05 January 2010

A tuna has sold in Japan for about $350/pound

A tuna has been sold at auction in Tokyo's fish market for 16.28 million yen ($175,000, £109,000), the highest price paid in Japan for nine years.  The bluefin tuna weighs 232 kg...

The tuna was bought jointly by one of the city's most upmarket restaurants, and an entrepreneur from Hong Kong who runs a chain of sushi bars...

Conservationists are calling for a moratorium on fishing to save the bluefin tuna from extinction in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
More details at the BBC.

2 comments:

  1. The thing that struck me about this story is that in typical tuna auctions, the quoted weight (mass) is the entire fish- head, fins, bones and so on, that can't be eaten. So a significant portion of that cost goes unused (maybe cat food?). Just taking the net cost you note comes out to $22 per ounce.

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  2. I'll bet they eat more of it than Americans would. Perhaps some of it becomes "processed" food and incorporated into other items.

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