A bear-sized bluefin tuna has been sold at a Tokyo market for ¥207 million ($1.3 million), boasting enough fishy flesh to create a sashimi platter that could satisfy an entire school of sharks.
The 276-kilogram (608-pound) fish was auctioned at the Toyosu Market, the largest wholesale fish market in the world, and bought by bidders from the Onodera Group. This multifaceted corporation operates several food services, including school meal programs, although the prized tuna will end up in their fancy sushi restaurants across Japan and beyond.
The Ichiban (first) auction of the year at Tokyo’s Toyosu Market, known as “Hatsu-Seri”, is a major event for purveyors of pricey seafood. Traditionally held on the morning of January 5, it’s a lively and dynamic event in which shouting bidders vie for giant bluefin tuna, which often fetches exceptionally high prices.
This year is the sixth time (2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024) that Onodera has won the year’s first tuna auction. However, they missed out on the highest bid on record when a 278-kilogram (612-pound) tuna sold for ¥333.6 million ($3.1 million) in 2019.
Bluefin tuna is an apex predator of the sea that can grow to immense sizes through their huge appetite and hunting skills. There are three species of bluefin tuna: Pacific (Thunnus orientalis), Southern (Thunnus maccoyii), and Atlantic (Thunnus thynnus), the latter of which is the largest.
Revered for their “rich and buttery” taste, bluefins are significantly larger than the other species of tuna – like Albacore, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna – that you’ll typically find in canned tuna.
It’s estimated that Japan eats roughly 70 to 80 percent of the world’s Pacific bluefin tuna, according to the WWF. Needless to say, this insatiable appetite for the fish has led to severe overfishing. An assessment by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna found that overfishing has decimated the Pacific bluefin population, reducing it by 97.4 percent. In other words, the current population represents a mere 2.6 percent of its original abundance.
There are some rays of hope, though. In 2021, the IUCN gave an update on the species’ conservation status, moving Atlantic bluefin tuna from Endangered to Least Concern, while the Southern bluefin tuna moved from Critically Endangered to Endangered.
Still, it’s evident that much of the world’s fishing practices remain unsustainable, taking a terrible toll on the health of many marine species populations.
