Most important point in that article was not the price of the fish, but the following -- The down economy translates to less Japanese eating tuna. That means a better chance of recovery for this fish that the Japanese have literally "eaten to extinction." The Japanese consume 80% of the bluefin tuna in the world. YES, THE ENTIRE WORLD!! Less consumption on their part means lower worldwide demand and eventual lower prices. It's all good news.
If you read the ignorant comments below the article, it's hard to have hope. There was a time, and not all that long ago really, when a fish that size would have been fairly commen.
Another article..http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6977146.ece
I had read that Mitsubushi is investing in bluefin tuna and cryovac deep-freezing them. Once the Japanese have eaten everything in the wild, they plan on breaking out the frozen ones and selling them for $$$$ profit.
I had read that Mitsubushi is investing in bluefin tuna and cryovac deep-freezing them. Once the Japanese have eaten everything in the wild, they plan on breaking out the frozen ones and selling them for $$$$ profit.
Well, let's just hope that the Japanese economy tips from deflation to hyper-inflation as many economists are now anticipating.
Stuart- your comment about "decreasing demand creating lower prices" definitely works (in a much uglier fashion) when an "abundant" resource has been over-harvested to the point of near total depletion.
If the price of Tuna keeps increasing faster than Japanese citizen's ability to pay, then it is true that wild fish will be safer as the cost of catching them goes into overdrive and becomes a negative value adder- much as the increasing input costs of planting corn (fuel, labor, fertilizer) in the 70's made it a losing proposition for farmers to grow corn- which reduced the supply of corn in the market and caused corn prices to ge berzerk.
I think the principle is the same here- depleting stocks of wild fish can only result in vicious price moves that snap the market back and allow the populations to recover while people deal with the economic after effects of the inflationary price explosion.
That Mitsubishi move to stockpile frozen fish may turn out to be a great investment for them, and a benefit to wild fish populations all at the same time. We can only hope.