anyone who knows me is familiar with my love of sushi. there is nothing i enjoy more than sitting down with a huge plate of sashimi, nigiri, and maki, and a bunch of friends. but recently i have been hearing some disturbing facts about sushi that have made me question my decision to gorge on this possibly non-ethical meal.
i spend my days working hard to protect endangered species in Ontario. imagine my surprise to learn that when i go out to celebrate, i might have an endangered species on my plate. little did i know that if you order tuna in your neighborhood sushi restaurant, you too could be chewing the wrong thing — specifically, southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii), a species classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
there is no question bluefin tuna is in serious trouble. scientists found that the population of Atlantic bluefin tuna is below 15 percent of what it was before commercial fishing began. the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the management body responsible for Atlantic bluefin, has repeatedly ignored the advice of its own scientists and failed to tackle overfishing and pirate fishing of the species. ICCAT cut the bluefin quota by one-third to 13,500tonnes in 2010, but this might not be enough, considering there is big money in illegal tuna fishery.
With a vote of 72 to 43, and 14 abstentions, the 129 member governments of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) rejected a proposed bluefin tuna trade ban at their meeting in Qatar this week. Canada voted against the ban. apparently Canadian fisheries are actually noted as managing the fishery for this species with conservation in mind. in Atlantic Canada, bluefin is caught using hook-and-line fishing; the tuna are caught individually and tracked to market individually. this is one of the better ways to catch the species, with very little bycatch.
at a more local level, sushi eaters can help the bluefin by not ordering any tuna sushi except when you have confidence that the restaurant can confirm that bluefin tuna is not being served. in canada, we can choose species such as yellowfin or albacore tuna (maguro or shiro maguro) if we ask where it came from and how it was caught. if a restaurant doesn't know, it should not be on your plate.
there's a few pocket sized cards that can help you make this distinction, links below are for Canada's Sustainable Sushi Guide and Pocket Sushi Selector from Environmental Defense Fund, which you can put on your phone.
