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Tuna Troubles
Posted on Wed, January 23, 2008 by Jerusha Klemperer
3 Comments | Categories: News, Current Events, Seafood,
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Yes, tuna troubles–but for whom? For a few years now, conservation groups have been sounding the alarum bell about the collapse of bluefin tuna populations. The increasing demand for the beautiful reddish pink flesh of raw tuna in sushi bars around the world (but most notably in Japan and the U.S.) has severely depleted tuna stocks to the point that last August, the U.S. called for a complete ban on bluefin tuna fishing.
You wouldn't know it, of course, to go into any high end sushi bar; front and center you'll always find large slabs of the shiny raw fish. Restaurants seem to have no problem flagrantly defying the cries of the E.U., the U.S. government, and conservation groups.
A report on the front page of the New York Times today reveals there might finally be something to curb people's appetite for the bluefin–their own personal safety. A survey of several of NYC's sushi restaurants (most of them quite high end) revealed unhealthily high levels of mercury in the fish, above the FDA's "action level" (which means they could have cause to pull the dangerous food off the market).
As of right now the article is the number one most-emailed article on the Times' website. Are diners finally ready to cut out tuna? Will the bluefin's high mercury levels be the thing that saves it from extinction? Perhaps the "tuna troubles" no longer belong to the tuna, but to the eater.
Member Comments
From Jeremy Brown on Wed, January 23, 2008
There is a good deal more to this story than even the NYT will cover.
The proposed ban was not complete, ie Global, but just for the North East Atlantic, where stocks are indeed in deep trouble. Elsewhere, such as in the Pacific, stocks are in better, if not optimum shape, and there has been no talk of any ban on fishing.
Neither is the chemistry of mercury in seafood so simple. Whilst we are quite confident that methyl mercury is toxic on its own, there is growing evidence that in the context of seafood, where it is bound very tightly with selenium, (also at one time considered toxic, now understood to be a vital mineral) there is simply no evidence of its toxic effect.
Caution and moderation are however apropriate. Gorging on any one food is generally not smart, but you have to ask yourself if there is the risk some zealots would have us believe, why are the Japanese, who eat so much more seafood than do Americans, not brain-dead?
From http://freedombloghost.info/?p=24905 on Thu, January 24, 2008
[…] Slow Food USA wrote an interesting post today on Tuna TroublesHere’s a quick excerptThe increasing demand for the beautiful reddish pink flesh of raw tuna in sushi bars around the world (but most notably in Japan and the US) has severely depleted tuna stocks to the point that last August, the US called for a complete … […]
From http://www.ninereports.com/story.php?sid=783332-29 on Wed, February 13, 2008
[…] … corey bienert photography - Last Updated - Monday February 4 Request a Trackback Tuna Troubles Yes, tuna troubles–but for whom? For a few years now, conservation groups have been sounding […]
