Bluefin tuna ban languishes for "more research"; first step should be turkey sushi for Japan

The Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishing ban that seemed so promising a couple of weeks ago failed a vote; now the involved parties want to wait for more data. That's like waiting to see if your house is going to burn down while collecting data on how quickly the flames are moving to the second floor.

No consensus for global tuna trade veto

I have a quick translation for this: bluefin tuna is too profitable right now to give up. As soon as there are so few tuna left that it becomes unprofitable to get the scant few remaining (the scant few being too few to allow populations to recover, of course), then we can talk about a ban.

Why is bluefin tuna SO endangered? The onus is on Japan, and the United states.

Fish consumption and trade on the rise


China has been consuming more, but also producing more, too. Apparently quite a bit of tilapia and carp???

Global fish trade facts (careful, it's a PDF)

Japan imports $14 billion worth of seafood, the U.S. $13.3 billion, as of 2006.

Top fish exporters and importers

Spain has TRIPLE the per capita fish consumption of average fish consumers globally!

Empty coasts, barren seas


Sobering extracts:


"The EU is partly to blame for overfishing world fish stocks; it ranks among those with the largest fishing fleets – 90,000 of the world’s 1.3 million decked vessels. It is estimated that about 80% of all species in EU territorial waters are overfished. Spain and the UK lead in the number of foreign fleets outside
Europe. Some estimates suggest that about 60% of fish landed in the EU come from outside its territorial waters."

"But while aquaculture is projected to take pressure off the world’s oceans, we should note that it is also increasingly contributing to their demise. The rapid expansion of farming shrimp, salmon and other carnivorous high-value species such as cod, sea bass, and tuna has increasingly diverted fish catch into industrial feed rather than food for people. This comes into direct conflict with local food security, as it takes 2–5 kg of wild-caught fish, processed into fish meal and fish oil for feed, to produce a single kilogram of farmed fishmeat.16 In 2006, the aquaculture sector consumed an estimated 23.8 million tonnes of small pelagic fish in the form of feed inputs (about 26% of total world catch from capture fisheries), including 3.72 million tonnes used to make fish meal, 0.83 million tonnes to make fish oil used in compounded aquafeeds, and an additional 7.2 million tonnes of low value/trash fish as direct feed or in farm-made aquafeeds."

The fish and seafood market in Japan


Opening paragraph:

"Japan is the world's largest consumer and importer of fish and seafood products. Imports accounted for about 45% or nearly $17.3 billion(1) of the total fish and seafood market in 2005. About half of Japan's total fishery product imports consist of shrimp, tuna and marlin, salmon and trout, crab, processed eels, cod and pollock roes, and processed shrimp. Although per-capita Japanese fish and seafood consumption has fallen slightly in recent years, Japan's self-sufficiency in supplying its domestic demand is falling at a greater pace, creating increased dependency on imports. Total fish and seafood sales in Japan were estimated by Thomson Business Intelligence to be $104.5 billion in 2005--up from $98 billion in 2004--and are projected to reach $141.8 billion by 2010."

More:

"The average per-capita fish consumption in 2004 was 34.5 kg (net weight), down from 35.7 kg in 2003, but still remains the highest fish consumption rate in the world. The average Japanese household spent $1026 on fish and seafood in 2005. Total fish and seafood sales in Japan, estimated by Thomson Business Intelligence to have increased from $98 billion in 2004 to $104.5 billion in 2005, may reach $141.8 billion by 2010.

Japan is also the world's largest fish and seafood importer, importing nearly $17.3-billion worth of fish and seafood products in 2005. Because of the immensity of the Japanese fish and seafood market, Japan is generally considered the world price-setter for fish and seafood products."

More, specifically about tuna:

"Japan is the world's largest producer and market for fresh and frozen tuna and tuna-based products (excluding canned tuna). On average, a Japanese household spends $77 on tuna per year, well-above the $43-per-year average for shrimp, the second-most consumed fish and seafood product. Consumer spending on tuna increases dramatically in December, with prices reaching up to $22 per saku (120-150 g) in the last week of December (leading up to most important holiday in Japan, shogatsu [New Year]). Bluefin tuna, southern bluefin and bigeye tuna are the highest-priced tunas."

But...

"Consumers and buyers in Japan are fairly price conscious and with prices increasing, these factors are changing Japanese consumption of fish and seafood products. For example, Japanese consumption of surimi has fallen to 52% of the global total from 65% five years ago, due to the rising popularity of surimi in Western countries. Since domestic retailers do not accept price hikes for kamaboko, Japanese surimi importers are often beaten on price by foreign companies.

Many restaurants and fish retailers are dealing with the increased prices by revising their menus or selling fish in smaller portions. For example, the Mutenkura sushi bar in Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, have increased their offering of non-sushi dishes to account for 30% of their menu, thereby reducing the impact of rising fish prices. Ito-Yokado Co., a major supermarket in Japan, reduced the quantity of sashimi it sells in packs in order to cut the unit price by 13%, but has maintained the same price. If the fish gets too expensive, fish and seafood retailers will withdraw the pricier fish from their offerings. Many sushi restaurants stopped offering salmon once it became more expensive than delicacies such as toro (fatty tuna) or uni.

In Japan, as consumers adopt a more Westernized diet and increase consumption of meat, fish and seafood consumption has fallen. Where traditionally the Japanese diet relied almost entirely on fish and seafood for animal protein, in 2003 fish consumption accounted for only 39% of total animal protein intake. Markets for traditional products (e.g. herring roe, smelt, or spawn on kelp) are stagnant or declining. In 2004, however, the volume of fish and seafood consumed by Japanese households still exceeded that of meat by 37%.

Consumers are purchasing fewer fresh fish and seafood products directly from retailers, and are consuming more fresh fishery products in the food-service sector and through consuming ready meals (e.g. boxed meals, rice balls). This change in consumption patterns can be attributed in part to an increase in the number of
single-member and two-member households, which tend to prefer convenient meal solutions, and an increase in the number of working women, which has decreased households' time available for cooking from scratch."


In my evaluation of this, the time is right to get Japan to back the EU bluefin tuna ban, and to get their consumers to change their patterns substantively. That would give the ban a chance to stick. Gut the market, and then gut a lot less bluefin tuna. Get the Japanese to enjoy turkey sushi (and the U.S. can export a lot of that).