6. Fishing for Maguro

The worldwide bluefin tuna fishery is directed almost exclusively toward the insatiable Japanese sashimi market. Whether they are caught in the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, or Australia, the large tuna are destined for the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, where a daily auction takes place, often for prices in excess of $100,000 per fish. Although scientists have been trying for years, tuna cannot be farmed in the traditional fashion (fish grown from eggs). But they can be ranched, where juvenile tuna are trapped in nets and towed to pens where they are fattened until they are large enough to be killed for the sashimi market. These tuna ranches can be found off almost every country on the Mediterranean, and in Australia, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Japan, Mexico, and Panama as well.

In his 1995 book Giant Bluefin, Douglas Whynott summarized the early history of commercial tuna fishing as the fish morphed from large, undesirable “horse mackerel” into the most valuable fish in the world: