Hamburger Sushi in
Japan
?
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
According to an article I was watching on CBS this morning, the bluefin tuna population looks like its being over fished so the Japanese people might have to start developing a new palette for hamburger sushi or something like that. They're saying, at a major fish auction house the amount of 3,000 whole bluefin fish a day are being sold instead of the 9,000 fish a day just a few years ago. This has raised the price of a whole bluefin to as much as $14,000 in auction. The concern now is the possible extinction of the species. If a fish is $14,000 that must make bluefin sushi pretty pricey in
Japan
, so maybe it's only the wealthy that are feeling the pinch and starting the outcry. The regular Joe in
Japan
is probably buying another type of sushi that isn't so price sensitive.
So, is the bluefin going the way of T-Rex? I personally don't know if this is something we really have a good understanding about because it's a migrating fish. However if it's going extinct, then we can blame all the sushi lovers for killing off a species. Reports are pretty convincing that the numbers of fish being taken from the sea is increasing over the quotas set while they say the population of fish decreases from a report in a National Geographic news article. The Atlantic bluefin spawns in the
Mediterranean Sea
, its being over fished and the main offenders are
France
,
Libya
, and
Turkey
according to the WWF. It was mentioned on CBS this morning that both Europeans and Americans have developed the love of sushi, which was at one time only
Japan
was the major consumer. I think most of the fish is still going to
Japan
because it can command such a high price at auction.
I have seen articles on the farming of these fish and even a show on satellite TV channels about the tuna cowboys of the sea. These guys actually herd the fish into large nets and then slowly drag the haul back to where the fish can be processed. It's a large endeavor using spotter planes, radar, sonar and all the imaginable tools to find the quarry at sea, trap it in vast numbers and then get them to market. Millions of dollars are paid for these fish hauls and then they wind up flash frozen and shipped to the fish auction houses in
Japan
.
If you like TV shows that are very informative like this, get a free satellite TV system installed so you can watch them. Satellite TV also has more HDTV channels than cable TV offers, so it's great to pay less and get more channels also.