Thursday, June 24, 2010

The end of the tuna

Dramatic article from the NYTImes. We live the era of the tuna. Our voracious appetite is depleting this beautiful species!

Many nations have contributed to the Atlantic bluefin’s destruction. Europeans and North Africans do most of the catching and ranching of the fish in the world today. The United States continues to allow bluefin fishing in its waters even though the Gulf of Mexico-spawned stock is considered by many scientists to have entered into full-scale collapse. But it is Japan, the world’s largest bluefin importer, that has taken perhaps the most aggressive pro-tuna-fishing position. 
The article presents an interesting question:
How then do we get ourselves out of the Age of Tuna with our moral center and our food supply intact? Can we develop a civilized hunter-gatherer relationship with tuna and indeed with all other fish and reach a point of equilibrium with our last wild food? Can the management bodies that have overseen the collapse of the most magnificent food fish we’ve ever known be trusted to manage what is left in its wake?
Do you care that the tuna will disappear from the high seas? How could we manage the blue fin tuna population so that future generations can still enjoy it?