Mar
06
Sustainable Tuna and Sushi: Doing Good by Eating Well
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Sustainable Tuna and Sushi: Doing Good by Eating Well
If you are a sushi connoisseur but are not up to speed on the question of sustainability, here's the issue in a nutshell: the world's supply of bluefin tuna (or Toro, as tuna belly morsels are called in the world of sushi and sashimi,) is shrinking faster than its oil reserves. At current rates of overfishing, the species is scheduled to disappear by 2012. [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/18/804958/-The-Disappearance-of-the-Bluefin-Tuna....as-we-Speak]
But it's yummy.
No matter. Since yummy for two years is no substitute for saving an entire yummy species, a movement has grown to save the bluefin and other sushi feedstock. And it's not just the Greenpeace types that want action. The U.S. government has signed on to Monaco's proposal to protect the Atlantic bluefin under U.N. regulations. [http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/obama-administration-to-back-ban-on-bluefin-tuna-trade/19382413]
So what's a conscientious Toro fanatic to do?
Two words: Sustainable sushi. [http://www.sustainablesushi.net/]
Yes, there is a sustainable sushi movement. Its essence is to enjoy the vast variety of flavors not provided by overfished species such as bluefin tuna, red snapper, yellowfin tuna, and yellowtail. Sustainable sushi restaurants serve alternatives only, such as the less-endangered bigeye and albacore tuna. Lists of sushi to avoid and to enjoy guilt-free [http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_sushi.aspx] are easy enough to find.
Abstaining from eating the endangered bluefin serves two purposes: first, and most obviously, when you and a few other diners choose another sushi alternative, a bluefin is therefore not chopped up into yummy morsels to feed you. The restaurant uses one fewer that day, or one thousand fewer, as the case may be. That's another thousand tuna swimming around and making more tuna.
The second effect is invisible to the diner. Lower demand for bluefin will mean that the price a single fish brings will no longer lure fishermen to undertake increasingly quixotic quests for the rare fish.
And consider the impact when a chef declares his sushi restaurant a sustainable sushi restaurant, as Hajime Sato did recently at Seattle's Mashiko [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/allyoucaneat/2009547909_seattles_first_sustainable_sus.html]. Sustainable sushi guru Casson Tenor, the author of Sustainable Sushi: A Guide to Saving the Oceans One Bite at a Time, [http://www.amazon.com/Sustainable-Sushi-Guide-Saving-Oceans/dp/1556437692/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232011332&sr=8-1] converted him, and his Mashiko restaurant [http://www.sushiwhore.com/] embraced the idea.
That means that if you are looking for sushi in Seattle, you can magnify the effect of your dining choice by insisting on a sustainable sushi restaurant, serving only less endangered fish. Now you're affecting the seafood economy at the point of sale: if you choose a sustainable restaurant--and enough others join you--pretty soon a restaurant that serves the full range of threatened fish in the world's oceans loses business. That restaurant, in turn, is pressured to embrace sustainability.
Strong-arm tactics? Not really. The restaurateur is free to vend any legal product he wishes. This is America, after all. But we are free to buy only the products we want, in the establishments we want.
And we are free to support the organizations we want. Monterrey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch project, The Blue Ocean Institute, and the Environmental Defense Fund are in the forefront of the sustainable sushi movement.
If you are a sushi connoisseur but are not up to speed on the question of sustainability, here's the issue in a nutshell: the world's supply of bluefin tuna (or Toro, as tuna belly morsels are called in the world of sushi and sashimi,) is shrinking faster than its oil reserves. At current rates of overfishing, the species is scheduled to disappear by 2012. [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/18/804958/-The-Disappearance-of-the-Bluefin-Tuna....as-we-Speak]
But it's yummy.
No matter. Since yummy for two years is no substitute for saving an entire yummy species, a movement has grown to save the bluefin and other sushi feedstock. And it's not just the Greenpeace types that want action. The U.S. government has signed on to Monaco's proposal to protect the Atlantic bluefin under U.N. regulations. [http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/obama-administration-to-back-ban-on-bluefin-tuna-trade/19382413]
So what's a conscientious Toro fanatic to do?
Two words: Sustainable sushi. [http://www.sustainablesushi.net/]
Yes, there is a sustainable sushi movement. Its essence is to enjoy the vast variety of flavors not provided by overfished species such as bluefin tuna, red snapper, yellowfin tuna, and yellowtail. Sustainable sushi restaurants serve alternatives only, such as the less-endangered bigeye and albacore tuna. Lists of sushi to avoid and to enjoy guilt-free [http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_sushi.aspx] are easy enough to find.
Abstaining from eating the endangered bluefin serves two purposes: first, and most obviously, when you and a few other diners choose another sushi alternative, a bluefin is therefore not chopped up into yummy morsels to feed you. The restaurant uses one fewer that day, or one thousand fewer, as the case may be. That's another thousand tuna swimming around and making more tuna.
The second effect is invisible to the diner. Lower demand for bluefin will mean that the price a single fish brings will no longer lure fishermen to undertake increasingly quixotic quests for the rare fish.
And consider the impact when a chef declares his sushi restaurant a sustainable sushi restaurant, as Hajime Sato did recently at Seattle's Mashiko [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/allyoucaneat/2009547909_seattles_first_sustainable_sus.html]. Sustainable sushi guru Casson Tenor, the author of Sustainable Sushi: A Guide to Saving the Oceans One Bite at a Time, [http://www.amazon.com/Sustainable-Sushi-Guide-Saving-Oceans/dp/1556437692/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232011332&sr=8-1] converted him, and his Mashiko restaurant [http://www.sushiwhore.com/] embraced the idea.
That means that if you are looking for sushi in Seattle, you can magnify the effect of your dining choice by insisting on a sustainable sushi restaurant, serving only less endangered fish. Now you're affecting the seafood economy at the point of sale: if you choose a sustainable restaurant--and enough others join you--pretty soon a restaurant that serves the full range of threatened fish in the world's oceans loses business. That restaurant, in turn, is pressured to embrace sustainability.
Strong-arm tactics? Not really. The restaurateur is free to vend any legal product he wishes. This is America, after all. But we are free to buy only the products we want, in the establishments we want.
And we are free to support the organizations we want. Monterrey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch project, The Blue Ocean Institute, and the Environmental Defense Fund are in the forefront of the sustainable sushi movement.
