The King Of Sushi

Growing Demand For Sushi Is Having A Big Impact On The Bluefin Population

(CBS)  It's in the Mediterranean that the tuna come every springtime to spawn. And it's there that fishermen have been laying in wait for them for millennia. The bluefin tuna has provided protein to all the great civilizations which have sprung up on these shores.

The 60 Minutes team traveled to Sardinia, an island off the coast of Italy, and the fisherman there go after the bluefin much the same way their ancestors did during the days of the Roman empire.

Fishermen from the village of Carloforte fix nets to the ocean floor, trapping the migrating bluefin in giant chambers. The team went out with divers to check on their trap. They had no idea what to expect.

Below the surface, there are floating walls of nets stretching six stories high. There is no escape here for these juggernauts, who can cross the Atlantic at 70 miles an hour.

Within a few hours, the tuna and the fishermen would be face to face, locked in an ancient ritual called "la mattanza,” which means, literally, "the slaughter."

The mattanza begins with a small armada of old boats with rusty hulls that are towed out and hauled into position surrounding the nets.

Over the course of the next two hours, the fishermen close in on their prey, bringing their boats and their nets closer and closer to each other.

It's a life-and-death struggle for the giant bluefin. The smaller fish are wrestled on board, while the larger ones have to be winched. The churning waters and the decks of the boats run red with blood.

In the end, it's hand-to-hand combat. And think of it, this bloody battle is all in the service of sushi.

When Simon and the team filmed the mattanza, it seemed like the fisherman had made an enormous catch, but the fishermen insisted that they are catching fewer fish and smaller fish than in previous years. And the situation is so bad, they say, that they don't know how long they'll be able to stay in business.

To stay afloat, this ancient ritual has been put in the service of a very modern corporate culture: all the tuna is taken to a factory ship moored a short distance away. Japanese buyers from Mitsubishi - the large industrial conglomerate best known in the U.S. for their cars - are on board, too. They pay big bucks for big bluefin, and they'd like to buy the whole catch, 600 in all. The fish are weighed and measured, and most are simply not big enough; only 54 will make the trip to Tokyo.

The rest will be sold by Giuliano Greco, who manages the mattanza, and who will send the remainder on to canneries, restaurants and sushi bars across Europe.

Greco says there are fewer tuna and that the size is smaller. "This is a big problem for us," he tells Simon.

Greco's family have been the owners of a tuna factory in Carloforte for more than 350 years. He and the others who run the few remaining mattanzas agree that their problems stem from a drastic change in the way most tuna are now caught.

In the 1990's a new vessel started fishing for tuna in the Mediterranean. It was called a "purse seiner" and it brought on a revolution in tuna fishing. Each of the vessels could encircle and trap some 3,000 bluefin in one go.

Before long, there were more 300 purse seiners working there and the new method proved so efficient that it made the mattanza look like some old relic left over from the Middle Ages.

It is high-tech fishing on an industrial scale. The purse seiners prowl the Mediterranean's spawning grounds, waiting for word from spotter planes that are patrolling overhead. When schools of bluefin come to the surface, the planes relay the coordinates to the purse seiners, who then rush to encircle them.

[Junglepam]

Ok no disagreement on the role that Japan plays here but didn't anyone even note that the market is insatiable WORLD WIDE? Its not just Japan, you can buy Sushi EVERYWHERE in the U.S. So before you brand the evil Japanese and terrible Chinese, ask yourself how often you pick up sushi in the supermarket, or hey how often do you buy TUNA in a can, or eat tuna at a restaurant in any form?

You know before we all blame people halfway around the world we need to look at our own actions. The problem is humans consume everything, food, natural resources etc... tuna is just the latest hot comodity. The reality is no matter what we as a race eat, its going to impact our environment.

Eating healthy could be partially to blame, less red meat more fish. What is the impact of that?

[Dmaster911]

Although I don't like how fast we are depleting the fish population, sushi is extremely delicious. I am apart of a program called NaGISA, and our goal is to examine the causes behind the population changes in wildlife around the globe.

http://steakmeatsushi.com
http://www.nwfnagisa.com

[no_nonesense]

I posted a comment on 9/7. What happened to it? There was also a poster before me. It''s not here either.

[superdem]

I saw a special on the Australian tuna fishing industry. They spot the schools from a plane, then the first boat motors into the school, throwing out live and frozen anchovies to keep the school clustered around this boat while a second ship lays a huge net all around the school. Then they catch one or two with a hook and line to gauge the average size, since tuna group together by size. If the tuna are the right size, they take the entire school alive, and put them into floating pens which are dragged around the ocean until they have their "quota" then the floating pens are dragged back home where the live tuna are "fattened up" - it was fascinating but I kept thinking - not a single fish got away, entire schools are captured, hundreds of thousands of these fish and none of them would ever reproduce. They were handled with kid gloves because even one bruise or injury to the fish rendered it almost worthless to the Japanese - yes, all these fish were destined for Japan to fetch these incredible prices. No wonder these fish are being driven to extinction.

