Chicken of the Sea

There are nearly 8 billion people on the planet. And those 8 billion people need to eat. And especially in the developed nations they eat a lot. That means that companies are constantly looking for new and abundant food sources to supply the ever increasing need for food. One of those sources is the skipjack tuna.

This particular breed of tuna is insanely abundant and they breed quickly. How quickly? Instead of the chicken of the sea, you could reasonably call them the rabbits of the sea. They are able to breed young and year round, that means that their population is able to replenish itself very quickly. Given that some of the species’ predators, like certain kinds of sharks, have entered the endangered species list, fishing them might actually be helping control them and preventing them from forcing out other species. Yet, given the increased demand for tuna, that might not be the case for much longer. 

Sadly, that is the way things typically progress. We push on one specific source until it is threatened and then move onto another until we finally learn to manage the source in a responsible way. Think of how bison were hunted nearly to extinction as America expanded into the West. Much like the skipjack is currently, their supply seemed to be infinite. Obviously, we learned that was not the case, but barely in time to save the species. 

Then there is the way the tuna are harvested. Once upon a time, the way they and most other fish were pulled from the ocean was little different from the way your grandpa pulled trout out of the river. The poles were just bigger and the lines stronger but the principles were the same. However, what has happened is that fisheries have adopted a fancy form of net fishing (also an old form of fishing that has been around for thousands of years) called purse seine fishing. Rather than simply dipping or dragging a net from a ship and seeing what comes up, this method involves massive nets that are actually secured at the bottom so the fish can’t escape. It’s very efficient. It is also indiscriminate in what it catches. There are literally tons of other fish and aquatic mammals that are caught in these fancy nets, including various endangered species of dolphins and some of the sharks that prey on the tuna (yes, controlling the skipjack population by fishing them is fixing a problem we’ve helped create in the first place). 

It would certainly be better for the dolphins, sharks, and whatever else gets unintentionally caught in those nets if we went back to the more discriminate pole and line fishing method. Of course, given that the method is less efficient, it would no doubt raise the price of tuna in the store, which means it might not be the go to option when funds are running a little short. How much would the price go up? Who knows? I don’t know what the profit margins on a can of tuna are. If they are pretty big, then the companies could certainly afford to make less money. If they are already low, then grandma will pay the price when she makes tuna casserole for Friday dinner. Perhaps that means there would be some other alternative, or the casserole would be smaller, or more people would discover the joy that is leftovers. 

This is a bit of a digression but there are people that actually won’t eat leftovers, which is definitely a first world problem. Growing up, if it wasn’t in the fridge for more than a week, it was fair game. Not that much lasted that long. How much less waste would there be, of tuna and pretty much anything else if people weren’t afraid to reheat things in the oven? 

Whatever the case, solving these issues won’t be easy and will require a lot of data and subsequent analysis of it. That’s where you and TARTLE come in. If you have any data that would help with that, share it. How much tuna does your family take in? Are there leftovers? How much does it cost in your area? Ever see it in the clearance aisle? Do you fish tuna? How often do you go out? Are there ways to improve pole and line fishing not widely known? Are there alternatives to tuna? These might seem like small things, but they are part of a larger whole and that data can help determine how big of a problem there is, or if there really is one at all. Should there be a true problem, that kind of information can help provide the best solutions. 

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