Gallery: Tsukiji 2004-02

Fresh Fish Merchant, Tsukiji

The buyers at Tsukiji are very serious. For good reason, each fish that you see in this photograph costs around $3000-20,000 dollars depending on the quality and size. The average price is about ¥8000 per kilogram for the highest quality Australian blue-fin tuna, which is about $72 per kilogram or about $32/pound. Each fish is about 100-400 pounds so you can do the math.

Since the raw tuna is only valuable fresh (if you're going to buy frozen tuna, then buy frozen tuna at less than 1/4 the cost of fresh), the middle-man has to be sure that he can sell the entire fish. While a very busy sushi restaurant might be able to serve an entire fish in a day, most mom and pop stores can't. So the middleman has to calculate who he can sell to for how much.

The price also varies seasonally as well as due to consumer demand. Recently, Japanese consumers have been rebelling against the rising price of bluefin tuna. They've turned to alternative fishes such as yellowfin and bigeye which are less expensive. Also, the quantity and quality of bluefish that is available in the world's oceans is declining (due to overfishing driven by the crazy prices at Tsukiji).

The Auction
The actual auction is frenzied. Each fish is sold individually. The man in the brown cap second to the right is the auctioneer and the men to his left and right are his assistants. He is carrying a bell in his left hand that indicates the start of an auction.

The buyers communicate to him using hand signals. The 'V' or '2' sign that you see blurred in the foreground is one of those signals.