Save the whales, sure. How about the tuna?
The Economist recently ran a feature on the state of the world's oceans. They reported on the diminishing stocks of tuna. Apparently, among other things, the growing taste for sushi and sashimi in the west and protein in the east is contributing to over fishing of tuna. Some species of tuna are now endangered.
This photo shows 185gram cans of tuna selling for 50c at Coles supermarkets in Australia. The low price point is clearly stimulating demand as these empty shelves show. Surely this is unethical retail behaviour?
It is interesting to me how there is general sympathy with the save the whales campaign, and consumers would probably not buy and eat ocean mammals like whales & dolphins, yet tuna is purchased and eaten with a seemingly ever increasing appetite. Canned tuna is particularly offensive, being the stored outcome of over-fishing which could not be consumed fresh, it is preserved stored and ultimately sold for next to nothing. I wonder why the tuna issue hasn't caught on with the environmentalists, vegetarians, Greenpeace and the like?
Maybe it is time for legislation to target canned tuna with some sort of sustainability tax to slow demand?
1 comments:
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yep, so true... and I bet that 99.9% of the members of that facebook group 'Fuck off Japan leave the whales alone!' will happily chow through tins of tuna without any conflicted feelings whatsoever.
I fear though that the only way we can save them is by making them taste disgusting. Mass hypnotherapy?
yep, so true... and I bet that 99.9% of the members of that facebook group 'Fuck off Japan leave the whales alone!' will happily chow through tins of tuna without any conflicted feelings whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteI fear though that the only way we can save them is by making them taste disgusting. Mass hypnotherapy?