The Tsukiji fish market auction grabs headlines this time of year, almost every year. Last year, the story was on a 513-pound bluefin tuna that netted $177,000. This year's catch blew that one out of the water.
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Yesterday's 754-pound specimen sold for a record 32.49 million yen,
which is about $396,000, a whopping $526 per pound. The prize goes to a
sushi restaurant in Tokyo's Ginza district and a Hong Kong sushi chain.
The price will, no doubt, continue to rise, hastened by dwindling stocks of the species.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.