[/floatr]News & Observer: Anglers seek sushi jackpot
The sun put a glaze on the Atlantic about 13 miles out to sea and Buddy Harris' reel zipped, singing a song fishermen love to hear. The line peeled out into the cold waters. Harris ripped the rod and reel from a holder and handed it to his mate, Joey Piner. The men didn't speak. They could only hope. Bobbing there in the Atlantic, they were chasing a massive but elusive fish -- the giant bluefin tuna -- that was found only in the past decade in large numbers off the coast of North Carolina....Chris Elliott, 32, of Beaufort, is a professional bass angler and a saltwater fishing guide; but in the winter, he fishes for bluefin. Just before Christmas, he landed a giant one weighing 478 pounds minus the head, guts and tail. "It doesn't get any bigger, badder or stronger than that rascal. It's like walking an elephant on a leash," he said. To land a bluefin is to hit a sushi jackpot. Within hours of a catch, its prized red flesh will be rapidly shipped across the globe to be eaten in the restaurants and apartments of Tokyo and across Japan and Taiwan. Even with middlemen skimming profits along the way, a lone average bluefin will bring $2,500 or more for the men in North Carolina who catch it, enough to pay the bills...Yet for all its power and magnificence, the species is in peril, officially classified as overfished. By some counts, the bluefin tuna population has fallen 90 percent in the past three decades...more...
A HK sushi chain made a record bid - $55,700 - for a 276kg bluefin tuna in the first auction at Tsukiji this year.
