A 612-pound bluefin tuna sold for a record 333.6 million yen ($3 million) in an auction at Tokyo’s famed Tsukiji market. A winning bid for prized but threatened species.
Paid by Kiyomura Corp, owner Kiyoshi Kimura runs Sushi Zanmai chain. Kimura has often won annual auctions in the past. Kimura says, ‘quality of the tuna I bought is best’.
Japanese are biggest consumers of torpedo-shaped bluefin tuna, surging consumption has led to overfishing of species. Experts warn it faces extinction, stocks of Pacific bluefin depleted by 96 percent from their pre-industrial levels.
Decades-old Tsukiji is one of Japan’s most popular tourist destinations, world’s biggest fish market.