Tsukiji Fish Market II.

Frozen Tuna Auction.
The tuna auctions start around the wee hours of 5am and end by 7am. Despite the early hours, the action is fast and tense.

Tuna Inspection.
Auction participants represent wholesalers, large retailers, restaurants, and food processing companies. The tails of the fish are cut off in advance so buyers can expect the color, fattiness, and overall quality of the meat.

Taking Notes.
I arrived near the end of the fresh tuna auction, so these fish were waiting to be transported to their new owners.

Numbers.
Japan consumes one-third of the world's tuna production, amounting to 630,000 tons, or 11 pounds of tuna per person per year. Some of the tuna weigh as much as 880 pounds (or 400 kilograms), and much of the fish is being farmed, especially in the Mediterranean.

Numbered Days.
As globalism continues to diminish the importance of these wholesale markets, the Japanese government has decided to relocate Tsukiji from its prime waterfront property to a less valuable property across the river by 2012. In the future, agents may prefer to purchase fish over the internet instead of going to the market.

Fast and Furious.
Magnified by the delirium of the early morning hours, it's easy to feel like a moving target as workers and motorized carts move briskly through crowds of people. Fish is brought to the market from all over the world by boat, truck, and plane, and these people are responsible for moving 2,000 metric tons of seafood per day.

Tuna Cart.

Massive Tsukiji Market from Above, photo courtesy of wikipedia.
This land will soon be reaping the benefits of high-end development. Perhaps the ghosts of tuna past will be lurking through the site's future boardrooms and hotel rooms?

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