"People believe in their hearts that a piece of raw fish is worth $600."

[phantom power]

I think it's actually a bit different. It's more like "I even know it's not really worth it, but the fact that I'm paying it anyway proves even better how rich I am."

BTW, where are these people paying that kind of coin for bluefin? I had some bluefin sushi a few weeks ago, and the entire plate only cost me $20. Which I'm probably still going to hell for.

"People believe in their hearts that a piece of raw fish is worth $600. And one of the main reasons that it's worth $600 is because you can't afford it and I can't, but they can. That makes it very special, and it makes people who eat it special.

"Any kind of luxury goods largely come from that sort of statement: I can afford it, and you can't. I'll drive a Maserati, even if I can't drive it faster than 65 miles per hour in most of the United States. I can afford a $280,000 car, and you're stuck with a Dodge Neon. I can fly private jet, drive a Maserati, do anything I bloody well please, including having a $600 piece of fish. And you can't."

And this is the brutal truth: bluefin, which beyond their intrinsic value as living creatures happen to be one of the universe's more majestic species, a Platonic ideal of oceanic speed and grace, aren't being extinguished by our greed. They're being sacrificed to our vanity, pretension, and ostentation — the most pathetic of our vices.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/07/destroying_beauty_because_you.php

[MineralMan]

1. Plus, the moron who paid $600 for that sushi

probably couldn't tell it from the $20 version. I'm sure there is a difference, but it would be so subtle that almost nobody would be capable of noticing.

I love sushi, but I don't mess with ultra-expensive versions. Waste of money.

[Warpy]

2. The older I get, the simpler my cooking gets

and the closer to the farm it gets. I still eat fish, but usually eat cheap and plentiful pollock. I'm actually not fond of bluefin, although I did enjoy it as sashimi in a Japanese restaurant many years ago. I'm just not adding to the demand.

I can't imagine trying to eat most of the pretentious, overdone swill chefs on The Food Network prepare.

It's always been amusing to me that the more you pay to dine out, the smaller the portions get. Mostly you find a tiny piece of whatever in the middle of a huge plate, dots of sauce arranged artistically around the edges, and a few whole chives propped up against the main event to complete the artistic presentation.

The whole thing is fueled by people who have been lavished with money no human being has ever deserved in the history of the world.

Fools and their money might soon be parted, but not in the quantity Reagan and Stupid gave them.

[pscot]

15. There's a lot to be said for a bowl of rice

with bits of fish or chicken mixed with a tablespoon of Mr. Yoshida's sauce

[Book Lover]

3. Maybe I'm just being contrary, but hear me out: I *love* it when the rich spend obscenely

How else are we going to get our money back from them, except by gouging the rich? You're goddamn right that fish ain't worth $600, but who's the sucker, me who's selling it or you who's buying it? And while the rich gal may still have more money than me at the end of that meal, I still suckered them out of $600 when my expenses were maybe a tenth of that.

[kristopher]

4. The original article appears to have some... shortcomings.

From the comments below the blog entry at your link:

Posted by: Casper | July 24, 2009 9:37 AM

I think some of your anger is misdirected.

I'm all for protecting endangered species, don't get me wrong.

Factual error in your cited article: there is no $600 item on the menu at Masa, the restaurant referenced. A whole meal there, directed entirely by the chef, is $400. Still extreme, but that's the price for 10-15 small dishes. I've only paid it once, and no one offered me a $600 add-on option for bluefin. I believe a price of bluefin tuna sashimi is about $15, as opposed to $3-4 per piece for salmon at a high-quality New York sushi restaurant.

Here's the problem - the fish is endangered because of overfishing and because people think it is delicious, NOT because people who think it is delicious are willing to pay a lot. Let's say you got 90% of the "rich a-holes," an infantile generalization, to stop eating bluefin. This demand drops the imaginary price of $600 a piece down to $100 a piece. The fish would still be worth $50,000, and it would still be sought after in similar numbers. And as the price falls, more of the merely "well-off a-holes" will decide they can pay the imaginary price of $100 a piece, and we'll probably be fishing just as much bluefin. Plus, as I said, the actual price is $15, not $600 or $100 - and a lot of your readers are happy to spend $15 for something they really enjoy every once in a while, not just the a-holes.

