The Japanese nation has had a strong sense of distress since ancient times, but in the past few years, due to the strong opposition of the International Anti-Whaling Commission, whenever the Japanese were whaling, the whaling and anti-whaling ships on the high seas collided, and the whale blood stained the red ocean, so that the Japanese whales were already very depressed, worried that there would be no whale meat to eat on any day. In the past two years, in the case of Japanese complaining, it is affected by a large number of fishing in China, South Korea, Taiwan and so on, and they are almost unable to eat saury. This made the fragile little heart of the Japanese who loved "salt grilled saury" almost unbearable. As for eels, the supply of eels has been insufficient due to the japanese people's large consumption since around 2000, but this is nowhere to rely on others, so they have to constantly call for "do not fish for eel fry, so as not to cause the eels to disappear". So, what is the reason why the Japanese say that they can't eat tuna soon?
Japan rejected Japan's demand to expand its fishing for black tuna
According to Japan's "Modern Economy" report, in view of the continuous decline of tuna in the Pacific waters, the relevant countries in this water (including the United States, Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea and other more than ten countries) have established an organization called the "Central and Western Pacific Tuna Commission (wcpfc)" to specifically formulate tuna catch rules in the waters and be responsible for supervising the implementation of various countries. A few days ago, the "North Mini Committee" affiliated with the WCPFC met. At the meeting, the representative of Japan proposed that in view of the environmental protection efforts in recent years, the amount of tuna resources in the Pacific waters had been increased, so Japan called for an increase in the upper limit of tuna catch. As a result, it was strongly rejected by the most iron brother, the United States.
Black tuna caught by the Japanese
What is the trust fund doing
The Japanese want to cry without tears, and after investigation, it was found that the real rejection of their claims was the Pew Charitable Trust, an environmental group behind the American representatives. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the group is mainly engaged in environmental protection, culture, education, health, humanities, public place policy and religion and other aspects of the investigation, especially the group's world theory survey in each US presidential election, and even affect the election situation. In addition, the group also supports the current government in terms of funds, and is a very important support group for the US government, and it is their firm opposition to the Expansion of the Upper Limit of Tuna Fishing by the Japanese. It is said that before the meeting of the "North Mini Committee", at the meeting convened by the US representatives in advance, the representatives of the group were one of the official members, and it was precisely because of their dedication to protecting the endangered black tuna that they exerted strong pressure on the US representatives, which caused the US government representatives to forcefully reject Japan's request to expand the upper limit of tuna fishing at the "North Mini Committee".
The United States vetoed Japan's demand for greater black tuna fishing
The Pew Charitable Trust is obsessed with protecting black tuna based on data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Surveys show that in 1961 there were 170,000 tonnes of black tuna females, and by 2000 there were only 12,000 tonnes left, so iucn officially designated black tuna as an "endangered species" and in 2015 was approved by the Midwestern Pacific Tuna Commission, which began to formally set a cap on black tuna fishing by countries. It is precisely because of the implementation of the policy of protecting black tuna from 2015, after 4 years of recovery, the number of black tuna began to rise gradually, and the Japanese saw that the number of black tuna was gradually recovering, so it was at the North Subcommittee of the Midwest Pacific Tuna Commission held in the United States that the request to increase the fishing of black tuna was put forward, and was rejected by the good brothers in the United States without hesitation.
Black tuna at the Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market
The importance of marlin to the Japanese
The Japanese panicked because black tuna was so important to them that not only did almost all Japanese people live without tuna sashimi, tuna sushi, tuna steak, tuna rice bowl, and more. More importantly, even a single black tuna can affect the survival of fishermen engaged in tuna fishing and other fisheries. The reason why I say this is because of the price of black tuna. Generally speaking, a kilogram of black tuna meat is about 5,000 yen, a whole black tuna is worth millions of yen, and the most advanced black tuna can even reach tens of millions of yen... Therefore, there has long been a saying in Japan that a black tuna can almost affect the life of a tuna fisherman for a year.
The importance of tuna to Japanese fishermen
Fishermen engaged in black tuna fishing in Japan are generally divided into two categories, one is specialized in catching large tuna of more than 30 kilograms, and the other is specialized in catching small tuna under 30 kilograms. As a small black tuna as a resource species, wcpfc manages it strictly. According to this, since last year, all prefectures in Japan have successively introduced fishing rules for small black tuna. The rules stipulate that if the tuna caught exceeds the prescribed upper limit, the penalty is imprisonment for up to 3 years and a fine of 2 million yen. Under the heavy reward, there will be brave men, but under the heavy "punishment", the brave men will not know where to run. Based on this, the days of small and medium-sized fishermen can be imagined, which is why small and medium-sized fishermen in Japan gathered in front of the Tokyo Fisheries Agency in June last year to demonstrate and protest.
Black tuna juveniles
I ate 80% of the world's tuna
However, whether it is a protest or a parade, the question people have to ask is, why is there not enough black tuna in Japan to sell? At this point, the Japanese are quite cute, and according to their whispered mutterings, we know that the reason why there are fewer and fewer tuna in Japan is that they almost all eat them. The Japanese themselves said that before the 1980s, Japan was full of tuna, and they would not consider anything about protecting tuna resources, but from the beginning of the Japanese bubble economy in the 1980s, until now, with the continuous opening of supermarkets, sushi chains, and izakaya stores, the demand for tuna has also risen geometrically. According to wcpfc's survey data, 80% of the world's current tuna catch is eaten by the Japanese, so even if the Japanese want to expand the catch, the American big brother is angry and has no sound.
Black tuna midbelt
Interestingly, the Japanese representative went to Washington to snort twice, it didn't work, but he was not willing to go back empty-handed, so he desperately did the work of Taiwan, and finally got his wish to let Taiwan Cede a part of his black tuna catch, and finally came back with some harvest. But the Japanese can't change their sense of distress! Japan and Taiwan have a dispute over the fishing of saury, and have been fighting a war of words saying that people have crossed the line, so will Taiwan take advantage of the opportunity to give japan profits this time, will Taiwan take advantage of the situation and ask Japan to let some of the benefits of saury give them? Even if none of this is true, it will only solve this year's problems, and in the coming year, I don't know if we can expect Taiwan to continue to make profits. alas! The Japanese are dying.
Black tuna sashimi
Black tuna sushi
Black tuna rice bowl