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7
How Sushi Went Global

in crushed ice. Despite high shipping costs and the fact Kesennuma in northern Japan managed to land their
that 50 percent of the gross weight of a tuna is unus- entire year's quota from that fishery in only three
able, tuna is sent to Japan whole, not sliced into sal- days. The oversupply sent tuna prices at Tsukiji
able portions. Spoilage is one reason for this, but form through the floor, and they never really recovered.
is another. Everyone in the trade agrees that Japanese Today, the news from Spain is not good. The day
workers are much more skilled in cutting and trimming before, faxes and e-mails from Tokyo brought word
tuna than Americans, and no one would want to risk that a Spanish fish farm had suffered a disaster. Odd
sending botched cuts to Japan. tidal conditions near Cartagena led to a sudden and
Not to impugn the quality of the fish sold in the unexpected depletion of oxygen in the inlet where one
United States, but on the New England docks, the first of the great tuna nets was anchored. Overnight, 800
determination of tuna buyers is whether they are look- fish suffocated. Divers hauled out the tuna. The fish
ing at a "domestic" fish or an "export" fish. On that were quickly processed, several months before their
expected prime, and shipped off to Tokyo. For the
Tapanese corporation and its Spanish partners, a har-

auctions in New Hampshire know they will suffer as
well. Whatever fish turn up today and tomorrow,
they will arrive at Tsukiji in the wake of an enormous
glut of hastily exported Spanish tuna.
Fishing is rooted in local communities and local
economies--even for fishers dipping their lines (or
nets) in the same body of wateq a couple hundred miles
can be worlds away. Now, a Massachusetts fisher's
livelihood can be transformed in a matter of hours by
a spike in market prices halfway around the globe or
by a disaster at a fish farm across the Atlantic. Giant
Down-home cooking fishing conglomerates in one part of the world sell their
catch alongside family outfits from another. Environ-
judgment hangs several dollars a pound for the fisher; mental organizations on one continent rail against
and the supply of sashimi-grade tuna for fishmongers, distant industry regulations implemented an ocean
sushi bars, and seafood restaurants up and down the away. Such instances of convergence are common in
Eastern seaboard. Some of the best tuna from New Eng- a globalizing world. What is surprising, and perhaps
land may make it to New York or Los Angeles, but by more profound, in the case of today's tuna fishers, is
way of Tokyo-validated as top quality (and top price) the complex interplay between industry and culture,
by the decision to ship it to Japan by air for sale at Tsuk- as an esoteric cuisine from an insular part of the world
iji, where it may be purchased by one of the handful of has become a global fad in the span of a generation,
Tsukiji sushi exporters who supply premier expatriate driving, and driven by, a new kind of fishing business.
sushi chefs in the world's leading cities. Many New England fishers, whose traditional
livelihood now depends on unfamiliar tastes and
distant markets, turn to a kind of armchair anthro-
PLAYING THE MARKET
pology to explain Japan's ability to transform tuna
The tuna auction at Yankee Co-op in Seabrook, New from trash into treasure around the world. For some,
Hampshire, is about to begin on the second-to-last the quick answer is simply national symbolism. The
day of the 1999 season. The weather is stormy, few deep red of tuna served as sashimi or sushi contrasts
boats are out. Only three bluefin, none of them terri- with the stark white rice, evoking the red and white
bly good, are up for sale today, and the half-dozen buy- of the Japanese national flag. Others know that red
ers at the auction, three Americans and three Japanese, and white is an auspicious color combination in
gloomily discuss the impending end of a lousy season. Japanese ritual life (lobster tails are popular at Japan-
In July, the bluefin market collapsed just as the ese weddings for just this reason). Still others think
U.S. fishing season was starting. In a stunning mis- the cultural prize is a fighting spirit, pure machismo,
calculation, Japanese purse seiners operating out of both their own and the tuna's. Taken by rod and reel,