If it was a whale or a rhinoceros

Think now; how would you really feel if you were offered a white rhinoceros steak for dinner? Hopefully appalled; there's maybe 12,000 left in Africa (and a few in zoos). Or how about someone suggesting a banquet featuring fillets of northern right whale? Even more appalling; there might be 300 left. Even if the whale was not the highly endangered right whale, and was a blue or a minke or a humpback, most of us (with some exceptions in Japan, Norway and the Inuit) have pretty much gone beyond eating whale, and virtually nobody thinks about grilling a Rhinoburger.

Which brings me to the bluefin tuna; one of the most magnificent fish in the ocean, if not THE most magnificent. Built for speed, with adaptations for warming the blood and muscles to maintain high-speed swimming capability in frigid waters. It even has retractable pectoral fins -- it's the F-15 jet of the ocean! The tail of the bluefin tuna has the perfect camber and shape to generate power. This is a magnificent aquatic machine.

And we eat it! It's a delicacy. It's extraordinarily high-priced, partly due to heavy demand from sushi consumers. The Mediterranean stock is highly endangered, and still countries protest that they haven't taken their share. Wake up; you're eating a rhinoceros.

This:














Or this:



So what should we do about humanity's voracious appetite for seafood, which is depleting the worlds fisheries (even though a lot of fish are being caught to feed pork and chicken -- let them eat soymeal, for goshsakes)? Answer: control the mind of the consumer. Make it a truly moral choice not to eat seafood, or to eat different kinds of seafood. Change the tradition. Make turkey sushi. (I've had it; it's good!) Compare eating bluefin tuna to eating rhinoceros, or panda, or orangutang. Change people's minds, give them better choices, and lower demand.

Turkey Sushi Recipe

There is some hope:
Spain, Japan Back Bluefin Tuna Ban

EU agrees to tougher protection of tuna stocks

Jessica Simpson was confused, thinking that "Chicken of the Sea" tuna was chicken. Well, it's not; it's wild, it's free, and it's threatened. Eat mor chikn.