Tokyo/Georges Bank, Maine

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The chaotic clamor of a busy fish market in Tsukiji, Japan, paints a multi-dimensional picture in sound as RADIO EXPEDITIONS travels to Tokyo to begin investigating the impact of overfishing our oceans.

NPR's Alex Chadwick and recording Engineer Flawn Williams take you through this typical Japanese market, where you discover that a blue fin tuna caught in the Atlantic Ocean can sell for as much as $20,000. This high price is the result of too much fishing for a very few fish.

Not only is the consumer affected by the dwindling supply of some kinds of fish, the biodiversity of whole natural systems once thought immune from human influence has been changed by overfishing.

To help you understand the dramatic impact overfishing has had on marine life and our food chain, RADIO EXPEDITIONS takes you to Georges Bank, off the coast of Massachusetts. Here, in what has been called the world's greatest fishing ground, NPR's Alex Chadwick joins the most extensive fishing survey of ocean biodiversity ever conducted.

Tuna fishermen bucket their catch of the day -- the pricey blue fin tuna.



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