PandemicGreen

For sushi lovers the extreme price is a bad sign—it could mean that our favorite sushi fish is on the brink of extinction from over-fishing. It could also mean that fisheries are becoming more regulated, as we find out that we are depleting fish populations.

According to the AP:

Two sushi bar owners paid more than $100,000 for a Japanese bluefin
tuna at a Tokyo fish auction Monday, several times the average price
and the highest in nearly a decade, market officials said.

Due to growing concerns over the impact of commercial fishing on the
bluefin variety’s survival, members of international tuna conservation
organizations, including Japan, have agreed to cut their bluefin catch
quota for 2009 by 20 percent to 22,000 tons.

The 282-pound (128-kilogram) premium tuna caught off the northern
coast of Oma fetched 9.63 million yen ($104,700), the highest since
2001, when another Japanese bluefin tuna brought an all-time record of
20 million yen, market official Takashi Yoshida said.

Yoshida said the extravagant purchase — about $370 per pound ($817 per
kilogram) — went to a Hong Kong sushi bar owner and his Japanese
competitor who reached a peaceful settlement to share the big fish.
The Hong Kong buyer also paid the highest price at last year’s new
year event at Tokyo’s Tsukiji market, the world’s largest fish seller,
which holds near-daily auctions.

I love eating at sushi bars, but I catch myself worrying about the fisheries and how humans are destroying one of our important renewable resources. At this rate, pretty soon all the sushi bars will be just bars.