Defenders of Wildlife Blog

When making choices for dinner, these days more and more people are adding another criteria to the usual ones of tasty, nutritious and low-calorie: sustainable. We all know fish meets the first three… But when it comes to sustainability, here are two species you definitely want to bypass at the fish counter.

Here are some foods you should forgo:

Bluefin Tuna — Maybe Later? Uh, Not

Bluefin tuna has been commercially fished since ancient times. Today, it is a common menu item, served as steak or raw as sushi or sashimi. Unfortunately, bluefin tuna have become so popular that they are being overfished. That is, fishermen aren’t leaving enough bluefin tuna in the water to replenish stocks.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, which manages Atlantic and Mediterranean populations, sets fishing quotas every year, aiming to keep the bluefin out of trouble.

But many scientists and conservation groups say that the quotas are too high and some have even lampooned the group,  dubbing it the International Commission to Catch All Tuna.

While a giant bluefin tuna (sold for $396,000 at the Tsukiji fish market in Japan) was breaking the record for the highest price ever paid for a single bluefin,  the U.S. government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration kicked off a public comment period on the bluefin. The public comment period is a step toward listing bluefin under the  Endangered Species Act. So help may soon be on the way. But for now, you should consider putting the chopsticks down.

Shark Finning — I’ll Pass, Thanks

Another concern for conservation groups is shark finning, where fisherman chop only the fins off of  (often still living) sharks, then toss rest back into the ocean. The fins are sold in parts of Asia, where shark fin soup is a very popular delicacy. Lisa Ling reported for CNN that the “soup is a delicacy reserved for the wealthy on special occasions … [but with] an unprecedented number of people making more money than ever, the demand for all things that signal an improvement in status is gargantuan.”

Luckily, as Reuters reports, some young Asians are choosing to forgo these endangered delicacies in favor of more sustainable options.

How You  Can Help

Choose only sustainable seafood! You can learn more about threats to tuna, sharks and other marine species, and explore what fish species are caught sustainably, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sustainable Seafood Program.

Oiled Pelican (Copyright AP / Charlie Riedel)

The Obama administration today lifted its moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, more than a month before the scheduled end date. The administration has not adequately addressed failures to comply with environmental laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act.

Richard Charter, offshore drilling expert and senior policy advisor for Defenders of Wildlife said, “It is premature to lift the deepwater drilling moratorium in the Gulf. Although the increased safety and spill response requirements imposed by Interior Secretary Salazar are important, there are still no new measures in place to protect species such as endangered sea turtles and sperm whales, and imperiled bluefin tuna.”

“Before Secretary Salazar approves any applications to resume drilling, potentially opening the Gulf up to future environmental disasters, he must ensure that the potential impacts on wildlife have been fully evaluated and strong measures are in place to protect them.”

“Although the increased safety and spill response requirements imposed by Interior Secretary Salazar are important, there are still no new measures in place to protect species such as endangered sea turtles and sperm whales, and imperiled bluefin tuna.”

“The potential resumption of deepwater drilling in the Gulf makes it increasingly critical for Congress to pass legislation that ensures safer operations in any water depth, provides better spill response, lifts the grossly inadequate liability cap currently in place and secures funding for restoration efforts in the Gulf. The Obama administration should push the Senate to act and remain steadfast in its efforts to ensure that there will be no repeats of last summer’s disaster in the Gulf.”

Read more about the lifting of the moratorium.

Ask your Senators to pass comprehensive legislation to promote clean energy.

Big news for BP this week with the announcement the oil giant will be replacing current CEO Tony Hayward. Richard Charter, senior policy adviser for Defenders of Wildlife, tells the Associated Press that under a new CEO, BP must do more than scrub beaches. It should prepare to pay agencies to monitor turtles, whales, deep-sea coral and other threatened wildlife for at least another five years.

As BP moves toward a new tactic to stop the spill, dubbed the “static kill,” questions arise about the drilling “mud” used to plug the well. Oceans advocates have noted that companies regularly dump hundreds of thousands of gallons of this potentially highly toxic substance into the ocean, and we have no idea of its impact. Richard Charter, tells Kate Sheppard with Mother Jones that “drilling discharges have always been a dirty secret.”

What does the concentration of toxins in the water mean for wildlife? Richard says it’s hard to predict the impact the spill will have on wildlife, but it could be significant for the bluefin. “You interrupt that spawning event for bluefin tuna with a toxic oil spill and with dispersants that dissolve oil – and the egg of the bluefin is primarily oil-related – then, you could actually knock out a whole year-class of fish that was already in trouble,” he tells Public News Service.

Down in the Gulf, Defenders board member Jeff Corwin talks about the species we should be concerned about during the continuing oil disaster. “I want to look at this as an ecosystems event,” he says. “This is not just a story of the iconic Louisiana brown pelican.” Instead he tells Defenders, “What scares me is what we don’t see, but what I believe will resonate through nature for generations to come.”

Sargassum line on the water's surface, photo credit David S. Lee

Portuguese sailors named it sargaço, or “little grape.” It is better known regionally as Gulf weed, or the far more poetic sea holly. Sargassum is a seaweed that, when densely concentrated, functions as a biological oasis throughout the nutrient-poor, almost desert-like surface waters of the deeper stretches of the Gulf of Mexico. Much like a terrestrial oasis, the plants form the foundation of this unique ecosystem. Because of its significant role in providing food and shelter, marine scientists are paying close attention to Sargassum in the Gulf in order to assess the harm wrought by toxic oil spewing from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Read the full story

The bluefin tuna is the sports car of the sea, from its sleek, muscular, metallic blue and silvery white body to the hefty price it commands—a 500-pound specimen sold at a Japanese fish market for $175,000 earlier this year. Imperiled by the fishing pressure that accompanies such prices, the western Atlantic bluefin now faces a new threat: the heart of its breeding range lies in the path of the oil slick from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.

From the perspective of bluefin tuna, the oil spill could hardly have come at a worse time or place. May is their peak spawning time, and one of the two areas where most larva concentrate lies directly in the path of the spill. An unsuccessful breeding season resulting from the still-uncontrolled spill could prove devastating for a population already in drastic decline.

Read our factsheet and learn more about what the Gulf oil disaster could mean for Atlantic bluefin tuna.