Bidding for Fin Whale Meat Reaches ¥100,000 per Kilo at Sapporo Market

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:39 JST, December 12, 2024

Bidding for raw meat from fin whales caught off the coast of Nemuro, Hokkaido, was held at the Sapporo Central Wholesale Market early Thursday morning. About 1 ton of meat was arrayed in the market, and the highest price reached was ¥100,110 per kilogram for tail meat, a rare cut of whale meat from near the base of the tail fin.

Fin whales were added to the nation’s commercial whaling program this summer.

A fleet led by the Kangei Maru, a newly built ship belonging to Tokyo-based whaling company Kyodo Senpaku Co., operated off the coast of Hokkaido from Nov. 16 to Dec. 11, ultimately catching six sei whales and 10 fin whales. Of the 1.2 tons of raw fin whale meat dismantled and processed onboard, about 1 ton was auctioned off in Sapporo and the rest in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, before dawn on Thursday.

Takashige Abiko of a local fisheries company, which made the highest bid at the auction in Sapporo, said, “I knew at first glance that this was the one, with its beautiful color and the marbling of the fat.”