$736k bluefin????

[skinner]

What the heck are those Japs thinking?


http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG7...000-Japan.html





Bluefin tuna sold for a record $736,000 (that’s $96 per slice of sushi) in Japan – and the price will only get higher as stocks run dry


By Leon Watson

Last updated at 5:04 PM on 5th January 2012

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This tasty fish will set you back - to the tuna nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

Bids for the super expensive bluefin went off the scale when it was sold in the first auction of the year at Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Japan.

And when the seller reeled in a record 56.49million yen, or about $736,000 (or £475,234), for it the fish became the prize catch of the day.
A chef holds a head of the record-breaking bluefin tuna after cutting its meat at a sushi restaurant in Tokyo


Catch of the day: Sushi chefs of Kiyomura Co hold a slice of a bluefin tuna at their Sushi Zanmai restaurant near Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo

The price for the 593lb (269kg) tuna beat last year's record of 32.49million 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 Mr Kimura said. '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'.

Sought-after: Kiyomura Co President Kiyoshi Kimura poses with the 269kg weighted bluefin tuna auctioned at the highest price in Tsukiji Fish Market history


Japanese fish wholesalers checking the freshness and quality of large frozen tuna fish ready for auction



End of the line: The 269kg fish was sold for a record 56.49 million yen at the first auction of the year



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 Tokyo sushi bars.



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



Japanese eat 80 per cent of the Atlantic and Pacific bluefins caught - the most sought-after by sushi lovers


A sushi chef makes a hand-formed sushi piece with a bluefin tuna at his Sushi Zanmai restaurant

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 or £62).
'It's unbelievable. President Kimura is so generous. I have to say thank you to him,' he said.
Japanese eat 80 per cent 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 per cent, 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 criticised by environmental groups, which hoped to see bluefin fishing slashed or suspended

[wish4fish]

stoopid

[voyager35]

This frenzy leads to a never ending hype for the bluefin. The Japanese have a different set of ethics and principles than we do when it comes to fishing. Look at their permission of whaling for "research".
I don't think that will ever change. I also think, if allowed, the Japanese would wipe every bluefin from the planet.

[rockhopper]

I don't know how a business can make money from buying it at that price. To each his own.