Green Daily

Will the spicy tuna roll go the way of the passenger pigeon pie? It's starting to look that way, with scientists saying that the worldwide tuna population is "on the brink of collapse" from overfishing.

Once one of the most plentiful fish in the world, tuna production and consumption have doubled every decade between 1960 and 2000, peaking in 2004. Since then, catches have declined, which doesn't stop the factory trawlers from scouring the oceans for whatever they can still find.

The Mediterranean Bluefin (source of the best sushi) is in particular danger, with European Union ministers last year voting to allow fishing at a rate estimated to be twice that necessary to ensure the collapse of the fishery. The situation in the Pacific isn't much better, with fleets from a dozen nations competing for a tuna population that's declined 40% since 2001.

In January, the World Wildlife Fund called on consumers and retailers to boycott the Mediterranean bluefin, and several European supermarket chains have already removed it from their shelves.

As consumers, we can do our part by making sure that the fish we eat - for that matter, everything we eat - comes from sustainable sources. If you don't know, ask. If the retailer can't tell you, that's a pretty good sign that it's not.