I don't mind making fishing bluefin illegal at all - that's a legitimate policy. I don't eat it; I didn't eat swordfish for a decade after being told it was endangered (at $18 per POUND, mind you - it didn't take a super-luxury price to endanger the swordfish. But protecting endangered species is about getting hunting outlawed followed by effective poaching enforcement, not about telling people they're not allowed to pay a lot for legally obtained food they happen to enjoy.

[phantom power]

6. I think the "rich a-hole" factor may come more into play after it becomes illegal.

Like the illegal white rhino horn poaching problem. And god knows, the tuna are fucked if anybody ever declares one of their body parts to be an aphrodesiac and/or penis enlarger.

[kristopher]

8. Possibly.

But I'd personally consider poaching to be a different sort of market than what is being discussed in the article. The illegal bounty wouldn't enable a boastful rich prick to brag; it would have to be savored in private and I'm not so sure there are nearly as many people in that category.

My own feeling is that the best way to address the issue is to stop pussyfooting around with health warnings regarding the accumulation of toxins and heavy metals in the tuna. They are old and right at the top of their food chain so they are one of the very worst species in the food supply in that regard.

The uncertainty in what constitutes potential harmful dosing with most of the contaminants is great enough that much more severe warnings could and probably should be promulgated. However economically based factors have caused the warnings (when they get out at all) to be muted and formatted in a way that starts with "It is ok to eat (insert number of meals per XXX).

Perhaps if we phrased the warning something like this we could accomplish more than a law:
Eat tuna at your own risk.
ALL TUNA IS CONTAMINATED WITH HIGH LEVELS OF MERCURY.

The source of this mercury is coal fired power plants.
IT IS EXPECTED THAT THE LEVEL OF CONTAMINATION WILL CONTINUE RISING FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT 20 YEARS.

Eating tuna causes or is linked to conditions A, B, and C.
Eat tuna at your own risk.

[depakid]

17. A graphic of a few parasites might also dampen the appeal

[XemaSab]

9. I heard swimming with candiru

makes your schlong twice as big. It enhances perfomance. Makes all the ladies want a piece too.

There. An internet rumor is now started. :D

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Fugu just might be

[kristopher]

7. No, fugu isn't very expensive either.

Supply isn't a factor as demand tends to be self-limiting.

[Canuckistanian]

11. Fugu is "masculine vanity food"

It shows you're a big, tough man for eating something that would normally kill you.

And people have died from eating it.

Madness.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. I have only had it once, in Japan. I was 13

And it was that good, at least at the time. Yes people have died from it, but its rare. I would not eat it anywhere else

[HamdenRice]

16. I ate it several times a week as a kid!

I grew up in eastern Queens and my mother was a fanatical recreational angler. We spent almost every weekend of the summer fishing some part or another of Long Island.

One of the most common fish then was the blowfish or northern puffer. We would catch dozens of them. Other fishermen taught us that it was good to eat and how to clean it. Supposedly, it wasn't poisonous like other species -- or so we were told. It was extremely plentiful and delicious. I'd sit in my backyard with a sack of them, whacking off the head and basically turning them inside out. You get a piece of fish that looks like a chicken leg, and for that reason, it was commonly called sea squab or chicken of the sea.

At one point, they were so plentiful that you could not avoid hooking a small one just by putting a bare hook in the water. Then suddenly they disappeared. Apparently, they go through long natural population cycles of boom and bust -- so long that when they reappear most of the local fisherman are of a generation that never saw them before, and have to learn all over that they are edible.

Now I realize that although not as poisonous as Japanese fugu, there are definite risks involved in eating northern puffer. I wouldn't eat as much of it as I did as a kid, nor would I be so cavalier in cleaning it.

[kristopher]

14. Women eat it also.

Based on that I'd venture that the thrill isn't exactly a test of masculinity. Perhaps it's sort of a willingness to face mortality?

[formercia]

10. The Feds have been busting restaurants in Maine

For selling illegal (under-size) Tuna. $10,000 fine for each incident.

[Donnachaidh]

12. people are idiots to pay that sort of money for something they are going to crap out a few hours

later. Archie Bunker was right when he said *You don't buy beer - you just rent it*.

I tried caviar once at a company dinner, and really enjoyed it. But would I spend that type of money on myself? HELL no.

And, quite frankly, most of the old money folks I've none in my life DON'T buy $600 bluefin either. It's the nouveau riche wannabees that fall for such bullshit. REAL monied people don't feel the need to be so vulgar.

[Javaman]

18. Read my sig. nt