“The Last Day of Sushi” campaign hints ocean extinction

Japan is an island surrounded by the sea, which is why its most famous cuisine, sushi, is relished around the globe. But what if global warming shows no signs of stopping and ocean habitats and living environment are continuously affected by climate change? Some of our most beloved sushi ingredients may very well disappear altogether, says the shocking Japanese campaign, “The Last Day of Sushi,” held in view of the SDGs week in September this year.

The campaign was launched jointly by Tokyo-based euglena Co. and Ginza Kyubey, a renowned sushi restaurant in Tokyo. Their aim is to alert people to the possibility of a completely different future, in which things we take for granted today may no longer be there.

Biotech venture euglena Co. is known for addressing environmental global issues and food problems including a biotechnology that pioneered mass cultivation of “Euglena” microalgae for biofuel use. In the campaign, it illustrated a forecast of a future in which certain sushi ingredients will disappear from the sea around Japan as a result of climate change. The forecast is based on a report by Professor Shinichi Ito from the University of Tokyo’s Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute.

The campaign has a special web page, which shares the last day of each sushi ingredient. According to the forecast, 9 popular sushi ingredients are at risk of disappearing in the near future, including cuttlefish (the first to disappear by 2035), salmon and salmon roe (2049), sea urchin (2073) and sea bream (2094). People who visit the website and Twitter can reserve tables at Ginza Kyubey on the date that is predicted to be the last day of each ingredient.

A video of the campaign found at the website shows a boy eating sushi comprised only of rice and seaweed at a sushi restaurant, imagining in his head what each sushi ingredient tastes like. It is a shocking sight indeed, enough for people to start thinking seriously about the earth and its environment we need to protect immediately today.