The Last of the Bluefin Tuna? | Hacker News Reader

The Last of the Bluefin Tuna?

food.theatlantic.com

33 pointsrobg20 comments

All fish are being caught faster than they can reproduce. I've experienced it first hand having fished offshore for 20 years. In those 20 years, I've seen stocks decline drastically across many, many species.

Cut your fish consumption to 1/5 of your current consumption now, or you are the problem.

No, don't cut your consumption, that's just burying your head in the sand and lowering prices for someone else. This isn't a situation like reducing the amount of trash you throw out, where every little bit makes a difference. (throwing out less trash doesn't incentivize other people to throw out more.)

The only solution to protecting a limited shared resource is through agreement (government regulation and international treaties).

I really hate I didn't come back and reply to this. Since when is contributing to the problem less, burying your head?

I agree share resource is the answer, but it'll never happen. YOU however can make a change today by not going to all you can eat sushi.

Limiting the use of the resource will happen one way or another, whether is through government control or mother nature not providing us more fish.

Pretending that eating less fish is going to make a difference in the long term is ignoring the fact that most people aren't going to follow your advice. Consumption of expensive foods is growing around the world, so if demand for fish is lowered in North America, that will drive down the price and allow people in poorer countries to consume more fish, resulting in an economic equilibrium.

The best thing we can have is very high domestic demand for fish, which will bring large earnings to the domestic fishing industry, and motivate them to secure their livelyhoods in the long term by pressuring the government to take action against less ethical foreign fisheries.

Some fishes are ok, right?

Yes. The Monterey Bay Aquarium ranks fish based on sustainability and publishes the lists as pocket guides. I always carry it with me when I go to the market. The list is at http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx if you're interested.

Farmed fish are sustainable - salmon, talapia...

Actually went to Hawaii for the first time last week caught and caught few Yellowtail and skipjack tuna of the Kona coast. They fight like hell. Ate it on the boat.

Tilapia may well be fine as they are largely fed a plant based diet.

Salmon are fed a fish based diet. The fishmeal is obtained from less desirable fish but they're still taken from the oceans. Their stocks won't be as dangerously low but eventually they will be consumed.

I was looking into it a while ago - remember reading that fish farms can be quite terrible for spreading disease and polluting the surrounding area. Not to mention farmed salmon being fed dye etc.

Sustainable just means they can keep on doing it. Not that it's environmentally positive.

This reminded me a discussion on the public radio a few months ago.

Here is an interesting fact: "Japan imports 90% of the world’s blue-fin for use in sushi and other dishes" [1]

http://www.pri.org/science/environment/ban-bluefin-tuna-trad...

And then exports some of that back to sushi restaurants the world over.

From the Monterey Bay SeaFood Watch application I have on my Iphone...

"Rating: Avoid - All populations of bluefin tuna are being caught faster than they can reproduce. Bluefin is being further depleted by ranching operations that collect small bluefin and raise them to full size to sell primarily to the sushi market"

Best alternatives are: Albacore (U.S Pacific), Bigeye, Skipjack (Troll), Yellowfin.

If you eat canned fish, try Jack Mackerel. It's cheaper and in my opinion tastes better than canned tuna or salmon.

More oceans should get their own domains.

The overall ocean ecosystem seems to be perilously closer to collapse:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sylvia_earle_s_ted_prize_w...

It's too bad toro is just so god damned delicious.

Not to mention heavily fortified with nutritious mercury compounds!

It's too bad toro is just so god damned delicious.

Agreed Toro is amazing.

Interesting. It's interesting how toro used to be the piece of the tuna that was either thrown away or the fisherman kept it because no one else wanted it. Today it's nearly a delicacy. Funny how perceptions change.

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