France and Spain banned bluefin tuna fishing for the rest of the season after the industry exhausted its quota more quickly than anticipated. Vessels that use sonar to locate the fish have become so efficient that they can fill a season's quota in just 10 days, and the limit was reached within the first two weeks of this year's season. Small-scale fishing for the tuna, using hooks, nets, and traps, will be allowed to continue for the moment. In the Pacific, bluefin found off the coast of the United States carried radioactive contamination from Japan's crippled nuclear plant. While the amount of radiation found in the tuna was below the safe-to-eat limits set by Japan and the United States, this marks the first reported instance in which a huge migrating fish has carried radioactivity such a distance. Though smaller fish and plankton in Japanese waters were found with elevated radioactivity, scientists did not expect nuclear fallout to stay in fish that, like the bluefin, can metabolize and shed radioactive substances. "That's a big ocean. To swim across it and still retain these radionuclides is pretty amazing," said Nicholas Fisher of the National Academy of Sciences. In Japan, which consumes 80 percent of the world's Atlantic and Pacific bluefin tuna, the fish can net up to $100,000, and the meat prepared as sushi can cost as much as $24 per piece. For the full story on France and Spain's ban, see http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/30/us-eu-fishing-bluefin-idUSBRE84T0QC20120530. For the story on radioactivity, see http://www.canada.com/life/green-guide/Bluefin+tuna+caught+reveals+radiation+from+Japan+nuclear+plant/6709374/story.html.