A Global Fish Crisis - The Giant Bluefin Tuna

I read an interesting article which reports on the devastating ecological effects of overfishing around the world.  I thought I would share its content with you since it deals with the near extinction of one of the world's great wonders in the animal kingdom of which we are all part of.  We've seen the extinction of the dinosaur and many other creatures, and wonder what it would be like to see these animals and have them be part of our ecosystem.  The article focuses on the giant bluefin tuna and its rare structural attributes, like its buttered belly meat, that makes it one of the most attractive catch to serve as suchi and steak in the Japan, American and European markets.  Other species also suffer or have suffered the same fate, example, the cod, the swordfish and sharks.  Bycatches are also caught in nets and left to suffocate and then dumped.

Fishermen use strategies that involve the use of fleets of purse-seine boats and spotter aircrafts to locate and haul in millions of tuna.  Additionally, tuna ranches are20springing up all over the Mediterranean, where bluefin tuna are caught and transferred to coastal sea cages, fed oily fish to give their flesh a high fat content greatly prized in Japan.  They are then killed offshore, and frozen.  The spread of tuna ranching also mean that bluefin are being wiped out at all stages of their life cycle.  Japanese companies stockpile thousands of tons in giant freezers.  The result of these events is that an "ecological and economic suicide" is being committed leading to the depletion of the ocean's bluefin tuna, shark, cod, haddock, sea bass, hake, red snapper, orange roughy, grouper, grenadier, sturgeon, plaice, rockfish, and skate among other species.  Governments have done little to alleviate these situations and this global fish crisis continues.

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