Price of bluefin tuna nosedives at Tokyo auction [View all]

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By ELAINE KURTENBACH

TOKYO (AP) - Sushi restaurateur Kiyoshi Kimura paid 7.36 million yen (about $70,000) for a 507-pound (230-kilogram) bluefin tuna in the year's celebratory first auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji market on Sunday, just 5 percent of what he paid a year earlier despite signs that the species is in serious decline.

Kimura's record winning bid last year of 154.4 million yen for a 222-kilogram (489-pound) fish drew complaints that prices had soared way out of line, even for an auction that has always drawn high bids. Kimura also set the previous record of 56.4 million yen at the 2012 auction.

The high prices don't necessarily reflect exceptionally high fish quality.

"I'm glad that the congratulatory price for this year's bid went back to being reasonable," said Kimura, whose Kiyomura Co. operates the popular Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain.

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140105/DAB4JN701.html

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This might be the end for the bluefin! There will be a we need to catch 20 times what we did last year to just stay even.



Sushi restauranteur Kiyoshi Kimura poses with a 507-pound (230-kilogram) bluefin tuna he bought at an auction before cutting it at his restaurant near Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. Kimura paid 7.36 million yen (about $70,000) for the bluefin tuna in the year's celebratory first auction, just one-twentieth of what he paid a year earlier despite signs the species is in serious decline. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)