It's no wonder bluefin tuna stocks are in such terrible condition: demand for fresh sushi, especially in Japan and elsewhere in Asia, is off the charts.
Consider what transpired today at the year's first fish auction at Tsukiji market in Tokyo: A 754-pound bluefin caught off northern Japan sold for nearly $369,000.
That's a record price for the annual auction. It translates roughly to $526 per pound.
Two high-end sushi restaurant owners teamed to purchase the monster tuna, and 537 smaller bluefins also fetched hefty sums.
This, of course, will be passed to sushi consumers, who don't seem to mind emptying their wallets for a few morsels fresh and fatty uncooked tuna flesh.
According to the Associated Press, Japan is the world's largest consumer of seafood and Japanese people eat roughly 80% of all Atlantic and Pacific bluefun tuna.
Overall supply might soon be reduced, however, which would only drive prices higher. In November the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas voted to cut quotas in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean by about 4% -- from 13,000 to 12,900 metric tons per year.
Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks are in such poor shape, though, that this move isn't expected to be of much help to the species, environmental groups claim.
-- Pete Thomas
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