Swimming with Tuna

Chapter 3 explores the complex interactions of technology, culture, and taste that have turned bluefin tuna, an apex predator of the oceans, into a highly valued and endangered commodity. It starts by plunging into a pen of farmed southern bluefin tuna and then follows Croatian and Italian fishermen in their love of the fish. While the unsustainable value of bluefin tuna is set by Tsukiji (Tokyo’s fish market) and Japanese appetites, the fate of the bluefin, as a truly global commodity, is determined by middle-class tastes around the world. The chapter also considers how swimming with tuna recalibrates an ethics of eating.