Another Possible BP Casualty: Bluefin Tuna

[G_j]

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_27/b4185008544732.htm

Another Possible BP Casualty: Bluefin Tuna

Part of the Gulf Mexico that overlaps the oil spill is a major spawning ground, and many fishermen and officials are worried

By Bruce Einhorn and Stuart Biggs


June 28, 2010
Greece: Life Amid the Ruins

Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market is a long way from the oil-drenched waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Starting at 4 a.m. every day, agents from Japanese trading companies bid for bluefin tuna and other fish from around the world that lie side by side on the floor of a cavernous warehouse. Bluefin is a mainstay of any sushi restaurant in Tokyo, and the giant fish—sometimes weighing more than 500 pounds—is the king of Tsukiji. BP's spill is billowing near one of two spawning grounds for the Atlantic variety of bluefin (the other is in the Mediterranean). For now, fishmongers in Tsukiji say they're not worried about the effect the BP (BP) disaster will have on the bluefin population. "If there's an impact," says one trader for local wholesaler Umino who won't give his full name, "we won't see it for a few years."

Go to the U.S., though, and you'll find plenty of scientists, state officials, and fishermen wondering already about the disaster's impact on the bluefin. Japan last year consumed about 80 percent of the world's bluefin catch, or 52,000 tons, according to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries. A large chunk of that comes from the Atlantic. The chemicals BP is using to contain the spill could damage the bluefin larvae produced by adults that spawned in the Gulf. "The oil plus the dispersants are likely to have a huge effect," says Bill Fox, managing director for fisheries at the World Wildlife Fund. For the Atlantic bluefin, "this is a real blow."

Scientists from several institutions, including the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, are trying to figure how big the blow really is. Bluefin tuna live for up to 40 years, and in that time many repeat the same cycle endlessly: spawn in the Gulf or the Mediterranean, then head to the teeming waters of the North Atlantic to feed. Spawning in the Gulf takes place from March to June, and the spawning ground overlaps with the oil spill. Bluefin need clean ocean water to spawn—adults spawn at the surface, so they may have gotten coated with oil while spawning this year.

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[csziggy]

1. The Japanese are relieved - now they won't get blamed for Bluefin extinction

Due to their overfishing.

[G_j]

2. Feb. 2010: Japan Says It Will Ignore A Ban On Bluefin Tuna

http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/japan-says-it-will-ignore-a-ban-on-bluefin-tuna/

Japan has announced that it will ignore a ban on international trade of the Atlantic bluefin tuna. This will likely be a hot topic when the meeting of the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) takes place in March.

The bluefin tuna is the foundation for one of the most profitable fisheries in Japan. The country also uses the fish for a pricey sashimi delicacy. Unfortunately, the bluefin tuna is also one of the world's most endangered fish species, found on Greenpeace's red list.

Bluefin tuna are collected from fish farms and killed when they are still too young to mate. Their slow sexual maturity might mean the end of the bluefin tuna, unless the world's nations come together to protect this valuable species at the CITES CoP15 next month.

A representative from Japan has said they don't believe bluefin tuna is endangered "to that extent." They insist the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) should be the one to moniter the bluefin tuna population, instead of CITES. (Perhaps this is because when a species is added to the CITES list, it is not removed.) Does Japan not know that 60,000 tons of bluefin tuna are fished each year, when the legal limit is only 22,000 tons? This makes the bluefin tuna grossly overfished, and the only way to prevent its imminent extinction might be a worldwide ban.

Suspiciously, Japanese company, Mitsubishi, who controls 35-40 percent of that 60,000 tons of bluefin tuna stock, has been accused of hoarding thousands of bluefin tuna. Conservationists think Mitsubishi might be trying to corner the market, so if and when bluefin tuna become extinct, the price will skyrocket and they will turn an obscene profit.

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[csziggy]

3. These food fetishers are getting totally out of hand

To keep harvesting endangered species is just obscene.