DULAC, La. — Soon after Buster Rich eased his 75-foot-long "Mr. Crockett" to the dock, the bidding for the giant bluefin tuna began.
The fish, weighing more than 600 pounds, was a good one. Not great. Just a B-minus to a B in a grading system that takes into account color, freshness, fat content and shape. George Pharis, one of the dockside buyers, liked it well enough to pay $6,500 for it.
"It's a good, solid domestic fish," Pharis said.
The tuna, caught last month at the close of the Gulf of Mexico's fishing season, was immediately wrapped in rice paper and air-freighted to Los Angeles. Within 48 hours it was being served in Japanese restaurants around the city, for bluefin is one of the great delicacies of the sushi bar.
But even at more than $10 a pound, the price for Rich's fish pales in comparison to what a top-quality bluefin will fetch in Japan after it has been rushed there from the Gulf, encased in an ice-filled, coffin-like box. A 715-pound tuna at Tokyo's Tsukiji market sold last year for a record $67,500--$94.40 a pound.
And therein lies a dilemma. Because of this ability to fill the demand in Japan, the Atlantic bluefin has gone from being a prime ingredient in cat food to one of the most valuable inhabitants of the sea.
A veritable tuna gold rush--more than two decades of heavy fishing--has left this once-plentiful sport fish, known for its power and spirit, in trouble, the victim of international skirmishes, technology and economic reality.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna, a multinational organization based in Madrid, estimates that giant bluefin--those weighing more than 310 pounds--in the Western Atlantic have undergone a staggering decline from an estimated 225,000 in 1970 to 22,000 in 1990.
Environmentalists are in an uproar because they say the stock of fish is being depleted and may never recover.
Sport fishermen blame commercial fishermen for what is happening to the bluefin.
Commercial fishermen retort that the fish has become so valuable that sport fishermen are that in name only. "They're commercial fishermen," said David McGinnis, a Dulac buyer and wholesaler. "They sell what fish they catch."
Meanwhile, the National Marine Fisheries Service struggles to decide what rules should be imposed on bluefin fishing, while being sued and sniped at from all sides. Commercial fishermen say current rules actually increase the number of bluefin being killed. Environmentalists say the Gulf spawning grounds should be closed to fishing altogether and that much stricter catch quotas should be imposed.
Add to this an international controversy about the fish. It includes disputes among countries, including the United States, about how many bluefin each should be allowed to catch. And ICCAT members charge that other countries, notably Mexico, are making a mockery of multinational agreements designed to protect the bluefin.
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At the center of it all is one of the great creatures of the sea, one Aristotle wrote about in his "History of Animals" and one that Hemingway loved to pursue. Growing to more than 1,500 pounds, the bluefin has long been considered one of the world's best sport fish, ranking with marlin and swordfish for its strength and fighting ability.
The bluefin is noted for both speed and endurance, capable of bursts of up to 50 miles per hour and able to dive thousands of feet in seconds. When it zips through the water, its fins retract like the wings of an F-14 fighter jet.
"It is really one magnificent fish," Rich said.
Until the 1960s, the Atlantic bluefin was viewed primarily as a sport fish along the Eastern seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. Because of its oily flesh, most Americans did not care to eat it. In the days before the bluefin craze, the fish often sold for as little as 7 cents a pound.
But then a series of events occurred that, in very short order, changed the makeup of the fishery. Purse seiners, with their huge nets, began targeting schools of Atlantic bluefin in the early 1960s. While the fish sold for very little per pound, large quantities went to pet food manufacturers, thus making the bluefin a profitable catch. California boats moved into Atlantic waters and filled their holds. In one year, a single purse seiner could land more bluefin than could be caught by all other types of fishing combined.
Meanwhile, Japanese long-liners, seeking to profit from the large bluefin population, expanded their range to the Atlantic, using baited hooks on lines that typically stretched for 40 miles. Many of the Japanese boats focused on the Gulf, which biologists say is the only known spawning ground for the Atlantic bluefin.
