tuna

SushiSamba Joins The Bluefin Ban

The conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Qatar ended earlier this week. The conference failed to ban the international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna,a move that some fear could doom the endangered fish. Luckily many restaurants are taking it on themselves to stop using bluefin tuna without waiting for a ban. The SushiSamba restaurants have become the latest to remove bluefin tuna from all menus. The restaurant group's No Blue campaign supports the growing worldwide movement to protect the Bluefin Tuna. SushiSamba has pledged to work with its purveyors to establish a sustainable seafood program at all of its locations, moving toward eliminating all non-sustainable seafood from its menus. The No Blue campaign ban covers all bluefin tuna including Otoro Tuna and Chu Toro Tuna.

"SushiSamba's Managing Partners and I stand firmly in our decision to remove Bluefin Tuna from our menus nationwide, effective immediately. We are aware of the issues surrounding bluefin fishing methods and support the preservation of endangered species in our world," stated SushiSamba Corporate Chef Michael Cressotti. "I hope that other restaurants will follow in our footsteps to help protect this wonderful species. SushiSamba is currently in the process of working with our fish purveyors to establish a sustainable seafood program at all our locations."

The SushiSamba website (www.sushisamba.com) has a link for customers to sign a petition against harmful fishing practices that kill bluefin tuna. Rampant commercial fishing has reduced the mature Western Atlantic bluefin population by 80 percent since 1970 and the fish could be extinct in as few as ten years.

Tags: bluefin tuna, cites, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild, sushi, sushisamba, tuna

More Restaurants Give Up Bluefin Tuna

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Last November, Greenpeace activists dumped tuna heads in front of French Agriculture ministry calling for a ban of tuna fishing and the protection of the species. This November has seen top French chefs make the pledge to keep bluefin tuna and other threatened fish species off the menu. One of the country's greatest chefs, Olivier Roellinger took bluefin tuna off his menus five years ago. He is the deputy president of the flobal luxury hotel network Relais and Chateaux and 60 percent of its members have agreed to stop serving bluefin tuna. Many French restaurants have agreed to stop serving bluefin tuna.

Bluefin tuna faces the threat of extinction because of zealous overfishing. Over the past few years there has been more and more attention paid to the subject. An international commission met early this month in Brazil and agreed to cut the allowable bluefin tuna catch in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean by 40 percent next year, a move that some said was not enough. Japan remains the biggest consumer of the tuna which is used in sushi and is considered a delicacy.

Greenpeace publishes a "red list" which lists fish that have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries or unsustainable aquaculture operations. To look at what fish you should eat check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium's regularly updated Super Green list.

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Tags: bluefin tuna, BluefinTuna, fish, ovefishing, red tuna, RedTuna, tuna

The $100,000 Tuna

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

It may not look like much but the 282-pound Japanese bluefin tuna shown above brought in more than $100,000 at auction recently. Two sushi bar owners, one in Hong Kong and one in Japan, paid $104,700 for the big fish at a Tokyo fish auction on Monday. The price was about ten times the average price and the highest in nearly a decade. The first sale of the new year traditionally brings hight prices but the prices were even higher because of a shortage of high quality Oma bluefin. There were just three available at the Tsukiji market compared with 41 last year. A smaller imported bluefin caught off the cost of the U.S. sold for $15,400. Members of international tuna conservation organizations have agreed to cut their bluefin catch quota for 2009 by 20 percent to 22,000 tons which could mean more high prices this year.

For a great behind-the-scenes look at the world of tuna sales, I recommend The Sushi Economy by Sasha Issenberg, it's got some fantastic descriptions of the chaos and commerce in Japan's tuna auctions. It also explains that the tuna's tail is sliced off (as shown above) at auction to expose the quality of the flesh.

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Tags: fish, japan, sushi, tsukiji fish market, TsukijiFishMarket, tuna