The Fish Japan Ate
The wild bluefin tuna is being eaten to extinction. Can Japan afford to keep serving this valuable fish?
The wild bluefin tuna is being eaten to extinction, but this hasn’t curbed the global appetite for this valuable fish in Japan and across the globe.In the last 70 years the fish has become a staple of high-end sushi restaurants and celebratory meals. It sells for up to hundreds of thousands of dollars–as to eat bluefin caught in the wild signifies quality. It is the apex of the sushi platter across Japan, which eats about 80% of all the wild bluefin consumed. But the tuna’s popularity is actually a relatively new phenomenon, as tuna was once regarded as a waste product until the middle of the 20th century, and even used for cat food. But recently, the appetite for the huge ocean-going fish has led to an ecological crisis, with projections that wild bluefin will no longer exist in the coming decades. The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s Edwin Lane visits the iconic Tsukiji fish market, the hub of the global tuna trade, and speaks to a sushi chef who can’t bring herself to stop preparing the fish despite the extinction warning, and visits one of the world’s only functioning bluefin farms to talk about why it’s so difficult to raise bluefin tuna in captivity.
(Photo: Bluefin tuna on ice Photo credit: Kindai University, Japan)
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The tuna farming challenge
Duration: 04:36
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Bluefin tuna: Japan's obsession with a US castoff
Duration: 03:53
Broadcasts
- Thu 27 Apr 2017 02:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Online, East Asia, Europe and the Middle East, UK DAB/Freeview & West and Central Africa only
- Thu 27 Apr 2017 03:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service South Asia
- Thu 27 Apr 2017 04:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Thu 27 Apr 2017 06:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Australasia
- Thu 27 Apr 2017 10:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except News Internet
- Thu 27 Apr 2017 21:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except News Internet
- Sat 29 Apr 2017 07:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service West and Central Africa
- Sun 30 Apr 2017 00:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except News Internet
- Sun 30 Apr 2017 07:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except News Internet & West and Central Africa
- Mon 1 May 2017 03:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Australasia
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