The Art and Business of Bluefin Tuna

For over 100 years, the family business at Tsukiji Market has been a staple of the sushi industry, specializing in the prized bluefin tuna. The current owner, on his third generation of running the family business, is deeply concerned about the future of this delicacy. "We can make our living just selling bluefin," he explains. "We only deal with raw, wild-caught tuna. Without Tsukiji Market, we couldn't run a business like this."

The owner's concern is not unfounded. The global demand for bluefin tuna has been increasing exponentially over the years, and the species is facing significant threats due to overfishing. In fact, 90% of bluefin are caught around one or two years old, which makes it essential to implement better age limit restrictions to ensure the long-term sustainability of this fishery. The owner's worry is not just about the environmental consequences but also about the impact on his business and customers.

Most people at Tsukiji Market do not know much about where the fish came from or how they were caught. "People have one or two pieces of sushi at a time," he notes. "This is a serious issue, but it's hard for them to imagine." The owner believes that educating consumers about the importance of sustainable fishing practices and the impact of bluefin overfishing on his business will be crucial in addressing this problem.

Despite the challenges ahead, the owner remains optimistic about the future. He attributes the current concerns about bluefin tuna to the unavoidable facts that are now widely acknowledged by everyone involved in the industry. "The facts are in everybody's face," he says. "They know that there's no way to make their businesses sustainable over the next generation unless they figure out a long-term fix for this problem."

To better understand the impact of bluefin tuna on the market, we decided to visit Sushi Dai, one of the most famous sushi bars in Tsukiji Market. Regularly covered in Japanese media and often one of the first places that foreigners will taste sushi in Japan when they come to see the market as a tourist attraction, Sushi Dai is known for its high-quality bluefin tuna. Our conversation with the chef revealed that the Japanese true bluefin is sort of the flagship seafood of the sushi bar.

"When I first started coming to this market a decade ago, you never heard that," the chef notes about the environmental concerns surrounding bluefin tuna. "I think what's changed is it's unavoidable." The owner of Sushi Dai agrees with the chef's assessment and believes that farming technology has improved over the years. While he cannot say that farmed tuna has a bad taste, he acknowledges that wild tuna has more flavor.

To get an insight into the market trends, we spent some time talking to one of the tuna traders at Tsukiji Market. "These are the people who stand between a restaurant or a small market and the big seafood importers," our guide explains. "Nice to meet you, thank you for having us." The trader is proud to be part of a family business that has been serving bluefin tuna for over 100 years.

The trader reveals that an individual sushi bar isn't going to go through more than 20 or 30 pounds of tuna in a day. This means that small markets like Sushi Dai are crucial in ensuring the sustainability of bluefin tuna fishing practices. "These are the people who stand between a restaurant or a small market and the big seafood importers," our guide says.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI love sushi, it's oneof my favorite foods.But I truly believethat if you are servingbluefin, that you'recontributing tothe extinctionof a species.Well, that'svery misleading.I don't think everybody,we have insideinformation.At the heart ofour love forsushi is bluefin tuna.The most lovedby sushi fans,the most expensiveat market.The diamond of the sea.But the globaleconomy has made itmore valuable than other.Prices can rise andfall by tens of thousandsof dollars a day.And it can lose morevalue more quicklythan any otherproduct on Earth.But now, those whocare about the fishare starting toworry that ourever-growing appetitesmay have put it at risk.A generation-longgold rush forthis new prize of theseas may be leading toits own extinction.I'm Sasah Issenberg,a journalist andauthor of the book,The Sushi Economy,Globalization andthe Making ofa Modern Delicacy.I started exploringthis business abouta decade