Friday, May 21, 2010

Sushi: "European Researchers Advance Toward Farming Endangered Bluefin Tuna"

Possibly good news for ōtoro lovers. Not the best news for Mitsubishi. Back in October we posted "Mitsubishi Tries a Corner in World's Bluefin Tuna Market":
I can't recall another attempted corner in an endangered species, usually the perps sell as soon as possible....
That was followed by "How to Break a Market Corner: Breeding Breakthrough Helps Sushi Baron Create Sustainable Tuna":
As a follow-up to "Mitsubishi Tries a Corner in World's Bluefin Tuna Market" comes news that may bring sorrow and sadness to Mitsubishi.
(and is reminiscent of a scene from January 1980*)....

...*In January 1980, as the Hunt Brothers were gunning the price of silver toward it's historic high, the CEO of one of the world's largest trading firms said "Those boys don't know what deep pockets are", rather an amazing statement when talking about billionaires.

Within 48 hours both U.S. silver futures exchanges had gone "Liquidation only", the corner was broken and the Hunt's had lost their fortunes.

I'll leave it to you to guess the CEO.
Long intro. Sorry. Here's Yale Environment 360:
European researchers hope successful efforts to raise in captivity the Atlantic bonito mark a step toward farming the endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna, a relative of the mackerel-like bonito. Scientists at the Spanish Oceanographic Institute, which raised several bonito from eggs to sexually mature adults in a one-year cycle, hope they can apply the techniques to farm the bluefin tuna, a fish whose populations have plummeted 75 percent after decades of overfishing. “We’re developing lots of techniques in the bonito that we can use in bluefin larval breeding and handling,” said the institute's Fernando de la Gándara, who is part of a European Union program that so far has been able to keep a bluefin larvae alive for two months. The breeding cycle of the bluefin takes four years. Both American- and Mediterranean-spawned populations of the bluefin — whose meat is prized for use in sushi meat — have dropped precipitously in recent decades, and it is hoped that farming could relieve pressure on wild bluefin stocks. Earlier this year, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) rejected a proposed ban on the international trade of the Atlantic bluefin.