We’ve already mentioned the declining bluefin tuna population and farming efforts put in place to try to ease up on them. Now an international scientific study has said more than double the allowed quota of bluefin tuna is being traded. The high level of trading going on with the fatty delicacy are severely threatening its population, as if it wasn’t already at an incredibly high risk.
The Pew Environment Group has said the exceeded catch doesn’t even take into account the black market of bluefin tuna, which would further increase the number of bluefin being caught and traded. As one of the world’s most expensive fish, caught largely in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, many restaurants may soon see a decline in availability, and customers will see increasing prices on bluefin dishes.
According to bluefin tuna expert Lee Crocket, “the bluefin tuna trade is rife with fraud and misinformation.†He has called for a change in the corruption-prone documents, requesting full-blown electric surveillance of bluefin tuna trading, from the minute it’s on the boat to the minute it’s on the plate. Pew plans on having this in effect by the start of the 2012 season.
Humans sure have a knack for eating everything until it’s gone, don’t we? Between bluefin tuna corruption and one-third of freshwater fish getting closer to extinction, it may not be long until many wild sea creatures exists nowhere but the history books.
Do you think the concept of plant-based protein will ever catch on? What is the answer to overfishing the world’s oceans?
CC licensed by Masayoshi Sekimura: Bluefin Tuna
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