593-pound bluefin tuna sold for record $736,000

And this final note. Fishing is rife with tall tales: ‘I caught a 600-pound salmon! Look, I have this Photoshopped picture to prove it!’

Well what if I told you a bluefin tuna from the waters off northeastern Japan was worth three-quarters of a million dollars? That, too, would be a tall tale, for sure. Except it’s not.

Today was the first auction of the year at the world’s biggest wholesale fish market in Tokyo. And a 593-pound tuna — see, I wasn’t exaggerating! — sold for $736,000 to the owner of a chain of sushi restaurants.

That is a record. And no fish tale.