A giant bluefin tuna sold for more than $37,000 in the first auction of the year at a Tokyo fish market on Monday, as Japan faces growing pressure to cut back on consumption of the threatened fish.
The 180.4-kg Tuna, caught off Japan’s northern region of Aomori, fetched a winning bid of $37,480, said an official at the Tsukiji fish market.
The bid marked the second consecutive decline at the annual new year sales, after a record $18,589 million was paid in 2013 — driven by a bidding war led by a Hong Kong restaurant chain — for a slightly larger fish.
Monday’s winner, Kiyoshi Kimura, president of the firm behind the popular Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain, said he was “surprised to win the bid at such a low price.” “But it's the best quality,” he told local media.
