As regulators gather in Paris in mid November to decide the fate of Atlantic bluefin tuna, ‘Looting the Seas’ reveals the sorry saga of illegal over-fishing that has led to plummeting global stocks. ICIJ reporter Kate Willson and colleagues discover that attempts to save bluefin stocks are still threatened by crucial missing data, and there’s evidence that governments across the Mediterranean connived in the growth of a vast Black Market, worth US$4 billion over the last 10 years. As the global appetite for sushi spreads beyond Japan, is it too late to rescue stocks of one of Nature’s most noble fish, prized by the Romans, and today worth often thousands of dollars each?