ago.And it's beena tremendous change inthe global economy.Today, sushi isa multi-billiondollar internationalbusiness,and bluefin tuna isthe most prized.Single fish can sell fortens of thousandsof dollars.I wanted to goback out andsee what the sushiworld was like now, andwhat that meant forthe fate of the Pacificbluefin tuna.Before the 1960s,Japanese didn't want toeat oily fatty fish.No one anywherewanted bluefin tuna.At best, they paidpennies a pound to see itground up as cat food.But eventually,the Japanese, looking atAmericans devouring theirbloody red steaks, wantedoily meat of their own.And started asking forbluefin tuna atthe sushi bar.Japan catchesthe majority ofthe Pacific bluefin tuna.In fact, Japan consumes90% of the world's supplyof Pacific bluefin tuna.Followed by Mexico,the United States,South Korea and China,and illegal fishingis rampant.Data compiledover the last 60years on tuna biology andannual catches has ledsome scientists toconclude that over 96%of the world's originalstock of Pacific bluefintuna are now gone.Some now estimate thatfewer than 40,000adult Pacific bluefinremain in the wild.Concern overthe dwindling numbers ofPacific bluefin tuna haslong been overshadowed bythe attention paidto the Atlantic andsouthern bluefin,two other types oftuna already treatedas endangered species.Scientific authoritiesare now concerned aboutthe precarious situationof the Pacific bluefintuna, whose listingthey recently changedfrom of least concern tovulnerable to extinction.This is a crisisthat's affecting notonly the US and Japan,but other players inthat sushi businessaround the world.And I think there isa lot more interests nowamong people ingovernment, industry andmedia and consumers aboutthe need to do somethingserious about it.Pacific bluefin migratefrom the waters aroundJapan, where breedinggrounds are located,to the Pacific coastoff North America.To understandthe globalized nature ofthe sushi business,I'm starting herein Los Angeles.And we'll follow a tunaback across the Pacificto its other home, Japan.I've come to Hollywoodto meet chef Michaelat his restaurantProvidence.Michael's managed toearn two Michelin starswhile servingonly what he callssustainable seafood.That means one thingyou won't find onhis menu here,bluefin tuna.So what does sustainableseafood mean to you?A sustainable fish is onethat's been harvestedwithin quota.It's harvested in lightof research and sciencewhich that says that thebiomass is healthy andcan support a certainlevel of harvest.And is there a bluefintuna that you considersustainable?No.Absolutely not.I think that'sthe one fish thatyou'd be hard pressed tofind anyone that's reallythinking about the matterthat would tell you thatyou can feel goodabout serving it.I serve fish fora living,as do many other chefs.But it's importantto me thatthe fish that we serveare sustainable.So did you replacebluefin on your menu withsomething else?Yeah, we use bigeye.We also use yellowfin.So these are otherred tunas.These are otherred-fleshed tunas.Frankly anywhere youwould use bluefin,you could use a bigeye ora yellowfin.So what was it thatprompted you nine yearsago to make the decisionto stop selling bluefin?The research keptcoming back andit always said exactlythe same thing.That it's a species thatis in peril both inthe Atlantic andin the Pacific.Let's say you have 100friends on Facebook todayand then let's imaginethat tomorrow you wake upand you're down to four.And those other 96 aregone from the picture.Never to be seen again.That's what the,exactly what the bluefinis in right now.4% of it's historicbio-mass is what exist inthe Pacific today.I truly believe that ifyou are serving bluefinthen you're contributingto the extinctionof a species.I mean, I would love tosee that there couldbe a sustainable andguilt free harvest ofbluefin at some point.I mean bluefinare international fish.So bluefin theyspan the globe.It's very difficult tolegislate the harvest ofa fish that travelsthe way bluefin do.There's so many speciesin this world, obviously,that are threatened.But I feel likeit's difficult,I think, to forma connection with a fish.That's the problem.That is the real problem.People don't care enough.People are sopassionate about somany other things butwhen it comes tosomething like You know,saving the giant bluefin,it's difficult toraise people's ire.In light of all ofthe science, in light ofeverything that's beensaid, in light of allthe informationthat's