It is the king of sushi, one of the most expensive fish in the world - and dwindling so rapidly that some fear it could vanish from restaurant menus within a generation.
Yet there is little alarm in Japan, the country that consumes about 80 per cent of the world’s bluefin tuna. Japanese fisheries experts blame cosy ties between regulators and fishermen and a complacent media for failing to raise public awareness.
“Nobody really knows the bad state bluefin tuna is in,” veteran sushi chef Kazuo Nagayama said from his snug, top-end sushi bar in Tokyo’s Shimbashi district, a popular area for after-work socialising. “I don’t think it’ll disappear, but we might not be able to catch any. It’s obvious we need to set quotas.”
Catching bluefin tuna, called “hon-maguro” here, is a lucrative business. A single full-grown specimen can sell for 2 million yen, or US$22,000, at Tokyo’s sprawling Tsukiji fish market. Japanese fishermen are vying with Korean, Taiwanese and Mexican counterparts for a piece of a US$900 million a year wholesale market.
Fish dealers at Tsukiji market say the number of bluefin sold at early morning auctions has fallen over the past 10 to 15 years, but most are confident the supply will never run out. Sushi bars and supermarkets still readily sell the fish, which is considered a special treat that families might splurge on once every month or two. There’s no government campaign to encourage people to rein in their appetites for the iconic Japanese food.
“I have seen some reports on TV about their numbers falling, but I really haven’t thought about cutting back on eating hon-maguro,” said Sumire Baba, a Tokyo homemaker. “I guess I’m optimistic they’ll recover.”