Tokyo Chef Pays $37,500 For A Single Bluefin Tuna

Talk about catching a big fish. Japanese sushi chain owner Kiyoshi Kimura just kicked off Tokyo's well-known rare Bluefin tuna auctions with the purchase of a 400-pound tuna for $37,500. The giant purchase makes Kimura the top bidder for the first fish sold in 2015 at Tokyo's fish market for the fourth year in a row, according to The Daily News. 

It is good luck to buy the first fish of the year, according to AP. But this is by no means Kimura's first extravagant seafood purchase: last year he bought an even larger Bluefin tuna (488 pounds) for $1.76 million. The Bluefin tuna purchase this year will, of course, go toward making prime slices of sashimi and rolls of sushi at his sushi restaurants.

But this purchase may come with an even heavier price tag. The Bluefin tuna is considered an endangered species, and was classified as such by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in November. Jiro Ono, the world famous sushi chef of Jiro Dreams of Sushi fame, has warned against overfishing, especially of the Bluefin tuna, and other species of tuna, which are highly prized and sought-after by sushi chefs worldwide.