The Fish Japan Ate
The wild bluefin tuna is being eaten to extinction, but this hasn\u2019t curbed the global appetite for this valuable fish in Japan and across the globe.In the last 70 years the fish has become a staple of high-end sushi restaurants and celebratory meals. It sells for up to hundreds of thousands of dollars\u2013as to eat bluefin caught in the wild signifies quality. It is the apex of the sushi platter across Japan, which eats about 80% of all the wild bluefin consumed. But the tuna\u2019s popularity is actually a relatively new phenomenon, as tuna was once regarded as a waste product until the middle of the 20th century, and even used for cat food. But recently, the appetite for the huge ocean-going fish has led to an ecological crisis, with projections that wild bluefin will no longer exist in the coming decades. The BBC\u2019s Edwin Lane visits the iconic Tsukiji fish market, the hub of the global tuna trade, and speaks to a sushi chef who can\u2019t bring herself to stop preparing the fish despite the extinction warning, and visits one of the world\u2019s only functioning bluefin farms to talk about why it\u2019s so difficult to raise bluefin tuna in captivity. \n \n(Photo: Bluefin tuna on ice Photo credit: Kindai University, Japan)