Daily Lessons from Life 02 August 2010 - WWF urges Japanese to stop eating endangered bluefin tuna

"WWF urges Japanese to stop eating endangered bluefin tuna - Mon, Aug 02, 2010 AFP

TOKYO - Japanese people, who consume most of the Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna catch, should avoid eating the species until its harvest becomes sustainable, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said Monday.

Japan consumes three-quarters of all bluefin, mainly raw as sushi and sashimi, but experts agree that decades of overfishing have seen its stocks crash by more than two-thirds in the Mediterranean.

'We want to make a call to Japanese traders, retailers and consumers,' said Susana Sainz-Trapaga, who heads WWF's Mediterranean activities."

It will be a Herculean effort to try to dissuade the Japanese from consuming one of their prized food! Think about the efforts to try to stop them from consuming whale meat and the bad public relation of the clash between the whalers and the 'protect the whales' groups recently. Did it make them reconsidered? There is no significant overt signs that they have!

Lessons for me are:

1. food is just food. But when culture and tradition are thrown in, it becomes a very emotional issue!;

2. Yet it is entirely possible to change culture and tradition if enough people are made aware of the need to change, the benefits of the change, the continued education and taking actual actions to change. It just take a lot of time and effort. There is no short cut. Short of nuking it! i.e. making it a death penalty for people to consume the fish! Of course, this is ridicules as you cannot kill someone to prevent some animals from being killed to extinction. Right? :-);

3. if the mindset is, this is just food. If we don't eat this food and eat another food that provides us with the same amount of nutrients, energy and what-not, why can't we change the food? It is that simple.

May the Bluefin Tuna lives on and continued to be one of the food sources for mankind. Mankind who love its taste and whatever. So that they can continue to enjoy it for a long time to come. It is the choice of that particular segment of Mankind. If you want to continue to enjoy it, you have to help to keep the spice alive.

Instant gratification vs. Continued Gratification. Short term vs. long term. Cheers.