At Tokyo’s Tsukiji market at the end of August, fresh bluefin tuna from Aomori ranged from JPY 2,484 to JPY 4,336 (USD 23.68 to 41.33, EUR 18.01 to 31.44) while imports ran from JPY 2,268 to 2,336 (USD 21.62 to 22.26, EUR 16.44 to 16.93) per kilogram (kg). Frozen bluefin, both imported and domestic, was set at JPY 3,024 yen (USD 28.82, EUR 21.93).
Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that fresh saury was more expensive than meiji maguro (bluefin under age 3). H&G fish sold as low as JPY 500 (USD 4.77, EUR 3.63) per kg. The price comparison is not as surprising as it sounds, since saury is not yet in season. Saury, strongly associated with autumn in Japan, takes demand from tuna when catches start to come in strong. But the start of the season has been delayed in recent years as the fish have remained outside of Japanese waters until the waters cool sufficiently, thus extending demand for tuna.
Climate change has altered Japan’s ocean currents. The warm Kuroshio Current, which typically veers eastward just north of Tokyo, is now reaching further pole-ward and is meeting the cold Oyashio Current off Aomori. Additionally, the Tsushima Current, which flows through the straight of the same name between Honshu and Hokkaido islands, has gained strength and upwelling of nutrients has increased. The result is that warmwater species like mackerel and tuna are being caught in greater numbers in the area, while coldwater species like salmon and saury are scarcer.
But catches of such young tuna will soon be limited. On 3 September, a subcommittee meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) held in Fukuoka approved a Japanese proposal to halve catches of bluefin tuna weighing less than 30 kg from the baseline 2002-2004 average, beginning in 2015.
The 2014 catch for juveniles was reduced 15 percent from that baseline, so this represents an additional 35 percent reduction for next year. The agreement matches the recommendations of the Pacific Bluefin Tuna Working Group of the International Scientific Committee (ISC) for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean that concluded the stock is overfished and there is a lack of breeding-age fish. Bluefin breed from age 3 but few reach that age due to overfishing.
Prices of southern bluefin were JPY 2,060 to 3,081 yen (USD 19.23 to 29.39, EUR 15.07 to 22.54) per kg for frozen domestic, while frozen imports were JPY 854 to 1,836 (USD 8.14 to 17.15, EUR 6.25 to 13.43). Major kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi chains offer farmed bluefin sourced from Baja California, Mexico or southern bluefin from Port Lincoln, Australia, depending on the season. These two sources are increasingly dominating the market for farmed product.
Yellowfin tuna at Tsukiji ranged from JPY 756 to 842 (USD 7.21 to 8.03, EUR 5.53 to 6.16) for fresh, and JPY 1,080 to 1,636 (USD 10.30 to 15.61, EUR 7.93 to 11.97) for frozen on light volume.
Fresh bigeye was JPY 1,944 to 3,456 (USD 8.54 to 32.96, EUR 14.22 to 25.28) for fresh domestic and JPY 1,080 to 1,440 (USD 10.30 to 13.73, EUR 7.93 to 10.53) for imported. While volumes for northern and southern bluefin each totaled about 10,000 kg, this volume was dwarfed by bigeye, with 72,186 kg. Most sashimi tuna sold in supermarkets is bigeye.
