The Ethical Consumerist Report - Demand for sushi endangers tuna

[Taverner]

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1862255,00.html?cnn=yes


The Sushi Wars: Can the Bluefin Tuna Be Saved?

By Vivienne Walt Friday, Nov. 28, 2008

Fishermen gathering in the nets with their catch of tuna off the Straits of Gibraltar


If an army marches on its stomach, then the key item in the kit bags of the Roman legions that conquered southern Europe about 2,000 years was dried bluefin tuna. But having survived the demands of the Roman conquest, the species — each of which can weigh as much as 1,500 pounds and live as long as 40 years — might finally have met its match in the contemporary global appetite for sushi.

If environmentalists and marine scientists are right, the world's remaining stocks of bluefin tuna, 90% of which are in the Mediterranean, could be on the verge of extinction. Says Alain Fonteneau, a marine biologist for France's government-run Institute for Development Research in Montpellier: "If we do nothing, in five years we will fish the last bluefin tuna."

<SNIP>


OK so what does this mean? Next time in a Sushi Bar, don't order tuna. Salmon maybe - but the most ethical would be imitation crab

[sui generis]

1. well, unless a Sushi bar removes Tuna from the menu

the existence of the restaurant is enough demand from the distributor.

Better idea is to lobby sushi restaurants to change their menus and inform their distributors. The really sicko thing is bluefins can get to be really old - like forty+ years or something if I recall correctly.

[unpossibles]

6. yes and no

The restaurants buy their tuna and other meat based on their demand, and if they stop seeing demand, they buy less. They have to. They cannot afford to keep buying things if demand is down, especially expensive meat.

[Matariki]

2. Here's a very good, printable list to take with you to the sushi bar

Sushi:
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=29774

Seafood in general:
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1521


I'm sad to see that my favorite, yellowtail, is on the eco-worst list :-(
I blame too many people having too many children.

[sfam]

5. That list looks difficult to follow...

Take Salmon for instance - there are types listed there which are Eco-good and others which are Eco-bad, but both go under the same name (Sake). How exactly would we know? Same with the Tuna for Eco-OK and Bad. My guess is the Sushi place probably wouldn't know either, assuming they spoke good enough English to communicate this.

[Taverner]

7. Don't follow it verbatim - but tend to order along it

[Matariki]

8. You can ask. The salmon you want to avoid is Atlantic farmed salmon.

They put it on the menu at most sushi places I eat at.

[MasonJar]

3. Demand your sushi bar bar tuna or threaten to stop coming. If enough sushi

eaters step up, the fish might be saved. Just as with the shortsighted loggers, fishermen are bringing ruin to their own livelihoods.

[leftofthedial]

4. let the free market decide whether the world needs tuna or not.

what are you, some sort of fish-hugging commie?