The globalized nature of contemporary society resulted in the widespread proliferation of cultural commodities. This is present in the entertainment world, multinational corporations, and even food culture. In developed countries, the cultural palate expanded to include international delicacies. One of these delicacies is modern sushi. This industry began in Japan, but over time it became a global phenomenon in restaurants everywhere. The explosion of this industry placed additional demands on fishing, namely of bluefin tuna. While essential to restaurants across the world, these animals are in danger of extinction from overfishing. These apex predators are critical to the marine food web. Our level of consumption of undomesticated species
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While it was a local dish, served with fish from along Japanese shores, it has evolved into a phenomenon for food connoisseurs worldwide. In mid 1950s, the first sashimi restaurants put down roots on the California Coast. Not even twenty years later, America would become accustomed to the self-proclaimed California Roll (Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Status Review Team 23). We live in a sushi-crazed society. We have sushi in our grocery stores, sushi restaurants on every street, sushi magnets for our refrigerators. American pop culture has become increasingly Japanophilic. Not only did the post-World War II globalization trend bring us Pokémon, manga, and Godzilla, but it also brought the demand for raw seafood into the international …show more content…
Their breeding and migration patterns, along with the seasonality of their location of remains consistent year after year (Golet et al. 391). Bluefin tuna, like many fish, depend on ocean environmental factors such as temperature, currents, and presence of other organisms to navigate the endless open ocean. The complex interaction of these factors guides Atlantic bluefin tuna to their core breeding grounds along the Western shelf break region of the Gulf of Mexico and the Balearic Sea off the eastern coast of Spain (Laiz-Carrión 1). These are prime locations for Atlantic bluefin fishing because both mature fish and larvae are concentrated in these spawning areas. This practice targets populations when they are at their most dense, causing an abrupt, dramatic, and threatening shift in the bluefin tuna populations. Bluefin too small to send to market are sent to ranching operations where they are fattened over time. Moreover, sushi restaurants have started serving Meiji or baby bluefin. These fish live multi-decade lifetimes, upwards of fifty years (Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Status Review Team 6). Their lives are being cut short at a mere two or three years, before they have a chance to reproduce. These predictable spawning grounds make them an easy target for fishers at a tremendous cost to the wild
While it was a local dish, served with fish from along Japanese shores, it has evolved into a phenomenon for food connoisseurs worldwide. In mid 1950s, the first sashimi restaurants put down roots on the California Coast. Not even twenty years later, America would become accustomed to the self-proclaimed California Roll (Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Status Review Team 23). We live in a sushi-crazed society. We have sushi in our grocery stores, sushi restaurants on every street, sushi magnets for our refrigerators. American pop culture has become increasingly Japanophilic. Not only did the post-World War II globalization trend bring us Pokémon, manga, and Godzilla, but it also brought the demand for raw seafood into the international …show more content…
Their breeding and migration patterns, along with the seasonality of their location of remains consistent year after year (Golet et al. 391). Bluefin tuna, like many fish, depend on ocean environmental factors such as temperature, currents, and presence of other organisms to navigate the endless open ocean. The complex interaction of these factors guides Atlantic bluefin tuna to their core breeding grounds along the Western shelf break region of the Gulf of Mexico and the Balearic Sea off the eastern coast of Spain (Laiz-Carrión 1). These are prime locations for Atlantic bluefin fishing because both mature fish and larvae are concentrated in these spawning areas. This practice targets populations when they are at their most dense, causing an abrupt, dramatic, and threatening shift in the bluefin tuna populations. Bluefin too small to send to market are sent to ranching operations where they are fattened over time. Moreover, sushi restaurants have started serving Meiji or baby bluefin. These fish live multi-decade lifetimes, upwards of fifty years (Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Status Review Team 6). Their lives are being cut short at a mere two or three years, before they have a chance to reproduce. These predictable spawning grounds make them an easy target for fishers at a tremendous cost to the wild