'Red Gold': The High Price Tuna Pay for Being Tasty
A Fishes Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today / Animal Emotions
February 2021

Nor are fish to be “saved” like money compounding interest in a bank account. They are co-creators in this life. They have social lives. They are not only in the world. They possess awareness of it.

When I read Red Gold: The Managed Extinction of the Giant Bluefin Tuna by Dr. Jennifer E. Telesca, assistant professor of environmental justice in the Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies at Pratt Institute, my learning curve was vertical.1

I thoroughly agreed with all of the strong endorsements, especially perhaps with the praise offered by NYU professor Dale Jamieson. As he aptly put it, "Jennifer E. Telesca’s wide-ranging study of the giant bluefin tuna challenges many deeply held dogmas. We overfish because of the tragedy of the commons and think the solution is regulation. But Telesca argues that we are regulating our way to extinction. The tragedy is not of the commons, but of commodification. The drive to extinction will not stop until we value these animals as fellow travelers on this planet, rather than as resources from whom we can extract value."

Jennifer's book touches on a number of different but overlapping topics ranging from the inner cognitive and emotional lives of highly sentient tuna—they're far more than merely streams of edible protein—to the ecological devastation resulting from "managed extinction," and I'm pleased to offer an interview with her about her landmark book.2 Here's what she had to say.

 

Please read the ENTIRE INTERVIEW HERE (PDF)

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