices taking place. These occur not only in developing countries but also in the developed world, and at all stages along value chains.” – UN FAO
Southern bluefin tuna is rebounding.
The tuna tank at the Monterey Bay aquarium is a must see.
Curious why not opt for a picture of a bluefin
Because the story is about one specific tuna, Amelia?
it's not
That's what's called a "literary device": a single individual is used as a microcosm for the whole. The story is about "Amelia" where "Amelia" represents all bluefin tuna. In that sense, the story is about Amelia.
It's something that might not be clear to people for whom English is not their first language, but it's pretty common in literature.
Beautiful animals. I hope we can find a way to coexist them.
One of the memories I have growing up was going on a snorkeling trip to a coral reef in the Florida Keys with my Scout troop. The reef dropped off quickly enough that you could see some deepwater fish while still staying close enough to the boat and reef to be safe.
The biggest other fish I saw were a big lazy grouper and a shark that I decided to swim the other direction from, but that didn't seem really enthused about going anywhere in a hurry. But I swear the bluefin tuna were like living torpedoes. Huge and FAST, like big underwater rockets.
The best way to co-exist with them is to leave them alone.
The best way would be to learn to farm them. There's a reason there are more chickens on planet Earth than there are alligators or wombats. And it's very much the opposite of "leaving the chickens alone".
Farming of big fish like bluefin tuna is difficult. They're still working on salmon, last I recall, as it turns out to be a lot more difficult than one would think.
Farming catfish is an example of successful aquaculture, and even it isn't as simple as one would think. There was a point in the 90s (IIRC) where tiny farm ponds (1-2 acres or less) in the US were producing some huge percentage of all farmed catfish, 60-70% or thereabouts. When ethanol subsidies really kicked off, all the corn went to make faux gasoline, which meant it wasn't as available for fish feed, and the price of the feed closed the farm ponds, which were filled in and planted. (Probably with corn.)
The Romans used to eat a lot of mullet, as this fish lived in their canals and waterways, and are easy to catch with nets. But the mullet is a terroir fish--it tastes like where it lives--and as the canals and waterways got gross, so did the fish. Mullet is thought of as poor people food now, there's a reason why on the Gulf Coast they're called "Biloxi bacon." But it would be a much simpler fish to farm, as long as you can keep the water clean.
> Farming of big fish like bluefin tuna is difficult
I had seen fry of tuna breed on captivity in a tank. Will not happen soon.
Breeding of Salmon is fully developed at a very sophisticated level.
Depends on your definition of "coexist". I for one would rather go extinct than exist as a chicken on a modern-day chicken farm. Of course, it's only the "lucky" female chickens that get to exist - the male chicks go straight to the shredder.
And that's a nice hasty generalization. Just because some farmed species are treated in ways you may deem unethical doesn't mean all farmed species must be treated unethically in order to farm them.
Fortunately for you, you're no where near being as delicious. That's the trick, remain awful-tasting.
The chickens we farm aren't the same as the red junglefowl that was domesticated 8000 years ago.
In 50 years, chicken breeds have changed greatly in size going from under 1kg to over 4kg.
See https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/10/2/6875031/chickens-breedi...
These are big fast animals which likely require a large space to swim around, much more than a cow. This makes "farms" difficult. Speaking of which, the wild ancestor of today's cows (the aurox) was hunted to extinction.
The big ones are already largely ranched. It’s the breeding that isn’t happening
The meat eating culture is so ingrained some people literally don't see this option, when it is the easiest and most obvious solution.
Then become an activist for making meat consumption illegal. That’s the easiest solution within that easiest solution.
Alternatively you can try to convince individuals to become vegetarians, which is a leass easy solution within that easiest solution. ;)
As a plant-based eater, I wouldn't shame people for their dietary choices. Culture changes super slow and we need to accept this. I'm already pretty pleased how it's commonplace now in the UK to have vegan options.
> Culture changes super slow and we need to accept this.
Would you be as accepting to a wife-beater, child abuser, slaver, homophobe, etc ?
> The meat eating culture is so ingrained some people literally don't see this option, when it is the easiest and most obvious solution.
How is this shaming?
That ship has sailed long ago. The choices are either domestication and industrial breeding, or extinction.
Do your own health a favor and avoid ingesting huge amounts of mercury by avoiding eating bluefin tuna, while at the same time helping it not disappear from our oceans.