Last month, the EU banned fishermen from Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Malta from catching bluefin tuna, a highly-prized species especially popular in Japan, where a single fish can fetch up to $100,000.

Experts worry that excessive trawling in the Mediterranean has depleted bluefin population levels to the point of stock collapse. According to a report by Reuters, “Commission experts say the EU’s fishing capacity is so large and bluefin tuna trawling activity so concentrated in June that the EU quota can be exhausted in just two days of fishing.”

At the same time, a group of South Pacific states agreed to create two fishing-free zones, “one between Papua New Guinea and Palau, and another bounded by PNG, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, the Solomon Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.”

And at the end of June 2008, a coalition of tuna-fishing companies in Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan announced they would suspend longline tuna fishing for the summer due to high fuel costs.

So that raises an important question: do you know how your tuna landed on your plate?

With nearly three quarters of the world’s fish and seafood stocks now fully exploited or overfished, it’s increasingly important for consumers to understand how their seafood dinner can contribute to the health — or degradation — of the ocean. Read more at NATURE online.

Toxic fish

If you’re a seafood lover worried about the level of toxins in your fillet, there’s good news and bad news.

Global fishing statistics

WIDE ANGLE has a stunning list of global fishing data, like these two shocking stats:

• Over 70% of the world’s fish species are already either fully exploited (producing catched close to their maximum sustainable limits) or over-exploited.
• An annual average of 7.3 million tons of fish is thrown back into the sea dead or dying because they are damaged, of the wrong species, under the legal landing size, or over a vessel’s quota of fish. This figure is believed to under estimate the number of marine mammals, turtles, and seabirds also caught as by-catch.