Bluefin tuna is a very prized fish amongst sushi eaters, but soon they will have eaten it all up. Fish need our protection today as much as elephants and whales have do so in the past.

 

A good specimen of bluefin tuna can fetch US$ 170,000¹ at auction, which is a huge amount of money. This makes the fish all the more attractive to fishermen who are holding out against protecting the animal. Unfortunately, the rarer it becomes, the more it will fetch at auction and the more interest there will be in catching it.

 

Stocks of bluefin tuna are within 3 years of total collapse. That will mean that in this time, there will be no more tuna to fish, no more in restaurants and very few left in the sea. Yet despite this evidence, there are countries that are refusing to endorse a ban, notably Japan and Malta.

 

It’s an absurd and intolerable position to take. From an economic standpoint, yet a bad or controlled fishing will cost jobs, but those jobs will go in three years when all the fish go. Isn’t it better to manage a reduction in sectorial employment rather than wait for massive collapse and the massive unemployment that will follow?

 

Isn’t is preferable to have some jobs lost and still have bluefin in the sea, that one day can rebuild their stocks and be fished in a manageable controlled way?

Tuna at a Tokyo fish market (Flickr):



¹ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7076342.ece

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewart/2487753577/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewart/2473047026