466-Pound Bluefin Tuna Sells for $632,000 USD at Auction
Second highest amount ever at the Tsujiki Fish Market.
The Tsujiki Fish Market in Japan is where serious sushi chefs go to get their ingredients. It’s also where record breaking annual New Year auctions are held. On Thursday, a 466-pound bluefin tuna was sold for a whopping ¥74.2 million JPY, approximately $632,000 USD ($1,356 USD per pound), making it the second highest sale ever recorded. The record was set in 2013 with a ¥155.4 million JPY (~$1.35 million USD) bid.
The buyer, Kiyomura Corp., runs Sushi Zanmai chains in Japan and often wins the auctions. Owner Kiyoshi Kimura was onsite to take pictures with the prized possession. As consumption of the prized fish have gone up, concerns over whether the species would go extinct have risen. It might be just in the nick of time that this year’s auction is expected to be the last one held as the city of Tokyo plans to make way for infrastructure in the area to prepare for the 2020 Olympics.
