At an annual renowned new year auction in Tokyo’s main fish market on Monday, a Japanese sushi entrepreneur broke the previous record by paying a record $3.2 million for a huge bluefin tuna.
News of the sale was exploited by Dave Gershman of the international fisheries team at the Pew Charitable Trusts to emphasize that Pacific bluefin tuna stocks were improving after coming “near collapse.”
A chain of sushi restaurants called “Tuna King” Kiyoshi Kimura paid the highest fee for the 243-kilogram (536-pound) fish that was taken off the northern coast of Japan.
“I’d thought we would be able to buy a little cheaper, but the price soared before you knew it,” Kimura said after the pre-dawn auction at Tokyo’s main fish market.
“I was surprised at the price…I hope that by eating auspicious tuna, as many people as possible will feel energised,” he told reporters.
The 510.3 million yen price at the new year’s auction was the highest since comparable data started being collected in 1999.
The previous high was 333.6 million yen for a 278 kilogramme bluefin in 2019, after the fish market moved from its traditional Tsukiji area in central Tokyo to a more modern facility.
The top bidder last year paid 207 million yen for a 276-kilogramme bluefin.
During the Covid-19 pandemic the new year tunas commanded only a fraction of their usual top prices as restaurants scaled back operations.
Gershman said in an emailed statement that a 2017 recovery plan “is working, and if decision makers take further action in 2026, the future for Pacific bluefin will be bright”.
“This year, fisheries managers from Japan, the United States, Korea, and other countries from across the Pacific who target bluefin should agree on a long-term, sustainable management plan that would lock in a healthy population and ensure that the species never again faces the overfishing of the past,” he added.
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