Sustainable development blog : ecology and humanitarian aid

Translated from the original Spanish (http://blog.humanityy.com/es/un-genocidio-por-unos-sushis/) by Pamela Paterson.

The sushi trend or the programmed extinction of the Tuna. This treat, which is highly fashionable in the western world, is a threat to the survival of fish and other species such as the shark or the blue fin tuna worldwide. The situation is so grave that the principality of Monaco has proposed that tuna be registered in

the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) so that foreign trade of this species is prohibited, a step triggered by overfishing and illegal fishing.

A much appreciated delicacy of sushi eaters, the tuna is a victim of its own success. However, so many consume fish in such a frantic manner that the ocean is emptying relentlessly and unstoppably.

Agony and decline of a species. The reserves of blue fin tuna in the south, where the Japanese usually fish, have been exhausted to only numbering around 80. The Atlantic tuna has therefore become the new target and is fished mostly in the Mediterranean, where the fish breed. This fish is caught by groups of Mediterranean countries which meet with a large number of boats from the rest of the world. The main fishing countries are France, Spain and Italy. Also, these fish come from bait farms on the Maltese coast.

The tuna, victim of global enthusiasm, could meet the same destiny as the Newfoundland cod did 20 years ago. This species became extinct due to excessive fishing. After the efforts employed by Japan, the Conference on Endangered Species met in Qatar on the March18^th . They rejected the proposal to ban fishing of blue fin tuna in the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

It’s worth mentioning that 80% of the world’s fish pass by Japan. In Tokyo’s main fish market each day they exchange around 2000 tons of fish, of which 50 are tuna from the Mediterranean, condemned to extinction by the absence of quick and effective solutions. Behind this lucrative market six Japanese multinational companies share out the haul and store more than 60,000 tuna in enormous safes at -60°C, which allows them to play with worldwide prices. The result is that in Japan the tuna is worth gold. The falling prices provoke fishermen to fish above the quotas in order to repay their men. The Mitsubishi firm alone owns 60% of the stocks. Fishing boats, the instruments of this mass fishing, scrape the bottom of the seas and bring up 40 tons of catch in each net, of which 70% is “supplementary catch”, which is returned to the sea.

Ecological and economical impact. According to the director of research at the Institute for Research and Development (IRD), the number of fishing boats is between two and three times too much in order for the fish to be able to replenish itself. At this rate all commercial species will have disappeared from here by 2050.

It is estimated that 80% of stocks of blue fin tuna have disappeared in the last 20 years (from 1990 to 2010). Nevertheless, the farming of these fish also has grave ecological consequences. 15kg of wild fish are necessary to feed 1kg of blue fin tuna. Overfishing and intensive farming represent a threat towards the ecological balance of some coastal areas (principally Senegal and the South American coast) as well as spoiling local economies. Nets, trawlers or fish traps are used far beyond the limits of the species regenerating and also are responsible for the decrease in the populations of both target and non-target species (those that they do not directly want to catch).

The instruments of intensive fishing like drifter nets have numerous inconveniences like the lack of selectivity: they capture equal amounts of fish, dolphins and turtles. They are very effective and present a real danger for the equilibrium of the species and the maintenance of our resources. This fishing practice, although regulated in the EU since 2002, continues creating many victims in the Mediterranean and in seas all over the planet.

The slaughter continues on the African coast, where the traditional fishermen who are unable to get fish, board Chinese factory ships as slaves. A migratory wave has been observed from Greenland to the coast of Canada.

In Europe it seems that the dolphins and porpoises are going down to the south while the north Atlantic is overexploited. On the coast of Newfoundland the scarcity of fish has provoked a drop in the size of Hunchback Whales, which live in these waters. In Chile the industrial farming of salmon has, instead of helping nature, provoked the closure of all the farms and condemnation of the workers that depend on them, due to the suffocation and contamination they cause.

During the CITES conference,  Japan, supported by the majority of developing countries, who feared that the Japanese would start to attack their fish stocks, has turned a deaf ear to the appeals of scientists and ecologists. Tuna has lost the war. Economic interests have achieved a crushing victory over the conservation of our planet.

When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, and the last river has disappeared, then man will discover that money can’t be eaten.