Record price paid for massive tuna
Kiyoshi Kimura, president of the Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain, cuts into his prize purchase at his main restaurant near Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market on Thursday.
January 5th, 2012
07:11 AM ET

Record price paid for massive tuna

Fancy a $50 piece of sushi?

That's what one piece of a 593-pound blue fin tuna sold Thursday at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market for a record $736,000 is worth.

Kiyoshi Kimura, who runs the Sushi-Zanmai chain in Japan, bought the record-setting fish at the first auction of the new year at Japan's main fish market, a popular tourist stop in Tokyo, according to the Tokyo Times.

The previous record for a fish was set at the market in 2011's first sale of the new year, when a Hong Kong restauranteur paid $422,000 for a blue fin. He took that fish to Hong Kong.

Kimura said he wanted to keep this year's top tuna in Japan. It was caught off Amori prefecture.

"We tried very hard to win the bidding, so that we could give Japan a boost and have Japanese people eat the most delicious tuna," the Mainichi Daily News quoted him as saying.

Despite the record price Kimura paid, pieces of the prize fish are expected to sell for around $5 in his restaurants.

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Filed under: Animals • Aquaculture • Fish • Food • Japan
soundoff (162 Responses)
  1. erick

    Isnt this a bluefin tuna? aren't they supposed to be protected?

    January 5, 2012 at 1:47 pm | Report abuse |
    • GC

      They are protected in some areas of the world, I think, not everywhere. Senseless slaughter of a magnificent animal. Eating tuna, and swordfish, as well as other top of the food chain fish is not advised due to dangerous levels of mercury, lead and other toxins from our polluted oceans.

      January 5, 2012 at 1:55 pm | Report abuse |
    • Kelsey

      these are some of the rarest species of fish and are being hunted to extinction. it's reprehensible that they are allowed to be eaten at all. Boycott blue fin!

      January 5, 2012 at 2:20 pm | Report abuse |
    • RobertC

      Capture is very limited. That is why the price is so high.

      January 5, 2012 at 3:41 pm | Report abuse |
  2. Me

    It's AOMORI prefecture. Not Amori.
    It's such a short article, so it shouldn't be too difficult to proof read.

    January 5, 2012 at 1:50 pm | Report abuse |
  3. pooh2

    Judging from the picture my house worths more.

    January 5, 2012 at 1:56 pm | Report abuse |
  4. char

    sad.

    January 5, 2012 at 2:00 pm | Report abuse |
  5. T-ro

    Thats over $1200 lb!!!! I wonder if it glows in the dark???

    January 5, 2012 at 2:07 pm | Report abuse |
  6. T-ro

    They can use a cleaning but besides that pretty healthy, thanks for asking!

    January 5, 2012 at 2:10 pm | Report abuse |
  7. Celia

    Please urge everyone you know to watch the movie "End of the Line" to understand the magnitude of killing blue fin tuna. This species is vastly overfished and will only be more so with this kind of publicity.

    January 5, 2012 at 2:13 pm | Report abuse |
  8. joe

    "Fancy a $50 piece of sushi?.... Despite the record price Kimura paid, pieces of the prize fish are expected to sell for around $5 in his restaurants." What????????

    January 5, 2012 at 2:21 pm | Report abuse |
  9. Kelsey

    This is absolutely reprehensible. These fish are not adequately protected. Their numbers have shrunk over 80% in the last three generations and they cannot be caught sustainably in the current quota numbers. Please refrain from eating these fish, and if you are in a restaurant that serves them, please have the courage to stand up and tell the chef that you will not be dining there again unless endangered fish are taken off the menu. The fate of our oceans, this species, and our planet depends upon social pressure to only eat sustainably.

    January 5, 2012 at 2:23 pm | Report abuse |
  10. JT

    Other than not having as much tuna to eat or paying more for it, what is the consequence of blue fin tuna becoming critically endangered? They will never become truely extinct... the ocean is a big big place. They will become extremely rare and the only people who will suffer will be the fishermen who rely on them.

    January 5, 2012 at 2:33 pm | Report abuse |
    • Kelsey

      If there are too few bluefin, then it will be hard for them to mate and replenish their numbers. Furthermore, if you've ever studied genetic bottlenecks, you'll know that when a species becomes too small, it's genetic diversity also shrinks. This makes it more vulnerable to disease and mutation. Biodiversity is important to the ecological health of our planet, and genetic diversity is important in the quest to ensure biodiverse ecosystems.

      January 5, 2012 at 2:36 pm | Report abuse |
    • Kelsey

      Try this: get rid of modern technology. Reduce human numbers to 20 people. Put 2 or 3 people on each continent and see if you can find each other. Have enough babies to replenish the human species. Good luck my friends! Oh... and don't get eaten by any predators in the process.

      January 5, 2012 at 2:44 pm | Report abuse |
    • RobertC

      It never fails to astonish me how people can get so upset about wild animals, then casually suggest killing off the entire human race just for the heck of it.

      January 5, 2012 at 4:07 pm | Report abuse |
  11. miss diane hilary cleator born 1955

    GOOD FOR HIM !

    January 5, 2012 at 2:33 pm | Report abuse |
  12. miss diane hilary cleator born 1955

    .

    January 5, 2012 at 2:35 pm | Report abuse |
  13. rooney

    Not me at 9:00 and 9:32.
    @banasy: ty

    January 5, 2012 at 2:41 pm | Report abuse |
  14. oldman100

    i can turn that entire tuna into p0op

    January 5, 2012 at 2:45 pm | Report abuse |
    • rick santorumtwit... America's favorite frothy one

      I can turn that entire tuna into bung hole foam. Don't believe me? Just google 'Santorum'.

      January 5, 2012 at 2:53 pm | Report abuse |
  15. Uhnuhnuhmuhs

    Take the stickers off, dummies!

    January 5, 2012 at 2:57 pm | Report abuse |
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