I have always been mindful of whats going on around the world, I don't pay much attention my immediate surroundings and is easily distractable, but I like to find out what's going on half way round the world. When I was a kid, we had to write diaries at school, and I remember writing about the political conflict between the two sides across the Taiwanese Strait. My teacher commented that I should pay more attention in class and study harder rather than worry about things that don't concern me. I should've replied that she should spend more time worrying about encouraging students rather than stifling their rising passions. Anyway, I am a bit of a greenie tree hugger too, and the combination of the two sees me sitting at wedding tables refusing to eat shark fin soup for conservation reasons, to the Chinese elders sitting across the table, I stick out like a sore inflamed thumb.
Apart from electronics, weird-ass TV shows, and Hello Kitty; the Japanese have also huge contributions to endangered species, particularly whales and bluefin tuna. They defend their actions with staunch argument of 'tradition' which, if you know the actual story, is distorted.
Whilst reading an article about tuna overfishing, Tuna's End, it collided with my own experience and resonated with concerns that left me toss-n-turning in my bed last night. The very first thing that impressed me was the size and shape of these magnificent fish. Contained within the stream-lined, olive shaped hard-shell skin are warm-blooded powerful muscles that propel at up to 60km/hr. They migrate over 11,000 km across the Pacific, making return trips from the coasts of America to Asia. They can grow up to 2 meters long and weigh up to 300kg.
"...the animal also has attributes that make its evolutionary appearance seem almost deus ex machina, or rather machina ex deo — a machine from God. How else could a fish develop a sextantlike “pineal window” in the top of its head that scientists say enables it to navigate over thousands of miles? How else could a fish develop a propulsion system whereby a whip-thin crescent tail vibrates at fantastic speeds, shooting the bluefin forward at speeds that can reach 40 miles an hour? And how else would a fish appear within a mostly coldblooded phylum that can use its metabolic heat to raise its body temperature far above that of the surrounding water, allowing it to traverse the frigid seas of the subarctic?"
I was first introduced about the matter from a documentary on Discovery channel, and while on GP placement in Pt. Lincoln, I had the opportunity to go see a harvest at a bluefin tuna farm. The word farm is more of an euphemism for slaughter cage. Remember the Tripod machines from the movie War of the World? They had cage/basket that were used to hold humans that are then consumed as food? That's what a tuna farm is. Each year, boats go out into the Southern Pacific to capture their tuna stock, once a sizable school (up to a few thousand fish) is found with spotting plane, the boats deploy a net that encircle the whole school like a cup of grains in the palm of your hands. The nets are then attach to a huge floating ring about 20 meters in diameter, and the whole thing is towed back closer to the port. Two problems here: first, the net captures all generations, young tuna don't have a chance to mature (which can take 5 years) and breed (depleting fish stock); and secondly, it takes about 15 pounds of feed to gain 1 pound of meat, the feed-conversion is so poor that it doesn't take half of your right brain to know it's not efficient nor sustainable. The Hansels and Gretels in the tuna rings never grow to the size of their wild counter parts.
"Afterward, they will be slaughtered and sent to Japan, where 80 percent of the world’s Atlantic bluefin tuna are eaten with oblivion."
Before 1800, Japanese tuna sushi didn't even exist. Occassionally tuna would find their way onto a sushi plate as 'shibi'(literally meaning 4 days - the amount of time chefs would bury them in soy sauce to mellow their bloody taste). "Fish with red flesh were looked down on in Japan as low-class food, and white fish were much preferred" according to the 2007 book "The story of sushi", by Trevor Corson. It was not until 1930s that tuna were commonplace in Japan. In 1950s, the post-war nutrient-scarce Japan saw tuna as an important protein source; this is the same time that Japanese turned on whales as food. It was not common practice to eat whales before then. What tradition? It was not until 1970 that bluefin tuna were regarded as a favored dish.
"..is there any rational argument for humans to eat bluefin tuna, wild, ranched or farmed? Is the fish really so special that no substitute will do? If the Japanese adapted to a higher-fat diet in half a century, could they and all sushi lovers not shift gears again and adapt to a sustainable diet?"
From 1976 to 2006 the worldwide population of bluefin tuna plummeted by 90%. Tuna are mostly caught outside the EEZs (exclusive economic zone is a stretch of 200 nautical miles of sea out from a country's coastline, that is usually regulated by its jurisdiction), which means very little regulations, if at all. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) is a body meant to set the catch-limit annually, unfortunately it does little more than pimping the fate of tuna to the highest bidder. "Even though scientific advice says you should stick to a specific catch number, in order to negotiate a deal, they tend to nudge that number over a little bit", said a former chairman of the scientific committee. In 2008, ICCAT set Atlantic bluefin catch limits that were nearly double what its own scientists recommended.
The issue with these noble fish is not only their imminent distinction, as tuna is one of the top predator in the food-chain, the disruption to the ecosystem of the sea is as serious as taking sharks out. To sum up my rant on the ignorance of humanity, Paul Greenburg, author of Tuna's End wrote a perfect parting reflection.
"Applying more pressure, I felt the needle slide into the flank, felt the resistance of the dense sushi flesh, raw and red and most certainly delicious. But for the first time in my life I felt tuna flesh for what it was: a living, perfect expression of a miraculous adaptation. An adaptation that allows bluefin to cross oceans at the speed of a battleship. An adaptation that should be savored in its own right as the most miraculous engine of a most miraculous animal, not as food."
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