True-bluefin 绝对正品

DURING May and June, when the mighty bluefin tuna returns to the Mediterranean to spawn, fishermen arrive from all over the world to catch it (click here to watch a video). In days gone by, the fish were netted and killed on the spot. Now, in high-tech operations involving divers and video cameras, they are transferred from the nets into “farms”—arrays of cages anchored to the sea floor from Spain to Malta, to be fattened up. Then, come October, they are sold to Japanese boats, killed, frozen and shipped to Japan.

每年5、6月份是强大的蓝鳍金枪鱼群游回地中海产卵的季节，世界各地的渔民们纷纷汇聚于此迎接金枪鱼的到来。以往鱼民们用网捕鱼，将鱼当场宰杀。现在，借助于潜水设备和摄像机等高科技装置的帮助，渔民们将捕获的金枪鱼转移到养殖网箱内进行人工养殖。在从西班牙到马耳他的广阔海域内，张起了一片片的网箱，这些网箱用锚固定在海底。到了10月的时候，日本的船只会前来收购这些金枪鱼，宰杀和冷冻后，将这些鱼运回日本。

It is a lucrative arrangement. Anthony Grupetta, the director general of agriculture and fisheries regulation in Malta, says that in those few months most farmers can increase the weight of a wild-caught bluefin by 27-30%. (He claims the Maltese farms do better than this, but does not say exactly how much better.) The cages do not cost much, and the fish fed to a tuna are worth a lot less than the added kilos of tuna-meat that result. What is more, Japanese buyers prefer fish raised this way. They say the quality of the meat from a bluefin killed straight after being caught is less tasty, as the fish has been stressed.

这是一个利润丰厚的行业。安东尼•格鲁皮塔（Anthony Grupetta）是马耳他农业和渔业管理局局长，他介绍说在短短几个月的时间里这些捕获的野生蓝鳍金枪鱼的重量大多数可以增加27-30％。他声称马耳他养殖的金枪鱼重量增加的还要多一些，但没有精确地说出增加了多少。网箱花费不大，而投喂饲料鱼的花费与金枪鱼增重相比是太值得了。更重要的是，日本买家偏爱这种人工饲养的鱼。他们认为，捕获后直接宰杀的鱼肉质不太好，理由是鱼处于一种紧张的状态下被宰杀。

Charlie Azzopardi, the managing director of Azzopardi Fisheries, which runs two of Malta’s seven farms, brought the idea of raising caged bluefin to Malta ten years ago, after seeing it done in Spain and Australia. According to Mr Azzopardi the bluefin industry now generates about 1.5% of Malta’s GDP. Japanese freezer boats take 95% of his production. The other 5% is sold fresh, to order, at all times of year. It can be a precarious business, though. A collapse in demand meant the price of bluefin fell by 40% last year and Mr Azzopardi chose to keep his fish on the farm until prices improved. On the supply side, fishermen complain that the size of the bluefin they are catching has plummeted in recent years. That reduction in individual size could be the result of a reduction in the tuna population that is causing fewer fish to reach maturity.

马耳他7个蓝鳍金枪鱼养殖场中有两个属于阿泽帕迪渔业公司（Azzopardi Fisheries），查理•阿泽帕迪（Charlie Azzopardi）是该公司的常务董事，他在十年前目睹了西班牙和澳大利亚进行的蓝鳍金枪鱼网箱养殖后，将从事这一事业的想法带回马耳他。按阿泽帕迪的说法，现在马耳他蓝鳍金枪鱼养殖业的产出约占该国GDP的1.5％，而其中95％的鱼被日本的冷冻船运走了。余下5％的鱼被继续养殖在网箱中，在一年中任何时候都可以按照订单随要随杀。然而，金枪鱼养殖不是一个稳定的行业。去年由于需求的迅速减少而导致蓝鳍金枪鱼价格下降了40％，阿泽帕迪的选择是将鱼留在网箱内，什么时候鱼价回升再捞出来。渔民是网箱养鱼的上家，他们也抱怨说，最近几年捕捞的蓝鳍金枪鱼个头大幅降低。金枪鱼个头减小的原因可能是这种鱼的总的数量减少了，进而导致成年个体金枪鱼的减少。

Related items
• Trade in endangered species: Fishy businessMar 25th 2010
• Bluefin tuna: Eaten awayMar 18th 2010
• Banyan: Not whaling but drowningMar 11th 2010

可参见本刊曾刊登的下列相关文章：
濒危物种贸易：渔业 （Trade in endangered species: Fishy business） 2010年3月25日
蓝鳍金枪鱼：捕净吃绝 （Bluefin tuna: Eaten away）2010年3月18日
榕树：沉溺（Banyan: Not whaling but drowning ）2010年3月11日

Mr Azzopardi says that despite the warnings from scientists, he does not believe the numbers of wild fish are falling. A number of green groups disagree, and believe that the quota allowed for fishing in these parts is far too high. One activist group, Greenpeace, has attempted to take matters into its own hands and has made several attacks on legal tuna-fishing operations over the past few weeks.

