The Toll of Tuna

The world's tuna trade is becoming unsustainable.

In the eastern Atlantic the number of breeding tuna has plunged over 74% since the late 1950s, while the western population suffered a 82% collapse between 1970 and 2007. Today, nearly 6 million tons of tuna are being fished every year.

At current fishing rates, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that Atlantic bluefin, the most sought after sashimi grade tuna, could disappear as early as 2012; of the world's 19...
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The world's tuna trade is becoming unsustainable.

In the eastern Atlantic the number of breeding tuna has plunged over 74% since the late 1950s, while the western population suffered a 82% collapse between 1970 and 2007. Today, nearly 6 million tons of tuna are being fished every year.

At current fishing rates, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that Atlantic bluefin, the most sought after sashimi grade tuna, could disappear as early as 2012; of the world's 19 non-bluefin commercial tuna stocks, half are now overfished or at risk of going that direction.

Even General Santos, known as the "Tuna Capital of the Philippines," finds its sashimi export and canneries taking a hard hit. Fishermen used to make single-day trips to catch giant yellowfin, which like the bluefin, are sold for sashimi. Now, even the smallest of those tuna are at least a 3-day trip out to sea. What used to be routine sails became life-and-death journeys.

The lives of fishermen and their counterparts -- the cannery workers, the exporters, the porters, the truck drivers -- are intrinsically tied with General Santos, a town lives and dies by tuna. When the tuna go, so will Gensan and its people.
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