out there.And it's such a simplething to save.None of us in the UnitedStates are going tostarve because we don'teat bluefin on a daily orweekly basis.No one.Question is how doyou develop passion,enough passion in peopleto just sit down ina sushi bar andsay a few simple words,which is I don't eatbluefin, you know?You can take bluefin tunaoff your menu if you'rean American orFrench restaurant.What happens ifyou're a sushi bar?I'm gonna go to one ofthe hundreds here in LA.Talk to a chef aboutwhat his choices are.Across town at Hamasaku,one of hundreds ofsushi bars inthe greater LA area.There's rarely talkabout the environmentalconsequences ofloving bluefin.But the chef hashis own sort ofinteresting story,he's from Japan buthe's worked inJamaica making sushi.And so he's very muchinterested in sort ofinterpreting sushi forthe time andplace in whichhe's serving it.So how long have youbeen a sushi chef?I almost doing40 years now.Oh wow.Well why don't you showme what's good today?Yeah, absolutely.You have bluefin tuna.>From Spain.Okay.Look, right here.Is that a very fattypieceAndwas it wild or ranched?Do you know?I'd say this is ranched.RanchRanching andfarming were bothdeveloped as a way totake some of the pressureoff of wild stocks.There are various methodsof harvesting Pacificbluefin tuna, and each ofthem comes with their owntrade offs in termsof sustainability.When you ranch,you're taking small fish,which means they wereremoved from the waterbefore theycan reproduce.Removing them throughnets into pens,where they can befattened in captivity.But in doing so, you'reobliterating the juvenilestocks who wouldotherwise grow large andbreed themselves.Farming takes the wholelifecycle and does it incaptivity, alleviates allof the pressure off ofwild stocks anddoesn't touch juveniles.But growing an adultbluefin tuna frombirth in captivityis an incrediblyexpensive enterprise.Bluefin tunametabolize 15 timestheir body weight.Which means that forevery pound of tuna thatyou grow outin captivity,you're having to put 15pounds of wild feed.That means mackerel,cultured squid,in the pen for it.There's obviously notany easy solution tobringing this rarepredator to our plates.It's difficult toget wild fish.Yeah.But, you know,they don't have anykind of crazy fat.It used to be Japanese.It was too fatty, right?Yeah too fatty andtoo meaty.And do you find customersthat are concernedabout orderingbluefin now becauseof the environment?Still people do like it.People do order it.What do you sayto customers whotell you that they havea problem with bluefin?I mean, just youdon't need to eat.I mean,you don't want to eat,don't eat that thing.That's the right way.I don't want to pushcustomer to, Have to eat.Do they fight withyou about that or?Some customer,they like fight.Yeah.But I don'tsay fight to them.Exactly, you don't wantto eat, just don't eat.Well, compi.When you sit down at asushi bar and you order apiece of fish, all you'redoing is interacting withthe chef but there's thiswhole world behind them.It's passing through six,eight, ten differenthands, across continents,money's moving,values are changing,expectationsare changing, and soI wanted to go explorewhat's happeningbehind the sushi bar.How is that fishcoming to me, andwhat does it mean forthe world?A big part ofeating sustainableseafood is knowingwhere it comes from.So I'm going to a fishdistributor to findout for myself.Rex Ito isa marine biologistwho 25 years ago,got into the business ofdealing tuna and he runsPrime Time Seafood,a distributorshipright next toLAX airport inLos Angeles.So the major portsof entry in the U.S.for fresh fish ingeneral is L.A., Miami,New York and then kind ofdistributes from there.And so the fish we seetoday will have comein to LAX on a plane, andyou all justpicked it up and?Yeah.There's a joke that thebiggest fishing harbornow is the internationalairport because the fishare no longer coming injust by boat but by air.We still have thisromantic idea that whenyou want the freshestfish, you go findthe place that's closestto the water butit's probably actuallyin unsexy places likeRex Ito's warehouse thatare the closest in placethat the fish are landingin the United States.We pick it upat the airport.We grade the fish.We take samples ofthe fish and depending onthe quality of the fish,we'll determine the priceand the market it's gonnago to and we send out toa different country toa different customers.Tuna is a veryspecial fish.It's