Tuna: Love, Death, and Mercury

From the Publisher

“Ellis conveys well the enthusiasm people have for these superbly evolved top predators that are a source of great wealth as well as prized sushi and sashimi. . . . Exciting and enjoyable.” —Nature “This book tells you what you need to know about mercury poisoning and the dangers of eating the large, long-lived predators such as tuna.” —Jane Hightower, author of Diagnosis Mercury “Provocative and engaging.” —The Miami Herald“Ellis shows himself to be a prodigious talent.... Captures the essence of a great creature while it still exists in the flesh.”—San Francisco Chronicle“Ellis knows his stuff. And this is only the latest in his collection of information-rich, gee-whiz books on the marine world.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review"With all the authority and grace for which his writings are renowned, Richard Ellis offers up an impassioned plea to protect and save one of the deep ocean's loveliest creatures. His scrupulously considered view—that our very modern craving for sushi and sashimi have caused us to love the endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna unwisely and much too well—needs to be firmly remembered."—Simon Winchester, author of The Map that Changed the World"If there is any hope for the endangered, majestic bluefin, it lies in Richard Ellis's extensively researched, carefully written, and beautifully illustrated call to action."—John McCosker, Chair of Aquatic Biology, California Academy of Sciences"Our foremost contemporary ocean chronicler, Richard Ellis, offers here an impassioned plea to consider the grandeur–and the tragic demise–of the swiftest, strongest fish that migrate across our water planet. While fully documenting the unique biology and fascinating history of the tuna species, Ellis casts clear light on the practice of 'tuna ranching' aimed at keeping humans sushi-supplied despite the disappearance of wild bluefin populations. This is nature writing at its best, from the heart."–Dick Russell, author of Eye of the Whale and Striper Wars"Richard Ellis is surely the most vivid, thoughtful and loving recorder of the splendors and travails of the ocean. This time he has cast his net wide and come up with a riveting story of the heartless destruction of the 'wildest, fastest, most powerful fish in the sea.' This glorious, angry book made me weep, but gave me a lot of insight and even a ray of hope."—Joe MacInnis, author of Breathing Underwater: The Quest to Live in the Sea"Richard Ellis has long been the indisputable champion among writers of the sea and its creatures. In Tuna: A Love Story, his best book yet, he takes us from the succulent red square of maguro to the tragic truth about giant bluefin tuna that will forever change the way we order a meal in a sushi bar."—Brad Matsen, author of Fishing up North: Stories of Luck and Loss in Alaskan Waters"Eminently readable and reliably authoritative, Tuna: A Love Story, is one of the best 'single'-fish species books ever written." –Tim M. Berra, author of Freshwater Fish Distribution"By far, the most comprehensive, documented and balanced analysis on the fate of Tuna I have read so far." –Roberto Mielgo Bregazzi, CEO, Advanced Tuna Ranching Technologies

Publishers Weekly

Ellis (The Book of Sharks) covers everything one could want to know about the "biggest, fastest, warmest-blooded, warmest-bodied fish in the world," describing the various species of tuna and giving a thorough account of the history of recreational and commercial tuna fishing. The bluefin tuna-on the brink of extinction-receives the most attention, and Ellis contends that the Japanese fondness for tuna sashimi-and Japanese willingness to violate fishing restrictions-is largely to blame. Tuna farms, where bluefin are fattened, were once thought to be the answer, but Ellis argues that they are contributing to the problem as young tuna do not have time to breed and replenish the stock in the ocean; the fish fed to the bluefin are themselves being overfished; and waste from the pens causes pollution. Ellis presents an overload of information-too many facts and figures on weights, measurements and numbers of fish caught and sold-however, his impassioned message comes through clearly: someone must figure out how to breed the bluefin in captivity, because as things stand now, it will not survive in the ocean. Photos not seen by PW. (July)

