American sushi expert suggests alternatives to bluefin tuna
November 24th, 2009 by James
Trevor Corson, author of The Story of Sushi, appears on a Japanese TV news program to discuss how people should give up bluefin tuna for less endangered types of fish:
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
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But its sooooooooo yummy.
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Yeah, I go easy on the Bluefin. I’ve only had it once in the last couple years and it was a very special occasion.
I also go easy on the scallops. And I freaking love scallops.
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Verrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting. I love how they the dude talks about his worry that there won’t be much tuna to go around and there they are, with a whole huge pallet full of it as sushi, gulping it down. Couldn’t he have refrained, just for this meeting? LOL I mean he’s teaching people about sushi in general, so he didn’t need to have any tuna there, did he?
There are so many conflicting reports on the exact population; I keep hearing that it is darn near impossible to track, because the suckers move so fast, so far and so much.
May be it’s a scam by the international fisheries; so that they can jack up the prices as they tell us the numbers are dwindling hint hint nudge nudge know wot I mean?
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Hi FnarFnar, I am the guy in the video, and there are some distinctions involved here. The type of tuna that is endangered is *bluefin* tuna, as indicated in the captions of the video. The tuna we were eating at the dinner was not bluefin. Populations of other types of tuna such as yellowfin and bigeye are doing comparatively much better.
As for bluefin, I believe the the scientific evidence documenting their rapid demise is clear and extensive. The questions have more to do with which exact populations are in trouble, depending on far the fish swim, as you point out. The question is not whether or not they are in trouble.
Sadly, you’re absolutely right that corporate fish distributors are taking advantage of the situation; Mitsubishi Corp. in particular appears to be stockpiling bluefin so it can sell it at inflated prices in the future after the fish has been wiped out.
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My apologies Trev – didn’t mean to sound like a ponce –
but when you say Bluefin, what bluefin do you mean? Or are you including all Bluefin? I think 3 or 4 species are totally critical and the one almost there.
We can only hope that the breeding process gets perfected – but then again – “we’re going to need a bigger tank” (to twist a line from JAWS hahahahaha)
We have to stop the Russians – I hear most of the tuna are in Moscow being stockpiled by the blackmarket runners who are stockpiling the stuff for its population’s voracious appetite there also.
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Who eats all this bluefin? I assume it’s not the cheap kaiten sushi places that offer it at 105 yen a plate – their honmaguro might be the cheaper tuna. How big a share of the sushi market is the cheap kaiten stuff anyway?
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The critical concern right now is over Atlantic bluefin tuna, particularly the populations caught in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, though the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, which is probably the consumer advisory group that is backed by the best science, lists all bluefin tuna around the world as being harvested faster than they can reproduce.
Here’s a recent article from Scientific American that talks more about the situation with Atlantic bluefin and also addresses some of Overthinker’s questions about where the bluefin is getting consumed: http://bit.ly/3MZ6ZX.
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Thanks for the link.
Hmmm….. “Bluefin tuna are the source of the highest grade of sushi and sashimi, known to aficionados as maguro and toro.”
Toro is not tuna. It refers to a cut of meat, not the animal itself. (I like buritoro myself.) Also, not all maguro is kuromaguro (bluefin).
However I did not see anything about how Japan actually uses that meat, merely the amount caught and imported. I rather doubt that the 105 yen maguro the local kaiten dishes up is bluefin.
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Anyway, I love prawns, sea breams, salmons, mackerel, congers, horse mackerel, etc., but not bluefin tuna!
I heard that Japan is relying about half of its bluefin tuna (Kuro-maguro) consumption on import from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Here is an article (written in Japanese) from Yomiuri Shinbun mentioning on it:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/atmoney/news/20091116-OYT1T00446.htm
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Didn’t even know there were different types of Tuna. Learn something new everyday!
I assume that bluefin tuna is specifically marked on the menu as such? If so, then I have never seen bluefin listed at any sushi restaurant I’ve ever visited in America (granted, that’s limited to places in Pennsylvania and New York).
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Really? I’ve seen bluefin on the menu in Baltimore and that’s one of the least Japanese places on earth.
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Yeah we get loads of them here in L.A.
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No, it’s not usually labeled “bluefin tuna” on US menus. Did you read the above comments, etc.? If it just says “maguro,” “toro,” etc., it may be bluefin.
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We should start eating soilent green instead.
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Idon’t mind giving Bluefin tuna a rest. There are many other kinds of fish that are used for sushi.
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