[lynnk8]

I find it appalling, offensive and gringe whenever I hear people call "raw fish" sushi.... when Bob Simon did this report on Tuna, I finally had it! I would think that he would of looked up the word he was reporting on and make the correction to the world! Let''s get this straight Mr Simon and everyone else - "Sushi" is cooked RICE made with vinegar and usually wrapped with nori (but not always). "Sashimi" (pronounced: sa-she-me) is cut raw fish.

[gerrycgc]

The extinction of Bluefin may not happen. As Tuna Steaks are now considered a High Mercury Fish. You should eat only occasionally because of the high mercury content. One day they could be considered toxic waste!

[gerrycgc]

The extinction of Bluefin may not happen. As Tuna Steaks are now considered a High Mercury Fish. You should eat only occasionally because of the high mercury content. One day they could be considered toxic waste!

[wineberry]

Well, I correct myself in saying the disappearance of the human species. What I should have said is the disappearance of money from the earth, for that is what is fueling most of the near extinction of wild animals from the planet, and eventually the extinction all of them. What will humans that are killing off animals for profit do then? Perhaps people were given dominion over the earth, but people kill living things that are more intelligent than they are on a daily basis. Someday nature will strike back in a big way.

[wineberry]

The disappearance of the human species is probably the best thing that could happen for the animal, and perhaps plant species of the world.

[hypnotoad72]

What about using tuna and salmon? A fish is a fish.

[lewiston14]

Well soon it will all be gone.

[bamabratt-2009]

Good report, these are endangered. Too bad they didn''t mention that Robert Deniro''s restaurant chain, Nobu, in London, is selling bluefin illegally and passing it off as yellowfin. It''s gotten impossible to look at 60 minutes objectively, it''s so left-biased. But DeNiro is a big liberal environmental guy, so of course they don''t mention it.

[burtonway]

This story is SO pathetic because fish are being stockpiled like commodities for future reserve like currency. News Programs like 60 Minutes once had the responsability to REPORT stories like this.

NOW, Media Congloms and their BILLIONAIRE owners (Murdoch, Restone, et al) have the DUTY to act upon these, instead of STOCKPILING their billions for future waste. NOW is the time to act responsably towards saving these incredible animals that are here for the People and the generations of People.

FACEBOOK should also act upon this type of story to EXPOSE the gluttons and corporations that stockpile living treasures and convert them into EXTINCT currency. Wake up, People.

[mauramia-2009]

An utterly grotesque and savage way to treat these magnificent creatures, all to stuff down the Japanese palate.

[inusmurf]

Has anybody ever done any research on the company that is spotting the Tuna?
According to American records this airplane (N53420) is a 1974 CESSNA 337G, registered to AIR CAROLINE INC on . This company is located at 3511 SILVERSIDE RD SUITE 105 in Wilmington, Delaware. This aircraft was issued an Airworthiness certificate by the FAA on 05/04/2005.

[crabwriter]

This story could have taken place about a number of fisheries throughout the world. The collapse of the Bering Sea King, Bairdi, and Opilio crab stocks can be traced directly to the Japanese. Their greed and unrelenting quest to eliminate species to satisfy their palate was witnessed by all of us who fished it. Not to mention the U.S. bureaucracies created to keep this from happening. The Bering Sea is dying faster than the world''s climate is changing. As a 20 year veteran ex-crabber, all I can say is watch out, China is next is line at the buffet!

[nothoney-2009]

The fish in this story were treated like a commodity and very little was said about their amazing abilities and importance to marine ecosystems. The point of the story was not that we%u2019re fishing a species to extinction for the sake of taste, but %u201COh my, whatever will we do when there are no more bluefin? How will we get our precious sushi?%u201D %u201C60 Minutes%u201D completely missed the point in this report.

[drivelphobe]

The Japanese don''t care about endangered species status if they eat it or use it. They kill whales like crazy, are reducing the population of blue fin tuna and continue to support the ivory poachers with the purchase of black market ivory.

I suggest McDonalds start offering a hot sandwich made of Crested Ibis or thin slices of Giant Salamander. Trinkets for the kids could be made of Macaque feathers and beaks as souvenirs. I hear fresh Ibis tartare is a favored dish amongst the redneck population. We could also start harvesting Giant Pandas if the Chinese don''t express some concern as well. Giant Panda barbecued ribs sound yummy.

Let''s see how the Japanese like the apples.