Wha? Wednesday: Bluefin for Sale - Oceana USA
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January 6, 2010

Wha? Wednesday: Bluefin for Sale

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As you know, Wednesdays are normally devoted to blogging about the latest whale news. But I’ve redubbed today’s post in honor of yesterday’s news about a certain sleek giant of the sea who continues to fetch exorbitant auction prices as it heads toward extinction. It makes you go, “Wha?”

Yesterday, a 513-pound bluefin tuna sold for $177,000 — the most since 2001 — in an auction at Tokyo’s famous fish market.

Ironically, the sale took place amid a decline in Japanese tuna consumption due to the nation’s worst recession since World War II.

So as Tokyo’s fish market representatives fret over how to keep c

ustomers in line at the tuna counter, ocean conservationists are fretting over how to keep enough tuna in the sea to survive until next year’s auction, which promises to produce the same response as this year: Wha?