one of the few fishthat's warm blooded.So what that means isthe internal temperatureof the tuna is about,is ten degrees centigradehigher than the ambientwater temperature.So that's why that fishcan be in cold water andhave bursts of speed andkeeps them metabolicallyactive, right?And how fastdo they swim?I think 50 miles an hour.They can get up to50 miles an hour.It's incredible.It's a beautiful animal.Where does the strengthcome from ina fish like that togo 50 miles an hour?Well, the wholebody is muscle.You can tell the shapeof the fish is likea torpedo.It's reallya magnificent fish.So this is an exampleof a burned fish,which means the meatgot heated up,it's not thatsweet taste.Taste that andthen taste that.Well, definitelymore acidic.Yeah.That's exactly whata sushi chef can taste.These are farmedbluefin from Mexico.Okay.So, when you say farmed,what does that mean?More accurately,it's ranched.Okay.Farm would be from eggto harvest.These fish are caughtwild, kept in.How large are they whenthey are caught wild?It depends.It can be anywhere from15 kilos up to 100 kilos.So there is oil fat inall parts of this fish.Chef's are reallylooking for,is this belly section,the.And how much more woulda piece of that sell forat a sushi bar,than that?Several times?Maybe as much as triple.Okay, soas a marine biologist,what are you afraid of inthe long term about tuna?If we follow science andmaybe not politics,we couldeasily manage the tunafisheries in the world.You mean settingregulations andenforcing them?Yeah, correct.So the latest you know,the sky is falling kindof information is that90% of the bluefin ofthe Pacific are gone, orthey can't seemto find them.Well, that's verymisleading butcuriously, the biomassand the production andcapture of bluefin,in the Pacific,has remained constant for50 years.So, that's where Ihave an issue betweenscience and politics.I think you can takeany data and construeit any way that you wantto the cause that you'repurporting but I thinkwhat I'm saying now,let the studies happen.I don't havea problem with that.I think we doneed to conserve.I don't feel guiltyabout eating bluefin orordering bluefin ina restaurant butwe have insideinformation.It's very difficult tosay we're sustainable.Does that word meananything to you?I think nothing is trulysustainable, right.I think my bestdescription would beis it's caught ina responsible way.And that affectsthe types of fish thatare available topeople in the U.S.?Oh, absolutely,absolutely.As an importer to theU.S., one of the firstthings we check is what'sthe price in Japan?What's going on in Japan?If the prices are low inJapan, we're going to gethigher quality fish fromthe Asian suppliers.It's clear from talkingto him that what reallydrives the market aroundthe world is whattakes place in Japan.Just as Pacificbluefin migrate fromthe California coasts tothe waters off Japan,I'm following theirtrail to find outwhat I can learn on theother side of the ocean.I'm heading tothe largest fish marketin the world inthe epicenter of theglobal seafood industry.We're here at TsukijiMarket in downtown Tokyo.This is known as Tokyo'spantry because it's wheremany of the capital'srestaurants andmarkets get theiringredients.It's also one ofthe largest andmost dynamic seafoodmarkets in the world.We're here to take a lookat the tuna auctions,where expectations andprices forbluefin are setthat affect everythingacross the world.Everyday, fish are comingin from all overthe world andthe number and quality ofthem varies dramatically.Lay them out in big,cold warehouse andstarting before dawnevery morning, some ofthe hundreds of seafooddealers who are based inthe Tsukiji Market comeand begin inspecting fishand deciding which onesthat they want to bid on.The big auction housesthat sell tuna tothe Tsukiji Marketare known generically asthe the seafoodcompanies andtheir buyers atthe auctions are known asit means intermediatewholesalers.So how does that work,that the prices hereare able to affectprices around Japan andother parts of the world?Tsukiji is the number onetuna market in Japan.Because Tsukiji isthe center of the seafoodmarket in Japan.Local marketscan use Tsukijiprices as an index tojudge the fair valueof their products.How much ofthe business is tuna?Is magaro?In terms of money, 25%.And whatare the advantages forthe fish to physicallymove through the market?At Tuskiji we haveabout 250 tuna buyers.And since they allinspect the tuna,it ensures