Tuna Black Market: Sushi Craze Fuels Multi-Billion Dollar Industry
November 08, 2010 08:48 AM EST

A black market for tuna has been under investigation. A nearly billion dollar black market industry fueled by the increased demand for tuna for sushi has many fearing the survival of the fish. What's worse is that the investigation has found that several governments are in the middle of the issue.


The 7-month investigation http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101107...onmentfishtuna by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists says that many fishermen are knowingly ignoring quotas in their fishing of tuna. Ten nations, including France, have had major violations in their fishing practices. In France they have been doctoring the numbers, and now several captains are facing criminal charges. The black market for the Eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna was worth a whopping $4 billion between 1998 and 2007. It was this tuna that was used to fuel the growing desire for sushi in, especially in Japan.

France had declared in 2007 that they had caught double its quota of bluefin tuna. These quotas are set by the International Commission for the Conservation of the Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). So the fishermen were over fishing and the French government turned a blind eye to it. Now ICCAT is afraid there may be a collapse in the number of available tuna

ICCAT found a 75% decrease in spawning stock of Eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna over the past four decades, more than half of which occurred in the last decade. The report from the ICCAT says that "If the countries had listened, then there would have been no risk of collapse, but because they didn't pay attention, and they didn't control (catch limits), then after a few years the situation became really critical and we began to speak about the risk of collapse."

Speaking about the risk of collapse is one thing; actually doing something about it is totally different matter. France seems to think that the lowering of quotas is a bad thing and that there will be a leveling out of the tuna supply by 2022. Are they right, or is their leveling out actually more of a complete wiping out of the Atlantic Bluefin? No matter what, why does France feel that they are above the rules? Then again, $4 billion is a nothing to laugh at.