Saving Seafood

Tuna goes for $200,000 at Tokyo market’s New Year auction

January 5, 2021 — A bluefin tuna sold for 20.8 million yen ($202,197) in the first auction of the new year at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market on Tuesday when it reopened after the holiday break.

This was sharply down from the 193 million yen the highest-selling tuna fetched at last year’s first Toyosu auction.

One major bidder, Kiyomura Corp, said they had refrained from bidding high this year out of fear that a large number of customers would be inspired to flock to their restaurants since high bids for high quality tuna usually attract media attention.

The government has said eating and drinking out is one of the major causes of coronavirus infections.

Selling prices in the first tuna auction fluctuate widely from year to year in Japan, with a record 333.6 million yen paid in 2019.

Read the full story at Reuters

Bluefin Tuna Sells for $632,000 at Tsukiji’s New Year Auction

January 5, 2016 — TOKYO — A sushi chain boss paid $632,000 for a 466-pound bluefin tuna at auction on Thursday.

The 74.2 million yen winning bid for the prized but imperiled species was the second highest ever after a record 155.4 million yen bid in 2013 at the annual New Year auction at the famed Tsukiji market.

Kiyomura Corp. owner Kiyoshi Kimura posed, beaming, with the gleaming, man-sized fish, which was caught off the coast of northern Japan’s Aomori prefecture.

His company, which runs the Sushi Zanmai chain, often wins the auction. This year’s purchase works out to $1,356 per pound.

Japanese are the biggest consumers of the torpedo-shaped bluefin tuna, and surging consumption of sushi has boosted demand, as experts warn the species could go extinct.

A report by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean last year put the population of bluefin tuna at 2.6 percent of its “unfished” size, down from an earlier assessment of 4.2 percent.

Read the full story at NBC News