With an eye-popping record of $3.1 million for a single fish — over $5,000 per pound — the Pacific bluefin tuna is the most expensive fish in the world. But its popularity became the species' biggest threat, as overfishing brought it to the brink of extinction in 2014.
The solution, according to Matt Beaudin, executive chef with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, was simple. "Sometimes in order to make an impact, you have to pull the emergency brake to get people to pay attention," he said.
And in this case, the emergency brake was a public pledge, published by the aquarium in 2017. In that pledge, nearly 200 high-profile chefs committed to stop serving Pacific bluefin tuna until countries started fishing it in a sustainable way.
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As a result, heavy fishing countries — namely the United States and Mexico — implemented aggressive conservation efforts, including a reduction in catch limits of approximately 40%. Fortunately, these cooperative efforts have allowed the species to rebound even more quickly than anticipated, according to SiliconValley.com.
"Not eating it was dramatic and it made the impact we were looking for," Beaudin said. "Recovery is finally possible."
The aquarium, which manages a program called Seafood Watch, helps consumers understand which seafood varieties to choose in order to support sustainable fishing. And after the encouraging resurgence in the Pacific bluefin population, the organization recently upgraded the fish's rating from red (avoid) to yellow (good alternative).
"I'm very optimistic about what we can do when we work together to solve a problem that we mutually share," Corbett Nash, outreach manager at Seafood Watch, said. Nevertheless, he warned that Pacific bluefin population levels are far from stable.
Instead, he explained, "More negotiations, more work, and more of a long-term management plan is still needed before the species recovers."
Other collaborative conservation efforts have met equally gratifying success, from sustainable timber production helping to restore forest habitat in Brazil to wetland restoration enabling the return of rare birds in England after 400 years. And around the globe, scientists and environmentalists hope that increased awareness of the importance of biodiversity will encourage the continued development, and support, of similar efforts.
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