Its purpose is to get fish anywhere in the world and sell it wherever consumers have money to pay for it. But the world fish market has another face, the face of growth gone mad. Its supplies overtaxed by oversized fishing fleets, and without the structures that put the brakes on market excesses elsewhere, such as ownership of the resource, it is destroying the very sources of its wealth. The bluefin that Deguchi examined that morning comes from a dwindling tuna population, overfished because it became popular in Japan. Other food products such as chicken, milk and grain have fairly well-defined markets.
Fish is incredibly international, more so than any other food.
The sound is reminiscent of a bowling alley as frozen tuna are hauled around the concrete floor with giant hooks. Even the term ''fish market'' is something of a misnomer. In the beef market, it's beef, beef, beef. To make a comparison, it would be like a new animal comes on line all of a sudden to compete with beef. That happens all the time in the fish business.'' The basic problem with this freewheeling arena of entrepreneurship is that often supply cannot keep up with demand.