The world's most expensive tuna sold for $1.7 million.
One bluefin tuna weighing 489 pounds has been sold for the equivalent of around 1 point 7 million dollars, setting a new record in Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market.
The record setting price almost tripled the previous record set by the same buyer, Kiyoshi Kimura in the same market last year.
The first auctions of the year at the Tsukiji fish market traditionally have extraordinarily high bids on fish. Even Kimura said that “the price was a bit high" but he wanted to "give Japan a boost."
Right after the purchase, the fish was sent to one of Mikura’s restaurant chains called Sushi Zanmai to be prepped and served to customers.
The Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo is a popular tourist destination that auctions off millions of dollars worth of fish daily.
Japan consumes 80 percent of the bluefin tuna that are caught around the world.
Environmentalists are concerned about the over fishing of bluefin tuna.
The populations of this particular fish in Atlantic Ocean have seen a drastic 70 percent decline over the past 30 years because of over fishing.
Tuna are at the top of the ocean’s food chain, so depleting their numbers has a direct effect on the ecosystems of the ocean.
