In this Jan. 24, 2013 photo, Takayuki Shinoda, fish wholesaler, holds a slab of Pacific Bluefin tuna at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market. Catching bluefin tuna, called “hon-maguro” here, is a lucrative business. A single full-grown specimen can sell for 2 million yen, or $20,000, at Tokyo’s sprawling Tsukiji fish market. Japanese fishermen are vying with Korean, Taiwanese and Mexican fisherman for a piece of a $900 million wholesale market. (AP Photo/Malcom Foster)
News Summary: Tuna collapse doesn't alarm Japan
Published: 05:08:41 PM, Thu 28 February 2013 UTC
NO SUSHI FOR YOU: Bluefin tuna is dwindling so rapidly that some fear it could vanish from restaurant menus within a generation, but there's little alarm in Japan, which consumes most of the world's supply.
NOT FIT TO PRINT: A scientific assessment released in January found that Pacific bluefin spawning stocks — a key measure of adults that can reproduce — have plummeted by about three-quarters over the past 15 years, but it received only scant coverage in the Japanese media.
SOMETHING FISHY: Japanese fisheries experts blame cozy ties between regulators and fishermen and a complacent media for failing to raise public awareness about the pricy fish, of which a single full-grown specimen can sell for $22,000.
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