You may love the taste, but readers Young Post spoke to agree with a proposed ban on the international trade of bluefin tuna. Sushi and sashimi are popular eats in Hong Kong. That creamy piece of fish on your tongue can be a delight. But with some of the types of fish used already facing extinction, it may be time to stop eating them.
Stocks of the Atlantic bluefin tuna have crashed in recent decades because of industrial-scale fishing.
The tuna makes for luxurious sushi dishes. In Japan, the world's largest consumer, regular fish auctions are held and a large fish can fetch a huge sum. Largely because of this high demand, the number of bluefin tuna has plunged more than 80 per cent since 1970, according to an international body on endangered species.
This month, 175 countries signed up to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species are meeting in Qatar to discuss and vote on how to preserve the tuna.
In Hong Kong, a group was created on Facebook in January to protest against eating bluefin tuna. The group, which has now 6,120 members, also calls for a boycott of a Hong Kong sushi chain which has brought the endangered fish to its tables in recent years.
In Japan, which imports about 80 per cent of Atlantic bluefin, the proposed ban is fiercely opposed. Officials and fish traders have vowed to defy any total trade ban.
At Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market, where some 2,000 tuna are auctioned each day, traders said a ban on the trade was not the only option for preservation efforts. They said the Atlantic bluefin would not become extinct if fishermen only caught the larger ones and put younger ones back into the sea to reproduce.
Additional reporting by junior reporter Michelle Cheng
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