you'llget a fair price.So how many tuna didyour company sell today?Today Tsukiji is storing40 tons (88,000 lbs)of fresh bluefin tuna.And 90 tons (198,000lbs) of frozen bluefin.Eventually all of thesetuna will sell out fromthe 5 wholesalecompanies.I think wemove 80 billionto 100 billionyen per year.I think we move 80billion to 100 billionyen per year.Oh, this is notour profit....Well, we can'ttell you our profit.In 2012, at theprestigious New Year'sauction at Tsukiji,a single tuna sold for$1.76 million.Even last year, a bluefinwent for $70,000.While these prices don'treflect the fair marketvalue of a tuna, theydo reflect the culturalprominence of tunain Japanese life.This is big business.This is the centerof a massiveglobal marketplace,the same way that the NewYork Stock Exchange is.The difference though?The tuna industryhasn't been changed bythe development of newfinancial instruments.Notjust anybody can bid ona tuna at Tsukiji Market.One of the dealerswho's basedthere needs a license.And it's a littleblue chip that theyusually put on theirhat or on their shirt.And they come in andthey startinspecting the fish.Often it's less thanan hour to go throughhundreds of fish.And sothere's this really rapidprocess of sizingup a fish.Looking at it's shape,looking at the skin toget a sense of it'sfirmness, it's texture.The tail section will becut off so you get a,a look at that you get asense of the oil content.You can see howthe fat's marbled there,you can see how evenlythe fat's distributedthrough differentparts of the fish,through eachof its lobes.Auction houses will, willnumber their fish with,with red painton its belly.This is basically a barcode for the auctions.Fish don't have names,all they have is a yellowpiece of paper onthem that'll say thatthe port or the countryat which it was landed,whether it was farmed,ranched, wild.Everything beyond that,assessing its value is upto individual buyersbefore they bid on it.Soon as the bell ringsto start the auctions,to go figure out whichof the differentfish they wanna bid on.And from then on it'sa Japanese market slang,calling out numbers.Incredibly complicatedset of hand signals.Do you see a changein the demandinternationally, inthe United States orother countries thatare competing forthe same supply of fish?Yes, the demand for tunais growing rapidly butnot only in Japan.Because of the globalboom in sushi,the demand for bluefinhas increased worldwide.As soon as the auctionindividual tunais concluded,the auction house hadsold it will markthe buyer andit's up to them to cartit off back to theirstall through this sortof maze of the market.And, often quicklywith the tuna,they want to get it cutup to see what's inside.And then they're seeingall the different cuts oftuna, which they willprice differently,because an individualsushi bar isn't goingto go throughmore than 20 or30 pounds of it in a day.These are the peoplethat stand betweena restaurant ora small market and thebig seafood importers.Nice to meet you,thank you for having us.And this isa family business?I'm 3rd generation andit's been here forover 100 years,since the Meiji era.And always tuna?Yes, we only dealin bluefin tuna.Why tuna?Why not any ofthe other fish orseafood that's here?When I started this job,my family's business wasalready selling tuna.We can make our livingjust selling bluefin.We only deal with raw,wild-caught tuna.Without Tsukiji Market,we couldn't runa business like this.We trade tuna becauseit tastes good.I think bluefin isthe king of tasty fish.How much does it matterthat Maguro has suchan important placein Japanese culture?Japan is surrounded bythe sea and I think weare one of the biggestconsumers of fish.Japan is surrounded bythe sea and I think weare one of the biggestconsumers of fish.So fish is veryimportant to us, anda good source of protein.In the old days we couldfind enough quality fishfrom a single company.These days I can't findthe right fish withoutgoing around to the otherfour fish companies.So I guess the fishare decreasing.And why do you thinkthat the fish are,the amount of fishare declining?Many small fish arecaught before they canlay eggs.Specifically, 90% ofbluefin are caught aroundone or two years old.We need to have betterage limit restrictions.I'm really worriedabout this.How much do yourcustomers know orwant to know, or care,about where the fish camefrom orhow it was caught?Most people don't knowhow we catch fish.People have one ortwo pieces