(Un) The end of the line

p.40 The menu also listed a bluefin sashimi "set" for $9.5. I ordered it on a dual impulse of hunger and curiosity. The pile of dark red flesh with a sensuous texture and a rich taste, weighing in total around 5 ounces, came with an elegant garnish of twirled spring onion and cucumber, as well as some wasabi and soy sauce. On the side were a box of rice and a bowl of miso soup. The taste was delicious and has remained memorable, as has the guilt that struck me once I had eaten it. That, I resolved, was enough bluefin for a lifetime, or until bluefin numbers miraculously increase. If that is to happen, the Hapanese--and everyone else who like Japanese food--are going to have to get used to eating fewer fish.

p.43. ..... the deal signed by his government, which allow trawlers from the EU, Japan, and Taiwan to fish in Senegal's waters. "Poverty came to Senegal with these fishing agreements," he said succintly. Scientists show that there is more to his view than nostalgia.
Fedby one of the Atlantic's great upwellings, the waters of West Africa are among the world's richest, with more than 1200 species of fish.

p.44 Among the countries the EU has signed deals with is Angola, where millions of people rish starvation. This is a matter of indifference to the country's elite, who earn houndreds of millions of dollars a year in oil revenues. They also receive $32 million from the EU for allowing 85 of its vessels to fish for tuna, shrimp, and demersal fish, which, from the EU' point of view, sounds like an extraordinary bargain. It is unclear whether British or German tourists on their package vacations in Spain, or indeed the Spanish themselves, are aware that the shrimp in their paella are taken not from the Mediterranean but from sseas belonging theoretically to some of the starving in Africa.
... (Forum Fisheries Agency) Attempts to persuade Japan, Taiwan , and Korea to enter into a similar treaty, instead of concluding their own bilateral agreements with small Pacific nations, have been unsuccessful.

p.46 The theory is that fisheries access agreements established a means for poor nations to profit from the harvesting of a surplus they did not have the technical means to harvest hemselves. Such a surplus may theoretically still exist in the waters off Mauritania, a country with a relatively small artisanal fleet equipped with traditional vessels and a vast continental shelf, but not in the waters off Senegal. Denegal has an industrial fleet of its own, ...

p.49 There's no escaping the fact the destruction of West African fish stocks has arisen mainly from demand in Europe, followed closely by Japan and Taiwan--a fact with the consumers in those countries are almost entirely unaware.

p.52Western and Central Pacific Tuna Convention-- establishing a commision to limit catches to a sustainable level. It remains to be seen how successful it is now that all the world's main tuna fleets--belonging to Japan, Taiwan, Korea, the US, the EU, and now China--are fishing in the south Pacific.

(Up to p.294)