Its price is now 5 per kg, which doesn't sound like much, but that's a quantum above other comparable fish. The Patagonian Toothfish can live at least 50 years. But it grows slowly and only begins to breed after ten or twelve years. Because the toothfish is caught before it reaches its spawning age, stocks do not have the chance to replenish themselves. Numbers are therefore decreasing rapidly.
Researchers face difficulties when trying to establish figures for the current population.
The fish live in very remote and deep parts of the Southern Ocean, as far down as 3,500 metres. The Cousteau Society, for example, reports that scientists believe stocks are crashing so quickly the Toothfish could become commercially extinct in three years. In a fact sheet published by Greenpeace, the current and endangered status of the Toothfish is partly due to the severe depletion of other kinds of fish. Greenpeace says overfishing during the mid 1980s forced Spanish, Korean and Japanese industrial fishing vessels into new waters beyond their national territories. The Chilean waters, which supplied Austral Hake and Golden Kingclip, became one of several locations chosen by the industry.