ofsushi at a time.This is a serious issue,but it's hard forthem to imagine.We must protect bluefintuna at the breeding ageor we'll have a toughtime in the future.We must protect bluefintuna at the breedingage or we'll have a toughtime in the future.He's the 4th generation.And, sohow do you think thingswill be differentwhen he's in charge?Huge supermarketsare taking overa lot of our business soit will be tough.If you walk throughoutthe city you'll see thatsmall open air marketsare disappearingfrom the city.That small open airmarkets are disappearingfrom the city.That means weare losing clients andwe'll face a very diresituation in the future.But it's nota dying business,it will always be here.A thriving businessis another story.I was really surprisedtoday to hear suchgrave concern from peopleat all levels of the tunatrade about some ofthe environmentalconsequences ofbluefin overfishing.When I first startedcoming to this marketa decade ago,you never heard that.I think what's changedis it's unavoidable.The facts are ineverybody's face.They know that there'sno way to make theirbusinesses sustainableover the next generationunless they figure outa long term fix forthis problem.I'm taking a short walkto the popular Sushi Dairestaurant insidethe Tsukiji Market tosee whats for sale atsushi bars in Japan.Hi.Hi.Sushi Dai is probably themost famous in the bunch.Regularly covered inthe Japanese media.Often one of the firstplaces that foreignerswill taste sushi in Japanwhen they try to come tosee the market asa tourist attraction.So how long hasthe shop been here?23 years.23 years.Yeah.What should I eat?What's good today?Yeah, tuna?Okay, yeah sure.The Japanese truebluefin is sort ofthe flagship seafoodof the sushi bar.Often it'sthe item the chefhas the most pride in.You hear a chef say I canbe out of salmon one day,I can be out of theshrimp but if I'm out ofbluefin my customerswon't come back anymore.Is this wild or ranched?Of course it's wild!Always wild?All wild.Do you like ranched tuna?Well, the taste is verydifferent from wild tuna.I can't say it hasa bad taste, butfarmed tuna has lessflavor than wild tuna.I can't say ithas a bad taste,but farmed tuna has lessflavor than wild tuna.But if you ask mewhat has changed inthe last 22 years,then I'd say farmingtechnology has improved.What is \"meji\"?Baby tuna.Baby tuna?Yeah.And it's from Japan?Yes.Ok, and you think theflavor is different thana full grown tuna?Yeah.It's a little different.Why?Cuz big size tuna is sostrong tasting,oily, fatty.But small, small ones notstrong, has a good taste.And you can get itat the market here?Yeah.90%of the Pacific bluefincatch are juvenilesunder two years old.Which means that theywere removed fromthe water beforethey can reproduce.Sushi Dai shows thatJapanese restauranthabits haven'tbeen shapedby concerns oversustainability.And they're still drivenby the chef's ideaabout taste.Very good.Not as oily as.Thank you very much.Thanks.It was very delicious.Traditionally, theJapanese government hasbeen resistant toeven talk aboutbluefin overfishingas a problem.I've come hereto Yokohamato meet with MasanoriMiyahara, President ofthe Fisheries ResearchAgency, to find out whatthe government'sstance is today.What do we know aboutthe current conditions ofstocks forPacific bluefin?The spawning stock isclose to the historicallylowest level.So we'd like to make surethat this stock is goingup, building up.And we sayspawning stock?Spawning stock.In easy terms,it's adult fish.And how did we get here?Can you sort of explain?Our ways of catchingbluefin tuna are not sogood, because we arecatching too much smallfish, child fish.So we have torestrict that part sothat small fishcan be an adult.That's the main purposeof the rebuildingplan now.I had lunch at Sushi Daiin Tsukiji market, andthey had meiji.No, no, no.How will you convincea sushi chef who takes somuch pride in his maguro?But you see, inthe meeting with Tsukiji,they understand.But they do it astheir business.It's bad behavior.The spawning ground islocated only in Japan,Japanese waters.So you see, we havea responsibility toprotect that fish.But you see, that fishmigrates in a verywide range.At the age of justone year old,they go acrossthe Pacific andgo to California andMexico, andMexico is catching a lotof the young fish too.And Korea is alsoanother big actor.But you see,we have to work withthose countries sothat conservation will beensured for that species.What has changed