Jane Stevens, at Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove, CA - Two stories appeared recently about the plight of bluefin tuna, one in the Christian Science Monitor and on 60 Minutes, and on one of the stories on the radio series, Islaearth, Barb Block's Atlantic bluefin tagging program was featured.

It's not a pretty picture that 60 Minutes and the Christian Science Monitor painted. Here's the rundown; they're worth a read, a look and a listen.

-- The Christian Science Monitor's series Sea Under Siege looks at the Mediterranean's problems. One of the stories -- a print and slide show combo -- examines how the bluefin tuna's spawning grounds are threatened.

-- 60 Minutes aired a report, the "King of Sushi" by Bob Simon on Jan. 13 that showed how tuna from the North Pacific, the South Pacific and the Mediterranean are flown to Japan as soon as they're caught. Simon focuses on how the new ways of overfishing bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean are supplanting the old sustainable ways. The intro says: "The Japanese have turned (tuna) into a multi-billion dollar international business. For them, tuna is an object of reverence, particularly when it comes to bluefin tuna, which they call the "king of sushi." (Nope...this isn't YouTube...It's just a frame grab. You have to go to the link to see the story.)

-- IslaEarth, a radio series produced by the Catalina Island Conservancy, does 90-second spots on environmental issues. These broadcasts appear on dozens of radio stations across the country. Tuna Tagging features Barb's 11-year effort to tag hundreds of bluefin to understand their migration and patterns and reveal their spawning grounds. 

And meanwhile, in Japan, on January 5, a 607-pound tuna was auctioned off for $55,700 to a Hong Kong sushi shop. According to the Bloomberg report, it was the highest price ever paid for the prized fish. It was reportedly caught off Japan.