Library Journal

Lamenting that the "most beautiful fish in the world is literally being eaten out of existence," prominent marine writer and artist Ellis (The Empty Ocean; Encyclopedia of the Sea) eloquently describes the threats to the majestic, fast-swimming, highly coveted bluefin tuna, target of the insatiable sushi market. In contrast to Tuna: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution, edited by Barbara A. Block and E. Donald Stevens and written for the scientific community, Ellis is writing for a broad general audience concerned with species conservation. The author's drawings and photographs of the bluefin, yellowfin, albacore, skipjack, and blue-eye tunas enhance his text, which examines tuna physiology, behavior, and migration patterns and traces the history of tuna fishing. Ellis also draws an appalling picture of tuna ranches in the world's oceans, tuna slaughtering methods, disregard for internationally set catch quotas, and the mercury content of the various tuna species, all of which should put a damper on consumption. He interviewed fishers in many ports all over the world and has compiled a 26-page bibliography. This timely, balanced, and passionate work is recommended for all public and academic libraries.
—Judith B. Barnett

Kirkus Reviews

Smooth-flowing distillation of scholarship about "the world's best-loved fish."Ellis (Singing Whales and Flying Squid: The Discovery of Marine Life, 2006, etc.) has an authorial voice that's easy on the ear and unpresumptuously authoritative. He takes readers through the many varieties of tuna: albacore, longtail, bigeye, blackfin, yellowfin, skipjack (not really a tuna, but the chicken-of-the-sea that fills many a light-meat tuna can) and the great, paradigmatic bluefin. Ranging as widely as the fish itself, Ellis covers tuna's history as an item of catch (it was once scorned, ground up for its oil and for cat food), its lure for such sport fishermen as Zane Grey, its migratory patterns, metabolism and eyesight. He delves into the strangely fascinating canning process: Caught, frozen, thawed, gilled and gutted, the tuna is then frozen again, cut, precooked, cooled, skinned, canned, cooked again. The bluefin captures most of Ellis's attention. Capable of living 30 years, speeding along at 55 miles per hour, weighing in at 1,500 pounds, this delicious, lordly fish is full of health-giving omega-3 fatty acids . . . and just a soupcon of mercury. It has provoked "the modern-day equivalent of the Dutch tulipmania" in high-end Japanese restaurants, where a two-ounce slice can command $75. But the bluefin is becoming rare due to overfishing. Its economic value is so high that its fate in the wild is nearly a foregone conclusion. That value may encourage tuna ranching, which could help protect brood stock but brings its own nest of troubles: interbreeding, parasites, disease, effluent pollution and gross inefficiency. (Twenty pounds of wild-fish feed produce one pound of tuna meat.) The future,Ellis suggests, lies in conservation, but he fears no one is listening to the convincing doomsday scenarios sketched by environmental groups. An artful, detailed account of the tuna, and an entreaty that this not be its swan song.

The Barnes & Noble Review

Warm-blooded, topping out at 1,500 pounds, and able to swim faster than 50 miles an hour, tuna captured the imagination of fisherman long before the advent of Charlie Tuna or the sushi bar. To the ancient Phoenicians, who caught them in vast cities of nets, they were as important as the buffalo was to the American Indian; today, American consumers eat more than one billion pounds of canned tuna per year. In Tuna: A Love Story, Richard Ellis describes the ways of these sleek, ceaselessly wandering creatures and the fishermen who catch them by hook or net (or, currently, raise them to market size in pens called "tuna ranches" in the open sea). Ellis exhaustively documents the toll commercial fishing takes on wild populations of tuna -- especially the remarkable bluefin, largest of the several tuna species and focus of the sushi trade. Swimming in all the planet's oceans, bluefin are apex predators whose disappearance would upset open-ocean ecosystems worldwide. Meanwhile, rising mercury levels in tuna flesh -- a measure of increasing ocean pollution -- threaten to render this important protein source inedible. Ellis not only fears for the state of the seas and human health but for the fate of this majestic creature -- and on the savagery that takes place far out to sea beyond the consumer's gaze, he is unsparing: "Seeing a bluefin tuna gaffed with spears," he writes, "is like seeing a thoroughbred racehorse being hacked to death with an ax." --Matthew Battles