"We've never run out of it"

[n2doc]

Hawaii anxiously watching year-end tuna supply
By AUDREY MCAVOY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

HONOLULU -- On New Year's Eve each year, thousands line up at fish counters across Hawaii to buy blocks of raw tuna, hoping that eating it will bring good luck and prosperity in the new year. This year, the long tradition may get a little more difficult to observe.

For the first time, federal regulators are expected to prohibit the catching of bigeye - Hawaii's favored tuna variety - in waters west of the islands once the fishermen hit their annual catch limit. They're on course to do that around the first or second week of December.

The potential for a shortage has produced anxiety here among consumers, fishermen, wholesalers and retailers, leaving them to wonder if they'll be able to get hold of the tuna, or ahi.

"We may not have as much fish. In terms of quality, I don't know how it's going to compare to what we normally have," said Brooks Takenaka, assistant general manager at United Fishing Agency, which runs Honolulu's fish auctions. "Those are questions nobody has any answers to right now."

The tradition began with Japanese immigrants who arrived here a century ago to work on the sugar plantations but has since spread to the numerous other ethnic groups. The custom in Japan is to eat tai, or sea bream, for good luck. But this fish isn't found in waters around Hawaii so the immigrants substituted ahi.

Clarence Gonsalves said he's never had a New Year's without tuna before. "It's a tradition in Hawaii. No matter what the price is, you'll have it," said the 76-year-old retired supermarket meat cutter. "We've never run out of it."

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/1310ap_us_hawaii_tuna_shortage.html

That's what they said about the passenger pigeon, Dodo, North Atlantic Cod.......

[lonestarnot]

1. woopsie tuna and beach, what's next?

[HopeHoops]

2. Next thing you know, you won't be able to get leid in Hawaii