The Declining Bluefin Tuna Population By: Sydney Truxillo

To the American public, sushi was once nothing more than an outrageous idea. Perhaps, if you lived thirty years ago, your friend suggested you try sushi at one of the few restaurants that existed. At that point, you most likely have heard about it, but chances are that you could not even swallow the idea of consuming raw meat. However, the dish’s popularity was spreading like wildfire

Presently, Sushi is perhaps one of the most beloved foods in America, tuna being of the post popular rolls. While this phenomenon has undoubtedly spawned a new era of cultural appreciation, an increase in demand has indisputably caused a problem with no easy solution: an enormous decrease in the bluefin tuna population. In short, fishing bluefin tuna is a lucrative business, just mere slices of the fish costing thousands upon thousands of dollars. However, this is not without consequence. For the past thirty years, the bluefin tuna population has decreased by over 70%. Tragically, the fish is now considered endangered.

The consequences of overfishing go beyond the risk of losing this animal due to extinction. For instance, new methods of catching the fish, such as the use of larger nets, has caused larger animals to get caught and killed in the nets. An innumerable amount of large fish and mammals are lost alongside the bluefin tuna. For example, it is theorized that for every target caught, three tons of other fish are caught, killed, and thrown away. In addition, 25% of the worlds caught fish are thrown overboard due to being fished unintentionally Tuna fisheries in particular are responsible for one million shark deaths per year.

Likewise, the bluefin tuna is a predator; wiping out their population will inadvertently cause a chain of events detrimental to the entirety of species below it on the food chain. With the predator removed, the fish the bluefin once ate will begin to overpopulate. At that, they will need a larger population of their prey to survive, which will, most likely, not exist. A consequence of this is genetic diversity of fish worldwide being decreased.

It is important that every action necessary be taken to prevent outright extinction of the bluefin tuna. For millennia, the ocean has been an important resource for humanity, and without knowledge of how to use this resource, we would not exist as we are. To exploit it is not only detrimental to the population of fish and mammals that inhabit its waters, but the species closest to us that depends on it for survival: us.

Sources:

“Longlining, Overfishing & Atlantic Bluefin Tuna.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/emptyoceans/eoen/tuna/index.html.

 “The Threats of Overfishing: Consequences at the Commercial Level,” DUJS, 11 Mar. 2011, dujs.dartmouth.edu/2012/03/the-threats-of-overfishing-consequences-at-the-commercial-level/#.WphClOdMHIU.  

Bestor, Theodore C. “How Sushi Went Global.” Foreign Policy, no. 121, 2000, pp. 54–63. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1149619.