Despite it being one of my favorite fish when having sushi, I have decided to stop eating bluefin tuna. There are two important reasons to why I think we should stop or at least restrict eating it;

• 1) It is overfished and endangered
• 2) It most likely contains too high a level of mercury.

The bluefin tuna is an important food fish used almost exclusively in sushi. A single giant tuna can exceed $100,000 on the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo! In addition to Japan, it is also popular in Taiwan, the US and now big, upcoming markets like China and Russia. As a result, some fisheries of bluefin tuna are considered overfished, and this problem is compounded by the bluefin’s slow growth rate and late maturity.

The Atlantic population of the species has declined by nearly 90 percent since the 1970s. Southern Bluefin Tuna’s stock has also been devastated, and it’s now been reduced to as little as three per cent of pre-1960 levels.

This shortages of tuna has made even the Japanese threaten to remove it from sushi menus. They are now considering other types of meat like horse meat as an alternative to the red meat of the precious tuna.

Too high level of Mercury
The high demand for tuna also makes room for an illegal market where rules and regulations of food are not taken into considerations. Due to their high position in the food chain and the subsequent accumulation of heavy metals from their diet, mercury levels can be very high in some of the larger species of tuna such as bluefin and albacore. Smaller species of tuna generally contain less amounts of mercury.

Mercury is a highly reactive heavy metal. High toxic levels of mercury can cause serious damages to the nervous system and the renal system and long term exposure at lower levels hardens arteries by inactivating antioxidant mechanisms. As this one article said

In fact, high mercury content can diminish the cardiovascular benefits of fish consumption, so eating fish may not benefit your health after all (Guallar et al, 2002, N Engl J Med).

According to projects like “Got Mercury?”, a group called Turtle Island Restoration Network, reports that even high-end restaurants in major US markets are serving polluted fish. They did a test on some of the best sushi bars in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Chicago and they tested people as a result. The studies showed that more than 10% of tuna samples contains levels of mercury that shouldn’t be eaten by any consumer. They exceed the FDA’s “actionable level” of mercury (1.0 ppm). Nearly 70% of sushi tuna samples collected exceed Illinois EPA’s special advisory threshold.

I do think there are so much great fish out there, so I will stay away from tuna until they solve these issues.

More information here:

Claim sushi killing off Southern Bluefin Tuna

Tuna - Wikipedia

Is your sushi safe? >>

Got mercury? >>

Mercury levels in commercial fish and shellfish >>

Will you stop eating tuna?

• No. I don't believe this.
• No. I love tuna too much.
• I think so. This is serious.
• Yes. Definately!

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