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Media Advisory, February 22, 2011

Contact:  Catherine Kilduff, (415) 644-8580, ckilduff@biologicaldiversity.org

Campaign to Stop Consumption of Endangered Bluefin Tuna Is Heading to Streets,
Sushi Restaurants of San Francisco

What: As part of the Center for Biological Diversity’s campaign to stop consumers from eating endangered bluefin tuna, the “bluefin brigade” will visit sushi restaurants in San Francisco with the message “Boycott eating and serving bluefin tuna.”

Bluefin boycott

When: Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011, at 6:00 p.m.

Where: Meet at the Center for Biological Diversity, 351 California St., Suite 600, San Francisco or contact Catherine Kilduff for addresses of restaurants on the tour.

Photo and Interview Opportunities: Participants, some in costume and with banners, will be available for interviews during the “tuna tour,” including Center organizers who are leading the boycott and pushing for endangered species protections for the bluefin.

Background: More than 25,000 people, including world-renowned chefs such as Alice Waters and Dan Barber, have signed the Center’s pledge to boycott eating and serving bluefin tuna. Now the Center’s “Bluefin Brigade” is taking this campaign to the next level with a tuna tour of San Francisco. The Brigade will visit restaurants that do and don't serve bluefin. They’ll be thanking restaurants that have signed the pledge to boycott the sale and consumption of these remarkable predators and asking those that have not yet joined the campaign to sign the pledge.

Although bluefin tuna have declined dramatically in recent decades, they remain a high-priced staple in some sushi restaurants. A single bluefin tuna recently sold for almost $400,000. Such high prices encourage illegal fishing and overharvesting of bluefin, a fish that can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh as much as 1,200 pounds. Aside from being overfished, the bluefin took another hit last year when the BP disaster spilled millions of gallons of oil in one of its most important spawning areas.

The Center petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service in May 2010 to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna under the Endangered Species Act. That petition is sill under consideration.

Learn more about the Center’s Bluefin Boycott.


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