Fish buyer Robert Fitzpatrick of Magura America Inc. has seen the demand for tuna plummet in high-end restaurants in Manhattan.
“With one customer I typically sell 35 or 40 fish a year,” said Chatham’s Fitzpatrick. “[This year,] I sold them two.”
With more than five million Atlantic bluefin tuna in the ocean,Fitzpatrick finds it hard to believe, but his white tablecloth marketis drying up because people say the fish are on the verge of extinction.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said.
The reason for the suspension of reality, he and others say, isbecause of a coordinated campaign by several environmental groups.Their marketing has prompted many to feel guilty about eating the sleekfish.
But the situation could get worse.