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2012: The last year of the wild Bluefin Tuna

For millennia, mankind has fished for the Bluefin. Some of the traditional fishing techniques are still being used today. But commercial fishing techniques were launched in the Fifties. Ever since, Bluefin tuna stocks have been reduced by 97%.

A new website wants you to know how grim the situation has become for Atlantic bluefin.

Chances are that the last wild Bluefin tuna will die in 2012. If the Bluefin becomes extinct, it could have a major impact on the fragile ecosystems of our oceans.

If you live in an EU nation, it’s worth your contacting your country’s responsible ministry to ask what they are doing to help avoid the extinction of one of the oceans noblest creatures. Also, its critically important to reject bluefin at the market level, particularly in sushi restaurants, to help reduce demand.

Watch the video to learn about the Bluefin’s biggest problems, including economies of extinction (when an exploited species becomes ever more valuable, the rarer it gets), tragedy of the commons , bycatch, subsidies and the wasteful nature of feeding cultured predatory fishes.

Further readings: the Bluefin tuna on Wikipedia, “The Bluefin Bonanza” by Wietse van der Werf, website of ICCAT, website of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)