Fish in Japan

The Japan Times Online recently published an interesting article about the future of fish as an integral part of Japan's daily diet. In Japan, people eat more fish than in any other country (nearly 70 KG per capita per year) and Japan's need for seafood has led the people to over fish their own waters and look more and more towards their North American trade partners to provide this culturally important diet staple. A lot of the seafood that we eat in Canada and the United States also has a strong Japanese influence: it seems as though a new sushi restaurant pops up every day in Vancouver. Some of the most coveted types of fish used in sushi are also the species that are most at risk for extinction, such as the bluefin tuna.



Stumbling across the thought-provoking article about the future of seafood in the Japan Times and watching this Washington Post video about bluefin tuna made me curious to learn more about the issue. Are there lessons that we can learn from the Japanese experience? How does the state of Japan's oceans affect the state of our oceans here in Canada?