in thesort of domestic politicsin Japan to makethe government morereceptive to this thanthey were before?We learned a lot fromthat painful process withAtlantic bluefin tuna.We worked withthe European Union butyou see,we were too late,too late to takemeaningful action.Now, Japan isa major market.We have totake our responsibilityas a market.The management plan,what are the new rules,guidelines thathave been set?First is the objective.The objective is torebuild the adult fish tothe average levelwithin ten years.And to attain thatobjective we have toreduce the small fishcatch as much aspossible.So we decided atthe first stage,50% reduction ofsmall fish catch.And I hope othercountries willaccept that.Then we canwork together.United States is takingsome distance from whatwe are doing.Because they are a littlebit concerned about theirsport fishermen.But you see, we can'twait for United States sothat's why wedecided to go ahead.My announcement not toeat small fish last yeargot so many complaintsfrom consumers.Why are you,a government official,saying not toeat something?!?I'm not saying, you see,bluefin tuna shouldnot be eaten.Bluefin will be eatenforever by reducingthat catch ofsmall fish now.>From the perspective ofconservation of bluefin,what has innovationsin ranching andfarming meant?Yes, our farming industryis producing nearly10,000 metric tonsof bluefin tuna.But the majority ofthe fish originated fromnatural fish.So, they are usingsmall fish.So, we have to reducethat kind of impact byintroducing artificialhatcheries.And how successful has itbeen as-Technically, it'ssuccessful.And whatare the challenges?But economically,not yet.We've heard a policymaker not onlyacknowledge overfishingof bluefin, butsay it's an urgentconcern about which Japanneeds to be a leaderon the world stage.For once, the Japaneseare talking about theirnational interestbeing not only incatching bluefin, butin conserving them.To better understand thechallenges of bringingfarmed bluefintuna to market,I've come to KinkiUniversity's laboratoryin the open watersoff Kushimoto.Kinki University isan institution with largefisheries labs that haveplayed an outsized rolein Japanese aquaculture.Its biggest breakthrough,developed over 40 years,was learning how to breedbluefin tuna entirelyin captivity.Those fish are nowsold as Kindai Tuna.And so you'vebranded these fish.Kindai tuna is bredfrom the egg stageat the research instituteand we grow themartificially in tanksin a closed cycle.We've trademarkedit in Japan.And so when we say thatKinki was the first tocomplete the life cyclefor bluefin tuna,what does that mean?It means thatwe can producetuna in our preservethroughout their entirelife cycle withoutusing wild resources.That way we can protectthe wild bluefinpopulation, whichis decreasing,while still maintainingour bluefin food supply.So this is whereKindai mackerel are.Yeah, it is.So what happensin this pen?We have 25 carrotsover this pen.And this is a fish to geteggs from the production.How do fish,they get in here?We originally hatchedfrom eggs andwe transport from onetank to the net bank.And we feed themto bigger andbigger to grow up.When the fish aregrowing, how large do youget them before they'reready to harvest?Normally, we harvestthree years.Okay.Two to three years.And how large is that,then?The average is 40to 50 kilograms.Okay.And how long isa fish like that?Hundred, 1.5 meters.And how much of the feedis natural, and how muchof it is chemicals or-We don't use chemicals.Okay. Everything isfrom nature. We feedthese fish today, squid.Oh, okay.And sohow much would a bluefineat, one of these a day?Normally, we feed oneto two parts into bodyweight.Per day?Yes.Okay.So are they eating?Can you see?What's going on?So sometimes wedo different fromthe normal.They add somethingdifferent, sothey don'tneed squid now.So you wannakeep it calm,as though they'reout in nature?I can say, tuna fishis more sensitivethan the other fish.To the conditions?The conditions.Yeah.There we go.Is there a differenttaste or texture ofthe meat dependingon what it eats?No, we try to compare itgrow out by artificialdiet and live bait.Taste, cost, everything.And have you seenany differences in?So far, not solarge differences.Why did it take somuch longer tosuccessfully breedbluefin tuna?First of all,bluefin tuna's skin is sosensitive.If it gets scratched thefish can die very easily.So we had a tough timecatching wild tuna innets in order to