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Fish TalesTalking sushi with Trevor Corson and Sasha Issenberg.

By Sara DickermanPosted Friday, July 6, 2007, at 2:20 PM ET

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When Dickerman was pregnant, she wrote that certain foods, like sushi, started to freak her out. She's also become a pragmatist when it comes to frozen foods, including sushi. Bryan Curtis explored salmon's identity crisis, and Douglas Gantenbein called salmon farming methods into question. Amanda Schaffer examined the mercury exposure standards for tuna.

Issenberg: The industry is opaque for a reason. It's necessary to direct the fish through the byways of global commerce. Tuna's the best example of this because tuna are too big for any single restaurant to buy whole. Tuna that is 600 pounds needs to be divided up among many users. By definition, these tuna have to be laundered, sometimes on multiple continents, and it's hard to envision any sort of reputable for system for many species of fish that would give a guarantee to a diner or chef that they actually know where their fish came from and how they were caught.

Corson: You're exactly right. Everyone I talk to is trying to do some kind of sustainably certified fish. It's a huge problem.

Slate: Is there any progress in any of the regulation?

Issenberg: The European commission just announced in the last couple of weeks plans to cut the quota across the board by 20 percent, and it enforced the restrictions on spotter planes, which were used by boats to track schools of fish from the air. But there have been quotas for years, and twice as many tuna are being caught out of the Mediterranean as the quotas allow, so I don't see what cutting quotas by 20 percent does if there's no viable means to expect countries to enforce these EU-given quotas at their own fisheries. What this does show is a new level of cultural and political awareness in Europe.

Slate: What about the progress on the tuna-farming effort?

Issenberg: The science is there. There's a laboratory in Japan that I write about in my book which is now trying to look at how to sell their technology around the world so people can start cultivating their tuna in captivity anywhere. But the economics are fundamentally misguided, and the problem basically is that tuna are too big and tough to be bred and raised in pens. In short, you would spend more money to grow out a tuna than you would get back for it at market.

Slate: What does the future of sushi look like? Will it continue to democratize as it spreads to places like China, or do you think that these supply problems and health issues are going to make it so that only the richest people can afford it?

Corson: It's entirely possible that we may be living in an unusual historical moment that might not last. That's the case for seafood across the board. You've got some scientists saying that we're basically going to run out of fish by the year 2050 and squid may be the only thing left. To me, sushi's really a treat, and I eat it maybe once a month—once every two months at most. I'm happy to go to the sushi bar and have just five or six nigiri that are very unusual and special. These fish are—and should be—luxury items because we're running out of them. It's turning into this globalized fast food everywhere. There's enormous pressure on these fish, and I think it cheapens the experience for all of us. One thing to remember also is that sushi just refers to that rice with the vinegar and sugar and a little salt, and that's what is so delicious about it, ultimately. You can make that with all kinds of things—there's an infinite variety of interesting sushi out there to be made with all kinds of ingredients and toppings.

Issenberg: Yeah, sushi in its broadest sense will be with us for a while, probably through the collapse of several wild fish stocks. I end my book with this Japanese restaurant mogul trying to expand in China who sees Japan saturated in terms of sushi culture. Sushi has, throughout its life, or its modern life, been this food that people use to celebrate their integration into the new global economy. It makes sense that Shanghai and Beijing get their turn.

Slate: Thank you so much, both of you.