It is evident that tuna is the most popular food fish on Earth, whether it is used for sushi in Japan or sandwiches in the U.S. And it is the popularity that pushing some species toward extinction, including the noble bluefin. Richard Ellis’ enlightening new saga “Tuna: A Love Story” (Alfred A. Knopf, 291 pages, $27.95) is well accounted the journey of it.
Ellis, of New York City, is the respected author of a dozen sea-centric books and an acclaimed artist of marine subjects, including the art on the cover of his new book. He wrote that much of “Tuna” centers on the plight of the bluefin. This largest species, with the darkest flesh, is so coveted in Japan for sushi and sashimi that virtually all of the bluefin caught around the world ends up catching a flight to Tokyo. He added that the large bluefin there, ranging in size from hundreds of pounds to more than a half-ton, are sold at a rate of 1,000 per day, a rate that no longer can be sustained.
IN his book Ellis documents the surprising rise of tuna farming to meet this demand. But bluefin cannot be raised from eggs (unlike salmon) and the catching of immature bluefin to be raised in floating pens short-circuits the life cycles of this imperiled beauty of the marine world.
