Tuna Fetches $100,000 at Auction

news.aol.com ^ | Monday 1/05/09

[JoeProBono]

Two sushi bar owners fork over $104,700 for a 282-pound bluefin tuna at a Tokyo auction. That breaks down to $370 per pound, many times higher than the average of $25 per pound. Why so pricey? "It was the best tuna of the day, but the price shot up because of the shortage of domestic bluefin," which is attributed to bad weather, an official says.

[JoeProBono]

A Japanese bluefin tuna that fetched nearly 10 million yen at the year-opening auction is shown at Tokyo's Tsukiji market Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. The premium tuna caught off the northern coast of Oma and weighing 282.48 pounds (128.4 kilograms) was auctioned for 9.63 million yen ($104,700), the highest since 2001, when another Japanese bluefin tuna fetched an all-time record of 20 million yen, market official Takashi Yoshida said.

Giant bluefin tuna weighing 1,108 lbs. caught in 2001 off Prince Edward Sound

Sorry Charlie

[JoeProBono]

[theFIRMbss]

[null and void]

We’re gonna need a bigger boat...

[JoeProBono]

Tuna under pressure
Researchers blame “ubiquitous’ demand
By GREG WESTON
Sat. Jan 3 - 4:46 AM
Despite reduced quotas and strict protections, Canada’s Atlantic bluefin tuna stock faces depletion due to international mismanagement and demand for sushi meat from the prized fish, researchers say.

“There’s a sushi economy around the globe that’s evident in any North American supermarket or town. It’s ubiquitous,” says Barbara Block, a Stanford University professor of marine sciences who has studied bluefin tuna for 25 years.

Bluefins, which can weigh up to 675 kilograms and grow up to four metres in length, are a lucrative commodity on the international sushi market. In 2001, a 201-kilogram bluefin was sold at a Tokyo fish market for a record-breaking US$173,600. Despite growing sushi demand in countries like China and Russia, it is estimated that 75 per cent of bluefins caught globally are exported to Japan.

“You work out the per-pound price, and they’re worth their weight in gold, so it’s not surprising that there’s such intensive fishing pressure,” says Shana Miller, science and policy co-ordinator of Tag-A-Giant, a bluefin tuna research and policy foundation. “In the western Atlantic, it’s pretty well accepted that the population has declined by over 80 per cent in the last 30 years. In the eastern Atlantic, the decline isn’t as severe, but recent declines are just astronomical, in the order of 15 per cent per year, because fishing pressure has increased so much,” says Ms. Miller.

[snarks_when_bored]

Tuna Fetches $100,000 at Auction

Okay, they're not tuna, but I'll bet they're expensive...

...and worth the price!

[prismsinc]

LOL

Great minds think alike!

[Joiseydude]

More on this topic here

[dfwgator]

Does it have that great dolphin flavor I grew up with?

[JoeProBono]

Sorry. Did a search - "fail".

Bluefin Tuna Cage

[Snurple]

Always remember...you can lead a horse to water but you have to carry a tuna.

[JoeProBono]

[Joiseydude]

Sorry. Did a search - "fail".

Yeah it happens, no problem.

[Mr. K]

Awwww they cage them? I only want FREE-RANGE tuna!

[JoeProBono]

[Snurple]

lmao

[Hot Tabasco]

The cheapest Sushi around these parts is at Lakeside Bait and Tackle......

[Lilpug15]

I have been to Tokyo and the market before and tuna goes for upwards towards this amount as it is. I was there in 2006 and they were saying they were auctioning around 80K USD. This didn’t make me flinch seeing the price I guess. Interesting that Tuna may be having some issues supply-wise though. If anyone goes to Tokyo the market at 5am is a sight to behold :) plus they have GREAT sushi bars and cool flea markets right there!

[JoeProBono]

[BoneHead]

Just what is a domestic bluefin? One caught in your own national waters? Or do they have Bluefin farms?