Felicia Jenkins
9/8/2010
11:43pm
Japan, Fishing: Japan's Appetite for fish is depleting stock, threatening restaurants
Japanese cooking is famous for its use of fish and other seafood. Eel or unagi is very popular in Japan especially during summer when extra energy is needed. Japan’s overfishing is now a large concern for many countries. With a lower number of eel being caught from local waters Japan is now becoming more dependent on importing eel from other places and fish from fish farms. Lower fish counts are not just showing up in Japan but also in the surrounding areas. The Japanese government says that the drops in the fish counts are due to the rising sea temperature that affects the reproduction and growth of the fish. People want action to help solve the disappearing fish problem. The best solution as of now is to increase fish farming but even that will take time to develop and become stable enough to become a private market.
This situation is interesting to me because it is an example how our cultures and traditions are not always eco-friendly. Fish is an important part of the Japanese diet, a part that most people aren’t willing to give up. But with this current depletion of fish in Japan and surround areas something will have to change whether it is consuming habits or production habits or both. I think it will be interesting to see how restaurants adapt to the availability of fish and how it will affect menu choices.
http://www.latimes.com/business/fi-japan-fish-20100904,0,4758808,full.story
1 comment:
After reading your article it made me think of how much countries/states depend on certain things to stay alive. Japan depends on fish the way North Carolina depends on the tobacco industry. Its kind of scary to think how much areas depend on these things because, just like Japan, if the product ever decreases in availability, the result would not be good at all.
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