Culinary and thoughts blog.

Red tuna disappear - 2010 tuna world summit

Red Tuna School

Despite the support of the U.S. and many European countries, the proposal for an international ban on bluefin, or red, tuna fishing was defeated at the March 2010 U.N. Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) conference in Doha, Qatar. The giant fish, which can grow to a length of 2.5 meters and weigh up to 350 kilograms, are one of the longest living ocean fish; surviving up to 30 years – providing they don’t get caught. However, according to many recent studies, the fish’s popularity in Tokyo sushi bars has caused its numbers to plummet and has placed the continuing survival of the species in question.

The opposition group that defeated the ban proposal consisted mostly of developing countries led by Japan, which spearheaded an aggressive lobbying campaign to convince undecided countries that a ban would harm their economies and might not even be scientifically justified. Japan, which imports 80 percent of the tuna, had lobbied delegates hard to reject the proposal, including sponsoring an 11^th hour reception for uncertain delegates that included an ample supply of bluefin sushi.

Red Tunas

With stocks of Atlantic bluefin tuna down 75 percent from prior years, largely due to the insatiable appetites of Japanese sushi lovers, the defeat of the proposal was a harsh setback for the Americans, Europeans and their conservationist allies who had hoped that the 175-nation CITES would protect the bluefin. Fishing nations from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean complained that any ban would damage their fishing communities and that fears of the stock’s collapse were overstated. These opponents also cited the need for local regulatory bodies to decide the bluefin industry’s fate in their own waters, but supporters say that these local bodies are highly influenced by fishing interests and never live up to their conservation commitments.

Adverse environmental conditions, like man-made pollution and global warming have decimated many other fish species  in the world’s seas and oceans. But in the case of the bluefin, its greatest enemies are fisherman, many of whom come from poor countries and have little or no regard for regulations by organizations like the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) which forbids the capture of bluefin tuna that weigh less than 30 kg, and set a quota of 13,500 tons for the year 2010.

The outcome seems to represent the triumph of commerce over conservationism, as the bluefin fishing industry is highly lucrative for the countries that champion it. While no official numbers exist regarding annual industry revenues, it’s estimated that the trade nets over $6.0 billion USD annually. Even individual fish sell at mind-boggling prices, such as one 200-kilogram (440-pound) Pacific bluefin tuna that recently fetched a record 20.2 million yen ($220,000). Until more nations are willing to value long-term sustainability over short-term economic gains, the fate of the bluefin will continue to hang in the balance.