Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo

[circusoflife]

The Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Japan is the largest fish market in the world.

I'm curious to know how many divers here have heard of the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Japan. And of those, how many have been there? I didn't find any mention of it in the message boards.

I first saw a photo in a Frommer's Japan guidebook and description, so I checked it out. I visited it while in Japan in December 2003 for 2 weeks. I was so overwhelmed by the whole scale of the place. The first thing that came to my mind is that if one didn't believe the world could possibly be overfished (Despite the biologist claims), here was a single place one could visit to convince one's self. The 2nd largest fish market supposedly is in Sydney, Australia, I visited that one too just prior, but it wasn't anything close to Tokyo.

The bluefin tuna auction is one of the eye catchers. I'll post more photos soon. There are a few of each market on my website - www.circusoflife.com

My website - photo gallery
http://www.circusoflife.com/Destinations/Tours_html/Slideshows/6_Months/index5.htm

Links with photos:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/galleries/tokyo/
http://www.photo.net/japan/tsukiji-fish-market


Tsukiji Fish Market

Writer's Stories on Tsukiji - http://www.booknoise.net/johnseabrook/stories/culture/giant/
http://www.pulitzer.org/year/1997/public-service/works/7-5/

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As divers who appreciate ocean life, I'm curious what people think about this?

 

[jagfish]

Interesting...
Lived here a long time and have never been there. Thanks for the link, I will probably check it out.

Have been to the one in Osaka since it was right aorund the corner from where I lived. Nice attraction for my kids...thought tough to keep them from touching everything.

JAG

 

[Albion]

I did get up at stupid o clock to go there, very interesting place and watching the tuna auction is spell binding. To finish off the visit go to one of the restaraunts nearby for sashimi breakfast, very fresh, just awesome.

 

[circusoflife]

I noticed there are a couple of threads on shark finning on Scubaboard. But, since this thread is on markets, let me add a few photos from the Blue Planet book.
The Nat'l Geographic articles have info on the main market in Hong Kong. Small photo in one of the articles. Maybe I'll go there sometime. I can speak Mandarin. Can pretend I'm a buyer.


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/09/0917_020917_sharks.html
http://www.afma.gov.au/education/gallery/illegal/default.php
http://www.taiwantimber.com/Shark fin JP.htm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/04/0428_030428_sharkfins.html
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20021012/bob10.asp
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020907/food.asp

(Ok - MAYBE if some of the entire annual shark kill statistics are exaggerations - let's say reduce by 50%-75%, that still is a HUGE number)

End Products (Also by catch of hunting tuna)
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http://www.superstarrest.com.hk/goodfood.htm
http://www.wantphoto.com/portfolio/nature/nav06_h.html

Problem isn't eating shark fin soup - it's the mass industrial scale, like so many other things that man gets involved in.

 

[Mike Veitch]

I agree that the whole mass devastation of fishing and finning and the like is absolutely disgusting.
The Bluefin Tuna auction is such a site exactly for the fact that this fish is so rare due to mass overfishing. One was caught while i lived in Palau and they chartered a plane just for it to get flown to Japan immediately because it is worth so much.


But don't get me started on the subject of overfishing and finning...

 

[jagfish]

Have you seen that some countires now have "Tuna Cowboys" that herd live tuna in nets from far away oceans. They have to fend off sharks to protect their herd...Quite wild

 

[ae3753]

Here's some pictures of Tsukiji Fish Market's famous tuna from our trip last year . . .