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Bluefin tuna sold for Y36.5 mil at Tsukiji market's final New Year auction

31 Comments

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31 Comments
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20% of historic levels by 2034.  ambitious stuff!!

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Awesome catch and excellent tasting fish. I enjoy grilling bluefin tuna as my sashimi of choice.

Serve with wasabi and soy sauce for super delicious meals!

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

It's only a matter of decades before they will have their last blue fin tuna auction ever!

11 ( +15 / -4 )

Awesome stuff but the price was quite low even compared to last year. Regardless, will need to try out this year's Winter catch

-9 ( +1 / -10 )

Experts warn it faces possible extinction, with stocks of Pacific bluefin depleted by more than 97% from their pre-industrial levels.

Still nobody cares, huh ?

And worst, when they are all extinct, people will cry but never question their responsibility or what they could have done to prevent it.

13 ( +14 / -1 )

Keep plundering the oceans Japan, you are very good at it.

10 ( +16 / -6 )

97 % gone they are basically extinct!

Why are they still hunted?

15 ( +17 / -2 )

These tuna are chock full of mercury and goodness knows what else right? Japan was promising to limit fishing them 25 years ago when only about 50% had been wiped out. China and other countries are developing a taste for this too. Will be gone by end of the decade

10 ( +12 / -2 )

 depleted by more than 97% from their pre-industrial levels. and japan thinks it can sustain whaling if it becomes commercialized again, LMFAO

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Why are they still hunted? because Japan

7 ( +11 / -4 )

Most marine ecologists agree that the populations of tunas in the oceans are so far depleted that even if fishing was banned today, their populations would never recover. The health and genetic diversity of the fish is already at crisis point due to fishers focussing on the larger healthy specimens leaving the only the smaller weaker fish to breed. Many species of tunas are actually genetically smaller than they were 30 odd years ago. The large fish in the photo are very rare, which is why they pull such high prices. The Japan Sea is a very good example of what will happen to the oceans if the tuna and other pelagic fish disappear. The sardine (iwashi) and bonito (katsuo) have been wiped out in the Japan sea, which has now been taken over by giant jelly fish. The fry of these fish eat the jellyfish fry and keep the balance. So, what have the Japanese fishers done about it? Not a damn thing! They just keep harvesting whatever fish they can catch between the jellyfish. I'm sure everybody has seen the small (1-2cm) white fish sold in supermarkets. They are an extremely popular additive to boiled rice. These are the fry of sardines and caught by the ton long before they are able to breed. Is it any wonder sardines have become extinct in many areas around Japan? The inland sea around Ehime and Hiroshima is a fish desert due to overfishing, but they keep dragging whatever they can out of it. Japan has no bag limits or size limits on any of its fish species. Their only goal is to catch as many as they can until they are gone. "Only when man has cut down the last tree and eaten the last fish will he realise he cannot eat money!"

15 ( +16 / -1 )

I no longer eat tuna in restaurants now because of their endangerment....

12 ( +14 / -2 )

I think it’s ok for me not to have tasted a few tastes before I pop it!!

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

I remember about 25 years ago, diving in massive schools of fish, circled by fifty or so tuna bigger than me. The last time I saw a big tuna was just one in Okinawa, five years ago. They are so amazing.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Zadesh.  You grill Bluefin as your sashimi of choice?  Interesting.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Doesn't say where it was caught. In the U.S. some species have to be caught by rod and reel. (Swards for one).

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Why has not some one instigated a ban of catching BFT? This way the stock leaves to recover, in the UK we have sticked quoters on what we can catch and once those quoters are met, thats it we can't catch any more, and if they catch more than they should they are heavily fined, this way there is no incentive to keep catching, now the fish stock is recovering and getting better, its all about working with nature. once its gone, its gone!

8 ( +8 / -0 )

BFT has no chance of surviving if people don't stop consuming huge amounts of tuna.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Just a suggestion, watch "The Perfect Storm", an excellent example of long lining, then watch Discovery Channel's "Wicked Tuna" which shows how sustainability works. BTW all the tuna caught on"Wicked Tuna" are destined for Japan.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Eels and blowfish are as popular and expensive as blue fin tuna in Japan. We should consume more eels and blowfish. They will not complain about it, maybe. Only Japanese eat dangerous blow fish and are fond of eating snake like weird eels.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Sorry to say but Hamamatsu used to be famous for unagi but native unagi are on the brink of extinction too

5 ( +5 / -0 )

What about sea urchin (uni) and sea slugs (namako). I do not think foreigners pay attention to their extinctions.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Uni, yes, very popular on the U.S. west coast. How about Shako (sea mantis) which I believe are an alien species.?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I like shell fish. Abalone, top shells, etc. It looks like westerners pay attention only to big fish including whales (not fish though). Sea is abundant. We can do without tuna.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

Shell fish are great but very seasonal, high in cholesterol and very susceptible to pollution spread (heavy metals and etc.).

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Sea is abundant. We can do without tuna.

Evidently you do not understand how ecosystems work and how damaging extinctions can be on it.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

James, I believe he meant we can do without eating tuna. Not with tuna going extinct.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Reminds me of our Canadian Cod Moratorium on the East Coast of Newfoundland, coming up to its 26th anniversary. 40,000 jobs stopped and the region had to change. Government at the time said a fishery collapse was impossible, until it wasn't.

It still isn't over.

Reading the same here, the same mentality is in play. No one will stop because jobs depend on it and politicians will simply play roulette until it collapses.

Given that fish consumption in general is a staple of the Japanese diet, they'll have to start growing more yams. It will at least put a lot of derelict land back into use. With the culinary skills of Japan it'll work out well. Japan needed to start on that project two days from yesterday to increase capacity over time though otherwise they'll need to be a food emergency recipient.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I think it’s ok for me not to have tasted a few tastes before I pop it!!

Not sure why this comment was voted down. It makes good sense to me.

 I'm sure everybody has seen the small (1-2cm) white fish sold in supermarkets. They are an extremely popular additive to boiled rice.

Interesting comment, Disillusioned. I will think twice before eating them next time. But I know there are villages in Ehime that seem to rely on selling such fish (chirimen jako) to visitors. I imagine it's similar elsewhere. How to change such entrenched patterns? I ask because I'm a big fan of full-sized iwashi.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Interesting background here from 2014. Notes that Japan didn't start eating BFT until the 70's along with the USA. Until then it wasn't liked and cheap enough to be mulched into cat food.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/01/sushinomics-how-bluefin-tuna-became-a-million-dollar-fish/282826/

Many people including myself enjoy delicious nutritious whale meat and bluefin tuna.

Which has better nutrition, the mercury or the PCBs? How about plastic beads? You can't claim your own version of what nutrition means

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Notes that Japan didn't start eating BFT until the 70's along with the USA.

I'm no expert, but I suspect that article is describing Southern Pacific Bluefin tuna. I don't think that's the species that's valued in Japan. I'm happy to be corrected.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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