Appetite for sashimi is closer than ever to wiping the Pacific bluefin tuna off the planet. The latest update of the International Union for the Conservation of Nation’s “Red List” of threatened species now includes the meaty fish, whose population has dropped by about a third over the past 22 years.
Other species on which the food market is putting “unsustainable pressure,” per IUCN, are the Chinese cobra, a major export from mainland China to Hong Kong; the American eel, which is being increasingly poached as East Asia seeks to replenish its own farmed stock; and the Chinese pufferfish, whose status as one of the world’s most poisonous fish only makes it more appealing to adventurous eaters, and whose numbers have fallen by an estimated 99.99 percent over the past 40 years due to overfishing. It is now classified as “critically endangered,” the final step before extinction.
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