Japan Cooks Up New Technique to Save Bluefin

(NEWSER) - You might suspect a sushi restaurant that doesn’t specify what sort of tuna you’re eating of trying to pawn off an inferior species. Not so. Researchers using novel DNA barcoding technology found that though nearly a third of tuna sold in 31 US restaurants was the prized—and endangered—bluefin. But just 8 of the 22 bluefin samples were accurately labeled. More»

Study finds tuna off California with cesium levels 10X higher than usual

(NEWSER) - Radiation from Japan's nuclear meltdown keeps hitting US shores : The latest comes in the form of the bluefin tuna, a massive fish that can top 1,000 pounds and which spawn off the coast of Japan and rocket 6,000 miles across the Pacific to school off of California and Baja California. Bluefins arriving on the West Coast five months after the Fukushima disaster showed much higher levels of cesium-134 and cesium-137 than previous specimens. "We were frankly kind of startled," one of the researchers tells the AP . More»

That breaks down to about $1,238 per pricey pound

(NEWSER) - Japan's first tuna auction of the year generally sees millions of yen tossed around—in 2011, the top bluefin sold for 32.49 million yen, the equivalent of about $423,000. But hold on to your hats, because 2012 makes that look like chump change. A 593-pound fish sold today for a record $736,000 at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market. That translates to about $1,283 a pound, also a record. More»

Endangered species conference labeled 'a disaster for conservation'

(NEWSER) - Conservationists were left fuming yesterday after a UN conference on endangered species failed to win protection for a single marine species. Asian nations, led by Japan, defeated efforts to restrict trade in coral, sharks, and bluefin tuna. The one species to be given protected status, the porbeagle shark, had its status revoked on the last day of the conference after Asian nations reopened debate. More»

Outrage at foreign preferences just 'gastronomic nationalism'

(NEWSER) - Sure, the owners of a Los Angeles-area sushi restaurant broke the law if they indeed served whale meat, but those in a tizzy had “better wipe that morsel of moral superiority from your chin,” Japhy Grant writes . At the root, it’s a culture disconnect: Eating whale is deeply ingrained in Japan—as eating seal is with the Native Alaskans allowed by the US government to slaughter some annually. More»