Background
Bluefin tuna, one of the largest species of
fish found in the world, was once looked down upon; the fish was used primarily
for cat food in the U.S., and sold for only pennies per pound. However, by the
1970s, Japan started developing a taste for Bluefin, and with the surge of
sushi bars popping up outside of Japan, Bluefin became one of the most
sought-after fishes by fishermen worldwide: after 1970, fishing for Bluefin in
the Western Atlantic increased by over 2,000 percent, and the average price for
an Atlantic Bluefin exported to Japan rose by 10,000 percent (Narula). Since
then, both of these massive increases have led to an overfishing of Bluefin
tuna. With this prevalent overfishing and the lack of concrete data on the Bluefin tuna, conservation efforts need to be stepped up in order to prevent this species from going completely extinct.
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| Kiyoshi Kimura with the first Bluefin auctioned off at the Tsukuji Fish market. Photo credit to AFP/Getty Images. |
Each year on the first Saturday of January,
the famous Tsukuji Fish Market in Tokyo, Japan auctions off a single Bluefin
tuna. In recent years, the price has been increasing to the point where it was
almost $2,000,000 in 2013. This price represents many things – growing consumer
demand for Bluefin, exploitation of a natural resource, declining of a species,
shortsightedness in conservation, among other things. However, in 2014, the
price dropped to a mere $70,000, which is miniscule in comparison.
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| Graph from Narula’s article from The Atlantic, detailing the change in the price of the 1st Bluefin auctioned off each year at the Tsukuji Fish Market in Tokyo. |
Kiyoshi Kimura, who has purchased this first
fish from 2012-2014, did not explicitly state the reasons behind why he pays so
much (or so little) for the right to the first Bluefin. It could be a sign that
the Japanese fish market industry has become more aware of the problems the
Bluefin tuna faces, or it could mean that they just don’t care about the fish
at all anymore. Regardless of the reasons, it doesn’t change the fact that the
Bluefin tuna population is in a dangerous state, and something must be done to
ensure its survival into the future.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization released a document detailing the status for each of the world’s
major fish species, with their definitions listed below as stated by the UNFAO’s
General situation of world fish stocks:
- Underexploited - Undeveloped or new fishery. Believed to have a significant potential for expansion in total production
- Moderately exploited - Exploited with a low level of fishing effort. Believed to have some limited potential for expansion in total production
- Fully exploited - The fishery is operating at or close to an optimal yield level, with no expected room for further expansion
- Overexploited - The fishery is being exploited at above a level which is believed to be sustainable in the long term, with no potential room for further expansion and a higher risk of stock depletion/collapse
- Depleted - Catches are well below historical levels, irrespective of the amount of fishing effort exerted
- Recovering - Catches are again increasing after having been depleted
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| Synthetic graph stacking data from FAO report on fish stocks. Graph details how much of each type of tuna species is caught in which oceans per year. Only Bluefin species are depleted, other two are overexploited. |
The document has a section dedicated to the stock of all tuna species across all oceans, and lists the Pacific Bluefin as overexploited, the Atlantic Bluefin as overexploited in the East and depleted in the West, and the Southern Bluefin as depleted (FAO 4). The Bluefin tuna is also listed as endangered on the IUCN red list, stating that the species has been overfished past its maximum sustainable yield, and that current conservation actions are not fully enforced (IUCN). With a UN committee acknowledging that Bluefin stocks are overexploited and, in some cases, depleted, as well as the official IUCN endangered listing, it is clear that something must be done in order to help restore the Bluefin population.
