Aquarium of the Pacific

Aquarium Event

Tuna: A Love Story Lecture and Book Signing

Richard Ellis is one of America's leading marine conservationists and is generally recognized as the foremost painter of marine natural history subjects in the world.

In his talk he will explore the tuna—one of the biggest, fastest, and most highly evolved of marine animals and the source of some of the world’s most popular delicacies—now hovering on the brink of extinction. In the early 20th century, bluefin tuna were known as “horse mackerel,” fit only to feed to dogs, but the astonishing development of the Japanese sashimi market turned the tuna from a trash fish into the most valuable fish in the world. In 2001, a single fish sold for $173,000 at the wholesale fish market in Tokyo. In recent years, the tuna's place on our palettes has come under scrutiny, as we grow increasingly aware of our own health and the health of our planet. Ellis will explain how a fish that was once able to thrive has become a commodity, in a book that shows how the natural world and the global economy converge on our plates.

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Richard Ellis

© Richard Ellis

Tsukiji fishmarket in Tokyo. All those fish are tuna, they auction off about a thousand a day -- every day of the year.