The ABTA sets the record strait about high dollar BFT auctions

[seaworm1]

Unfortunately the media is going to hop on the bandwagon that everyone elso does raving about how valuable tuna are- hopefully the ABTA's statement will make its way to 1/3rd of those people


Feel free to copy and paste this

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ABTA Salem NH, 5 January 2012 - The astounding news of the sale of a 754 pound bluefin tuna for US $740,000 (¥ 56.49 million) auctioned today at Tsukiji Market in Tokyo is guaranteed, as in past years, to make headlines worldwide. This singular event which has taken place in early January for the last few years is the focus of intense interest by bluefin fishermen, environme...ntal groups and fishery management organizations worldwide. Environmentalists claim that the bluefin tuna is being driven to extinction directly as a result of the outrageously high prices paid for bluefin in Tokyo. It is commonly believed that the price paid for this fish is indicative of the prices paid at other times during the year. “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has established recently that ex vessel price levels for Atlantic bluefin tuna are now and in recent years have been about $9 per pound to the fishermen, not $981 per pound for the fish that was auctioned in Tokyo today. To put this price in perspective, $9 per pound is less than is typically paid for sea scallops.”, states Rich Ruais, Executive Director for the American Bluefin Tuna Association. At this time of year and with the current Yen/US Dollar exchange rate a typical price paid in Tokyo for bluefin tuna is about ¥ 2,700 per kilogram. Therefore a fish of this size would normally sell for about ¥ 925,000 or about US $11,900. In past years, the “bidding-up” of the price of one fish was done as a publicity stunt by two restaurants, one in Hong Kong and the other in Japan, who bid together and shared the fish. In this year, a Japanese restaurateur has undertaken to “bid-up” the price of one bluefin as a gift to the Japanese people for the hardship they have endured in the last year. Mr. Ruais continues, “The media is largely responsible for the popular misconception that catching bluefin tuna is like winning the lottery. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery is an artisanal fishery of small vessels in which every fish is caught one at a time and by hand. It is the most highly regulated bluefin fishery in the world.” For further information, contact Ralph Pratt at (781) 589-0815 or Rich Ruais at (603-490-4715 cell) (603-898-8862 office

[garonmailman]

wait you mean ever tuna caught is not worth hundreds of thousands of dollars

[tunatamer73]

Bluefin tuna nets $736,000 at Tokyo auction, easily beating old record



http://http://www.washingtonpost.com...kbP_story.html


TOKYO — This tuna is worth savoring: It cost nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

A bluefin tuna caught off northeastern Japan fetched a record 56.49 million yen, or about $736,000, Thursday in the first auction of the year at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market. The price for the 593-pound (269-kilogram) tuna beat last year’s record of 32.49 million yen.

The price translates to 210,000 yen per kilogram, or $1,238 per pound — also a record, said Yutaka Hasegawa, a Tsukiji market official.

Though the fish is undoubtedly high quality, the price has more to do with the celebratory atmosphere that surrounds the first auction of the year.

The winning bidder, Kiyoshi Kimura, president of Kiyomura Co., which operates the Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain, said he wanted to give Japan a boost after last year’s devastating tsunami.

“Japan has been through a lot the last year due to the disaster,” a beaming Kimura told AP Television News. “Japan needs to hang in there. So I tried hard myself and ended up buying the most expensive one.”

Kimura also said he wanted to keep the fish in Japan “rather than let it get taken overseas.”

Last year’s bid winners were Hong Kong entrepreneur Ricky Cheng, who runs the Hong Kong-based chain Itamae Sushi, and an upscale Japanese restaurant in Tokyo’s Ginza district.

This year’s record tuna was caught off Oma, in Aomori prefecture and just north of the tsunami-battered coast.

Bluefin tuna is prized for its tender red meat. The best slices of fatty bluefin — called “o-toro” here — can sell for 2,000 yen ($24) per piece at tony Tokyo sushi bars.

A Sushi-Zanmai shop in Tsujiki was selling fatty tuna sushi from the prized fish for 418 yen ($5.45) apiece Thursday.

“It’s superb. I can do nothing but smile. I am very happy,” said Kosuke Shimogawara, a 51-year-old customer, who pointed out that if sold at cost, each piece of sushi could cost as much as 8,000 yen ($96).

“It’s unbelievable. President Kimura is so generous. I have to say thank you to him,” he said.

Japanese eat 80 percent of the Atlantic and Pacific bluefins caught — the most sought-after by sushi lovers. Japanese fishermen, however, face growing calls for tighter fishing rules amid declining tuna stocks worldwide.

In November 2010, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas voted to cut the bluefin fishing quota in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean by about 4 percent, from 13,500 to 12,900 metric tons annually. It also agreed on measures to try to improve enforcement of quotas on bluefin.

The decision was strongly criticized by environmental groups, which hoped to see bluefin fishing slashed or suspended.