Bluefin sales at Tsukiji fish market, Tokyo. (Photo by Sanctu, via Flickr

The global appetite for bluefin tuna is expanding as more diners get a taste for the fish. Demand for bluefin sushi has been rising around the world, especially in Japan which consumes 80 percent of the haul annually. It’s not surprising to learn, in Paul Greenberg’s June New York Times magazine cover story “Tuna’s End,” that our “last wild fish” is overfished, particularly Atlantic bluefin in the Mediterranean. Mr. Greenberg writes:

Literally they are one of the last big public supplies of wild fish left in the world. Metaphorically they are the terminus of an idea: that the ocean is an endless resource where new fish can always be found. In the years to come we can treat tuna as a mile marker to zoom past on our way toward annihilating the wild ocean or as a stop sign that compels us to turn back and radically reconsider.

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June 27, 2010, NewYorkTimes.com, “Tuna’s End.”