阿泽帕迪先生说，尽管科学家们发出了警告，他还是不相信野生金枪鱼的数量正在下降。许多环保组织对此表示反对，并认为在这些地区允许捕鱼的限额太高。绿色和平组织提倡积极采取行动，一直试图靠他们自己去解决这个问题，并在过去几个星期内对合法的金枪鱼捕鱼作业发动了几次袭击。

Things might be better for the bluefin if it were possible to breed them in captivity, as well as raising them there. Though they call it farming, what Mr Azzopardi and his competitors are engaged in is actually more like ranching. Real husbandry nurtures animals from birth to death rather than just fattening up wild-caught individuals. That could bring economic benefits. It would also, some people think, take the pressure off wild stocks.

如果不仅能够人工养殖蓝鳍金枪鱼，还能够让捕获的鱼在喂养状态下进行繁殖，则蓝鳍金枪鱼数量下降的局面可能就会得到改善。虽然叫养殖，但阿泽帕迪和他的竞争对手们所从事的其实更像是在大海牧鱼。真正的养殖是指动物从出生到死亡的全过程都在饲养状态下进行，而不是仅仅将野外捕捉的动物个体进行饲养催肥。真正的养殖可以在经济上获利。还有些人认为，这样的措施还可以减轻野生种群面临的生存压力。

Clean Seas Tuna, an Australian company, has been working on the idea of farming bluefins for more than a decade, and seems to have made some progress. Last year it posted a video on YouTube showing baby southern bluefin that it had bred.

澳大利亚的净海金枪鱼公司（Clean Seas Tuna）在10余年的时间里一直致力于蓝鳍金枪鱼的养殖，该公司在这方面似乎已经取得了一些进展。去年，它在YouTube网站上挂的一段视频显示该公司孵化出了南方蓝鳍金枪鱼的幼苗。

But there is more to farming than just breeding. A recurring problem for tuna-rearers is “spooking and walling”. Alex Mühlhölzl of Oceanic Tuna, a company based in Scotland which also claims to be able to breed bluefin, explains that the fish are easily frightened. In the sea, there are no walls and a frightened fish’s best escape is to swim off very fast indeed in whatever direction takes its fancy. In tanks and cages, however, this is a bad—often fatal—strategy.

但养殖不仅仅是育种。金枪鱼养殖者遇到的下一个问题是“惊吓与围栏”海洋金枪鱼公司（Oceanic Tuna）位于苏格兰，该公司声称也能够繁殖蓝鳍金枪鱼。该公司的亚历克斯•米赫尔茨尔（Alex Mühlhölzl）解释说，这种鱼胆子很小。在大海上没有围栏，金枪鱼受到惊吓后的应急反应就是朝它们选定的方向以极快的速度游走。然而在网箱和养殖笼内，这种方式很不明智，常常会要了它们的命。

Another argument against both ranching and farming is that the tuna still have to be fed, and that means with other fish caught from the wild. But this could change. In the case of salmon, a carnivorous species that is now farmed routinely, it has proved possible to mix veggies and other sources of protein into the fish’s chow. The fish content of salmon food has been reduced from 70% in 1972 to around 20% today, says Kjell Bjordal, the head of Ewos, a Norwegian fish-food company.

另一种观点对金枪鱼的养殖和放牧都表示反对，理由是这两种方式仍然都需要捕捉其它野生鱼类喂养金枪鱼。但这也可以改变。鲑鱼是一种现在常规养殖的食肉性鱼类，已经证实在这种鱼的饲料中混入蔬菜和其它含蛋白质的成份是可行的。谢尔•比尤达尔（Kjell Bjordal）是一家挪威鱼饲料公司Ewos的老板，他介绍说，鲑鱼食料中鱼所占的比例已经由1972年的70％下降到目前的20％左右。

Feeding has also become more efficient. Mr Bjordal says that for salmon the conversion rate—the number of kilos of food needed for a gain of one kilo of body weight—is now almost 1.1:1. For tuna it can be as bad as 6:1. But that is where salmon farming was 35 years ago, so there is plenty of scope for improvement.

饲养的效率也提高了。比尤达尔说，鲑鱼的转换率（每公斤体重增长所需饲料）现在已经接近1.1:1。而金枪鱼的这一比例最糟糕的情况下可达6:1。但鲑鱼的养殖用了35年时间才达到现在这种效率，所以金枪鱼养殖还有很大的改进余地。更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

If bluefin could be farmed routinely, it might bring the price down, relieving pressure on wild stocks, as happened with salmon. That would be a boon to the hungry consumer. It would also be a boon to the species itself, though—again, as with salmon—the wild animal might become a premium product in its own right.

如果蓝鳍金枪鱼能够进行常规养殖，就可能将价格降下来，减轻对野生种群的压力，就像曾出现在鲑鱼的现象一样。嗜好这种鱼的消费者将有幸大饱口福了。而这对蓝鳍金枪鱼来说也是幸事。但与鲑鱼的情况一样，这样一来野生金枪鱼可能会成为更加难得一品的珍肴了。