Bluefin tuna, an enigma on rice

With the beginning of each new year come cold temperatures, optimistic resolutions for change and an outrageous sum paid for a single bluefin tuna at the bustling (and soon-to-be replaced) Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, Japan.

This past weekend, the owner of Toyko-based sushi chain Kiyomura K.K. reportedly paid a record JPY 155.4 million, or USD 1.76 million, for the bragging rights to the year’s “first tuna.” Much like last year, when the same buyer paid a then-record USD 736,000 for the best fish at the first auction of the year, he did so to boost the spirits of his fellow citizens. This year, he got caught in a bidding war.

At such a price, there’s no chance of recouping that money, much less of turning a profit, so calculating the per-serving cost is a fool’s errand. But margins are not the point here. Paying big money for a single pristine fish at the first auction of the year is essentially a pricey, yet effective, form of advertising; just think about how many media outlets pick up on this story. This now-annual extravaganza bears some similarity to flying the first Copper River king salmon in May from Alaska to Seattle for a photo shoot and cooking contest on the tarmac of SeaTac International Airport. In essence, it’s a celebration.

But turning a fish, especially one that so many environmental groups consider to be on the edge of collapse, into unbridled fanfare is sure to invite criticism. Pew Environmental Group, Oceana and the World Wildlife Fund all condemn the practice. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program advises consumers to avoid eating bluefin, as does every other consumer-oriented buying guide. The restaurants that continue to serve bluefin risk drawing the wrath of activists and influential food writers. The fish has become a line in the sand.

Should it be? For years, the biggest knock on the bluefin tuna trade has been lax management and enforcement, with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) attracting much of the ire. According to the sources I interviewed for the January SeaFood Business Top Story, Enigma on rice, the tide is slowly turning. ICCAT is following scientific advice more closely than before, and even turned down proposals for higher quotas, which it might not have had the will to do in the past. The quotas, one U.S. distributor told me, finally mean something.

So there are legal fish available, as there have been for years. But with a stronger ICCAT — even its most outspoken critics say the organization has been making better decisions the past three years — it’s now much easier to trust that the fish were indeed taken within quota and come with all the proper paperwork. The waters are getting a little less murky, even though few can claim the fisheries have been truly saved.

It’s still not an easy decision to put bluefin tuna back on the menu, as the story indicates. This is a fish that really makes you think — about the past, the future and the choices we have as buyers, chefs and consumers.

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