Manta, Ecuador

The town of Manta is the “Tuna Capital of the World”. When I hear the word “tuna”, I immediately think of over-fishing, depletion of the oceans and critical stocks. As it turns out, the tuna caught off the coast of Ecuador belong to three species: the yellowfin, the bigeye and the skipjack tuna. Bluefin tuna stocks (Bluefin are native to the Atlantic and Mediterranean seas), have seen their population drop 80% since 1999.   Their populations are considered “critical”, primarily because of the “Spanish Fishing Armada” which, according to Greenpeace, sails the world’s ocean in pursuit of more substantial tuna catches. The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has categorized the stocks for yellowfin and bigeye as “yellow”, meaning the stocks cannot support an increase in fishing. Only the skipjack tuna are rated “green”, indicating healthy populations.

We don’t eat tuna in our house, but I am drawing up my own action plan in response to my research: I will eliminate tuna from our cats’ diet. 

Surely, the cats will understand.