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

[Oro]

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.

[Jer]

[amarshall]

boat got $10

[rmoody79]

thats it time to quit my day job and fish tuna full time and become a millionaire

[bobbysea]

With all due respect to our Asian posters, I'm having a hard time believing 1. The fish was caught off the coast of Japan. 2. That they're exporting any Bluefin. Just sayin'

[Heli Sports]

I'm having a hard time believing 1. The fish was caught off the coast of Japan. 2. That they're exporting any Bluefin. Just sayin'

Exactly what about these two points do you find so difficult to believe?

[bobbysea]

Exactly what about these two points do you find so difficult to believe?

Why do they spend the money that is spent on imported fish in the Tokyo market if they can catch them off their coast? I understand that the most recent story was more or less a publicity stunt. I understand that the edible preparations are ritual in nature. With the recent disaster developments to Japan and the Japanese people i.e tsunamies and radioactive contamination, would'nt it be fair to assume that there maybe skepticism as to the the quality of local species. I know I would certainly be questioning the the quality and saftey of eating fish caught in local waters if i lived in Japan, would'nt you?

[Heli Sports]

Why do they spend the money that is spent on imported fish in the Tokyo market if they can catch them off their coast?

Prices for imported tuna at Tsukiji are generally only high during periods of short supply of good quality wild fish. Prices for Japanese caught Bluefin are almost always higher than imported Bluefin of comparable quality.

And plenty of tuna is exported from Japan. Even to the United States.

With the recent disaster developments to Japan and the Japanese people i.e tsunamies and radioactive contamination, would'nt it be fair to assume that there maybe skepticism as to the the quality of local species. I know I would certainly be questioning the the quality and saftey of eating fish caught in local waters if i lived in Japan, would'nt you?

I can't see how radiation leaked from a reactor in Eastern Japan could contaminate fish harvested from the Tsuguru Straits. Tuna from this area are of exceptionally high quality and the fishermen in Oma have a new secret exsanguination technique...

[CaptainAlex]

The high seas and freezing temperatures this time of year in Northern Japan would be enough to send most New England fishermen crying for Mommy, hope those hardy bretheren got a decent price back to the boat ... Heli: you got my attention with the "secret sanguination" ... curious how they're bleeding their fish, high pressure / small nozzle saltwater hose? Arterial cuts? Hollow Tanaguchi wire hooked up to a Dyson?
(I doubt they just drag the fish backwards and rake the gills like us gaijin)

[amarshall]

The high seas and freezing temperatures this time of year in Northern Japan would be enough to send most New England fishermen crying for Mommy, hope those hardy bretheren got a decent price back to the boat ... Heli: you got my attention with the "secret sanguination" ... curious how they're bleeding their fish, high pressure / small nozzle saltwater hose? Arterial cuts? Hollow Tanaguchi wire hooked up to a Dyson?
(I doubt they just drag the fish backwards and rake the gills like us gaijin)

If we could duplicate the technique, slap a fancy label on the box and tail tag the fish . Welcome to seafood marketing. It's not rocket science.

Certified Massachusetts secret exsanguination Bluefin. Add $5 a lb to your return.

See below
Copper River King Salmon. (1 million lbs caught, 2 million lbs sold).
MSC Harpooned Swordfish
Icelandic Responsible Fisheries Haddock

Off to Google I go, thanks Heli.