buildour stocks to farm them.After nine yearsof research,we finally succeeded inharvesting the eggs fromthe pen.We became the first tosucceed in that processin the entire world.Still we're usingnatural resources forbait, which is a dilemma.So our ultimate goal isto research this more andmake a 100%artificial bait.If we can do that, thenI think we can createan excellent product.While Kinki Universityaims to triple its supplyof bluefin tuna to6,000 fish by 2020,that's still a long wayoff from satisfying allof Japan's demand forbluefin tuna.I talked to a lot ofpeople who claim thatthey can taste thedifference between a wildand farmed tuna.Certainly, you can seewith your own eyes thatthe fat is distributeddifferently betweenthe two, andit makes sense.Farmed tuna eatdifferently,they move differently,they metabolizedifferently.It makes sense that theywould taste different.I think the realchallenge is not somuch figuring out how tomake farmed fish tastelike wild fish, orlook like them buthow to get Japaneseconsumers to acceptfarmed tuna onits own merits.Yoyogi Park,Shibuya, Tokyo.There are people workinghard on the ground inJapan to changeconsumer attitudes, andin the process, preservethe Pacific bluefin.I'm here to meetwith Wakao Hanaokaof Greenpeace, Japan,to talk about some of theenvironmental crises thatthey face with regardto the bluefin,and what they're tryingto do to solve them.Do you eat sushi?I love sushi.Okay.And I have my son, andhe love sushi also,and I want to enjoy,keep enjoying eatingsushi for future also.What's the recommendationthat Greenpeace makes?First, people shouldstop eating bluefin andalso stop fishingbluefin tuna until wesee the proper evidenceof the restock recovery.In Japanese, we carevery much about seafood.Seafood is reallythe essence ofour food culture.So, we all want tokeep enjoying it andalso inherit tothe next generation.To do that,the only way now,is that we stopeating for a while.We decide not to eat fora while.I cannot tell reallyhow many years.It can be a few years,it can be decades,it can be longer.I was surprised, on thisvisit, that people weinterview are far moreready to acknowledgethat overfishing hadexisted and led to someproblems and that it wasthe responsibility ofpeople in the industry tobe concerned about it.What do youthink has drivensort of changeof awareness?I think the biggestreason is the localfishermen are speakingout more, which influencethe market players andthe government butJapanese, we are a littlebit unusual.If we know thatthere's not many more,then we start to compareeach other like rushto finish.We want to have itbefore it finish.So if the price goes upand if it's more wellknown that there's onlylike this much tuna left,I think like,some rich peoplestart doing this more butPacific bluefin tuna,80% of the catchwas from Japan.Japan should take thelead, otherwise, it's usJapanese, ourself,we lose our food culture.Japanese government losetheir face both frominternational society andfrom Japanese consumers.How does Greenpeacesee bluefin farming?At this moment, consumersshouldn't think or likemarket players shouldn'tthink this as thesolution of the Pacificbluefin tuna issue.One of the biggestconcerns is that to makeone meat of tuna, theyneed about 22 kilogram ofsmall fish forthe tuna's food.If you talkabout the wholeecosystem in the ocean,it's not solution at all.It's pretty clear thatpeople all acrossthe market acceptthe underlying scientificreality that overfishingis a problem andthat to preserve theirfuture livelihoods,we're all going to haveto do something about it.Unlike when I firststarted exploringthe sushi trade a decadeago, I see a muchgreater willingnessamong people all aroundthe world to acknowledgethat overfishing has itsconsequences, andespecially that our lovefor bluefin hasan environmental cost butno one country's gonnado this on its own.You're not gonna seea single governmentcrackdown on it'sown businesses andas long as there's a bigocean with fish movingthrough it, this is gonnabe a problem that needsmore than onecountry to handle.Chefs may feel that theycan do their part bytaking bluefin off theirmenus and consumers mayfeel that they can domore by ordering moreintelligently but are wereally gonna expectpeople to put downtheir chopsticks andstop eating bluefintuna for good?I doubt it.Politics, economics,diplomacy all have a partto play here but they'reup against a far morepersistent driver ofhuman behavior, taste.\n"