Yearly Tuna Purchase Doesn't Make Sense

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Japanese sushi chain pays $117000 for a tuna. Yes, one tuna.

Washington Post - ‎11 hours ago‎
TOKYO - If you thought your last sushi bill was expensive, check this out. Sushi Zanmai, a Japanese restaurant chain, just paid $117,000 for a 441-pound bluefin tuna. Yes, you read that right. That's $265 per pound. But this was not just any fish. It ...

Well it is that time of year again. Being in the business people question how this price can be so?  If you look at it from a pure cost with a typical yield of say 75% than each pound of usable tuna would cost $353.00/ lb. since this fish is likely to be subdivided into more managable sushi portions of lets say 1 oz it still is an impressive $22.00/ oz. But the real value is the media attention that the buyer garners - the economics on this one fish cannot be so simply computed as I have tried. This one goes into the marketing column on the P&L. 

The sustainability of this auction and the long-term viability of the Bluefin Tuna are both questionable. 

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