Premium tuna fetches $100,000 in Tokyo auction

TOKYO – Two sushi bar owners paid more than $100,000 for a Japanese bluefin tuna at a Tokyo fish auction Monday, several times the average price and the highest in nearly a decade, market officials said.

The 282-pound (128-kilogram) premium tuna caught off the northern coast of Oma fetched 9.63 million yen ($104,700), the highest since 2001, when another Japanese bluefin tuna brought an all-time record of 20 million yen, market official Takashi Yoshida said.

Yoshida said the extravagant purchase — about $370 per pound ($817 per kilogram) — went to a Hong Kong sushi bar owner and his Japanese competitor who reached a peaceful settlement to share the big fish. The Hong Kong buyer also paid the highest price at last year's new year event at Tokyo's Tsukiji market, the world's largest fish seller, which holds near-daily auctions.

A slightly bigger imported bluefin caught off the eastern United States sold for 1.42 million yen ($15,400) in Monday's auction.....more... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090105/ap_on_re_as/as_odd_japan_pricy_tuna;_ylt=Ak4.bl8Svk2boqAMLkqKiJTtiBIF