This 282 pound Japanese bluefin tuna was purchased at auction for $100,000 at the first auction of the New Year on the Tokyo Metropolitan central Wholesale market, commonly known as the Tsukiji market. The price was about ten times the average price and the highest in nearly a decade.

Two sushi owners, one in Hong Kong and one in Japan, paid out for the large fish Monday. This is the first large fish Tokyo auction this year, which usually determines how the market will react over the course of the year. So, if that’s true, we’re in for a very stakes year.

Members of international tuna conservation organizations have agreed to cut their bluefin catch quota for 2009 by 20 percent to 22,000 tons which could mean more high prices this year.