Blue fin ban?

Just wanted to hear people's thoughts on the proposed blue fin ban. the UN CITES conference is meeting this weekend in Doha, during which our blue fin consumption will be decided upon. The bill is a little unclear to me... some sources make it sound like no one can fish for bluefin for an indeterminable amount of time, while others say countries can fish for it, they just can't sell it to other countries.

Will you be making your reservation at Katsu while you still can? Or do you think the ban is a positive proposal?

Also, for the die hard blue fin fans what to you makes a cut of blue fin tuna (say Otoro) so much better than other tunas?

Here's one of the NY Times pieces on the ban:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/scien ... ?ref=world

This is from the aforementioned NY Times piece:

Some of the fiercest debate in the prelude to the meeting in Doha, the Qatari capital, has centered on the bluefin tuna, whose ranks have plummeted by about 90 percent in the western Atlantic and 80 percent or more in the eastern Atlantic since 1970.

That sounds like the least political reason to change the way things are done. At this rate, there won't be any bluefin around. I'm guessing attempts at farming it have been unsuccessful.

I'd have a hard time telling anyone what they should or should not eat, but I can't bring myself to eat bluefin...at least for the time being. There's a lot of good fish out there -- bluefin is tasty but easy to avoid.

I'm guessing attempts at farming it have been unsuccessful.

Ranching is more common than farming. They cull immature bluefin from the wild and then raise them to maturity under controlled conditions. Far more problematic.

Bluefin has been off my menu for years. There is no reason to eat it. They are almost all gone. Delicious but ...