Sushi Anyone?
17 June, 2010
After scanning the net for latest news on the bluefin tuna I came across some articles on The Sea Shepherd’s latest campaign, Blue Rage. These guys don’t do things light heartedly when it comes to campaigning. They are currently patrolling the North African Coast with other organisations such as Greenpeace in a bid to put a ban on fishing for bluefin tuna.
“The European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries decided to close the bluefin tuna fishery to all purse seiners in the Mediterranean and the Eastern Atlantic. It appeared that the legal quota had been taken. After midnight tonight, any fishing activities on bluefin tuna will be illegal and subject to intervention by Sea Shepherd. There is now officially a zero tolerance on overfishing of the bluefin tuna."
The bluefin tuna is one of the world’s largest and fastest fish, as a warm blooded creature they are found in colder waters and are one of the top predators in the ocean, they eat just about anything and travel very long distances. To you, they are the tuna in your sushi roll or the snack you get from a can for lunch.
Unfortunately these guys are being fished out of existence, and at a very high price. Recently one bluefin tuna sold for a whopping US $173,000! All just to sit on someone’s sushi plate to be eaten. With this sort of financial incentive, it is scary to think about the fate of the bluefin tuna.
With stocks depleting at least 85% since the commercial fishing era began, and with bluefin allowed to be fished and killed at a ridiculously high 13,500 tonnes quota, this fish won’t stand a chance at survival if we keep fishing like this.
We should be thankful organisations such as the Sea Shepherd have the vigour to take action. From Captain Paul Watson’s latest blog, “the European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries decided to close the bluefin tuna fishery to all purse seiners in the Mediterranean and the Eastern Atlantic. It appeared that the legal quota had been taken. After midnight tonight, any fishing activities on bluefin tuna will be illegal and subject to intervention by Sea Shepherd. There is now officially a zero tolerance on overfishing of the bluefin tuna."
This is good news for them, lets hope their mission to put a total ban on any fishing of the bluefin tuna is a success so the fish stocks can recover and ensure our kids enjoy eating the same seafood as we do today.
You can Help too!
If you are unsure about the choices you are making when buying seafood, Greenpeace has a couple of guides we find helpful when shopping.
To keep up with The Sea Shepherd’s progress go to: http://www.seashepherd.org/
Link: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues/overfishing/our-work/fishredlist09
Link: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues/overfishing/our-work/cannedtuna
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