Blog #1: Tuna’s End: The Fate of the Bluefin, the Oceans and Us

Paul Greenberg’s article in the June 27, 2010 New York Time’s Magazine discusses the perilous fate of the Bluefin Tuna (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/magazine/27Tuna-t.html (Links to an external site.)).

The conclusion of the article states:

“Perhaps people will never come to feel about a tuna the way they have come to feel about whales. Whales are, after all, mammals: they have large brains; they nurse their young, and breed slowly. All of that ensconces them in a kind of empathic cocoon, the warmth of which even the warmest-blooded tuna may never occupy. But what we can perhaps be persuaded to feel, viscerally, is that industrial fishing as it is practiced today against the bluefin and indeed against all the world’s great fish, the very tigers and lions of our era, is an act unbefitting our sentience. An act as pointless, small-minded and shortsighted as launching a harpoon into the flank of a whale.”

Read the article and then comment on the plausibility of an international environmental regime to save the species.  Is it possible?  Is it necessary?  Do you agree that the development of such a regime would be more difficult in comparison to whales?  

Please submit an original post (no less than 150 words) by Friday @ 11:59pm and at least one response post (approximately 75 words) by Sunday @ 11:59 pm.

Total points possible: 20 (15 points for original post, and 5 points for response post).

NOTE: If you are using any external source (media or articles), please provide the link so that others can access the reference.

Please read all questions carefully and answer all of them completely. Be sure to provide an adequate explanation and supporting arguments for all of your answers. Don’t forget to back up your arguments with concrete examples from the assigned readings or other sources you may have consulted, and please remember to provide adequate citations for any references used. Your answers must demonstrate that you have read and understood the assigned readings.

You must use APA style citation format for all citations and references, and don’t forget to include a list of references in the appropriate format. If you are unfamiliar with APA formatting, please see link below for guidelines.