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How America's Only Tuna Auction Is Run — Omakase - YouTube
Channel: Eater
[7]
- [John] Hawai'i fish can
compete with the world.
[8]
It's a wild catch.
[10]
It's Jack in the box.
[29]
- The fish business
[30]
is early in the morning
[32]
as you can see.
[41]
- United Fishing Agency
[42]
has been in business since the 1950s.
[46]
We are located at Pier 38
[48]
in Honolulu Harbor,
[49]
in the island of Oahu, in Hawai'i.
[51]
And you know these vessels, you know,
[53]
they have the capacity to
carry 20 to 30,000 pounds each.
[57]
It's not saying that
[58]
they're gonna catch that
much when they go out.
[59]
You know, fishing is fishing.
[60]
And for an overall day,
[61]
we can do anywhere from
50 to 100,000 pounds,
[64]
and we'll adjust to that,
[65]
and the market will adjust to that.
[70]
The target of the fishery
is the bigeye tuna.
[73]
And we catch a variety
of other tunas as well.
[74]
Yellowfin, albacore, skipjack.
[77]
I've seen 300-pound bigeye tuna come in.
[79]
I've seen 1,000-pound blue marlin.
[82]
I've seen 500 to 600-pound swordfish.
[84]
And the market has really picked up
[85]
on pretty much all of these species.
[91]
The fish are palletized
and they're taken out
[93]
to our auction floor,
[94]
where it's prioritized by tunas,
[96]
and then the incidental catches.
[98]
Size does not always equal better quality.
[101]
You can't tell just by looking
[102]
at the external parts of a fish,
[104]
to see if it's gonna be great quality.
[106]
That's why we do the tail
[107]
and the core cut sample on tunas.
[109]
And you know that adds a variability
[111]
to how we do business here.
[121]
We're on the first boat of the day.
[123]
And these are the marker tunas,
[124]
the tunas over 100 pounds.
[126]
So, what I'm looking at right now,
[128]
is 111 pound bigeye tuna.
[130]
And I'm looking at a really
nice quality fish right here.
[134]
There's not that much fat.
[135]
But the color content, the texture,
[138]
it's very firm.
[140]
It's something that a
lot of buyers look for.
[142]
You're looking at local sushi bars,
[144]
the sashimi market, the raw fish market.
[147]
But you know, this would
be close to the top,
[150]
the top of the grade-chain
for most buyers.
[153]
The main defects that could occur,
[154]
on any fish really,
[156]
is shark depredation,
[158]
our false killer whale depredation.
[160]
You know, these fish again
are hooked on the line
[162]
and could be on that line
for any number of hours,
[164]
and within that time,
[165]
smaller sharks known
as cookiecutter sharks,
[167]
that will take a circular
cut out of any species
[171]
on the floor and it'll leave
that disfiguration on a fish.
[177]
A mako shark can up and
just take half of it off.
[180]
The way that we actually work the auction,
[182]
it's up to the discretion
of the auctioneer.
[185]
We have to feel out where the market is.
[187]
You know, where it's been,
[188]
maybe over the course of a week.
[189]
If a number one is worth
[191]
between eight to ten dollars a pound,
[193]
to make sure that we start the bidding,
[195]
at at least that if not higher,
[197]
just to make sure we don't undervalue it.
[199]
And once we start the bidding,
[201]
we'll start at 10 dollars
and if nobody bids,
[203]
we'll go to 9.90, to 9.80, 9.70 and so on,
[207]
until a buyer puts his hand
out and bids on that fish,
[211]
and at that point it could
be over for that product,
[215]
or another buyer can
come back on top of them,
[217]
and start putting the price back up,
[219]
so then we'll increase back
up ten cent increments.
[221]
So we were looking at
111-pound bigeye earlier,
[223]
which is a very good grade.
[226]
I could really think of five or six buyers
[228]
that might wanna purchase that fish.
[229]
And you know, I won't know until
[231]
the moment of purchase, so.
[233]
'Cause they know what
they're willing to pay.
[235]
We just have to figure out what that is.
[238]
(cowbell rings)
[244]
- The difficulties of buying fresh tuna
[247]
is basically we can only
see the tail cuts and grade
[250]
upon the tail cuts, and
the exterior and the color.
[253]
Until you cut the fish open,
[254]
and really see what's inside,
[257]
it can be very very good,
[258]
or it can turn out very very bad.
[260]
(auctioneer offers bids)
[269]
Everybody has their own
difference in grading tunas.
[273]
My number one may not be your number one.
[275]
If you was to grade
[276]
maybe you might another
tuna as the number one.
[281]
[John] - Every day I try to hype myself up
[283]
and think that I'm buying
the best for my customer.
[286]
Colors and certain feels of the fish,
[289]
it's talking to you.
[290]
All this in a split second,
[292]
before the bid really starts on it.
[294]
I've been a tuna buyer for 12 years.
[297]
But I originated into the
tuna business by fishing.
[301]
I do 98% export.
[303]
It's gonna be another day or day an a half
[306]
before it gets there.
[308]
So my fish has to be
even at a higher level.
[311]
American people usually like
[313]
what the Japanese like to call akami,
[315]
which is means color.
[317]
Abura, which is the fat.
[319]
They are looking for - sushi
bars, are looking for fat.
[322]
Each fish has a place, has a home for it.
[325]
You just have to know what
the customer is looking for.
[335]
Tuna alone like yesterday, I
bought I think 6,000 pounds.
[340]
Today I don't know how
much I'm gonna buy yet.
[343]
I fluctuates day to day.
[344]
It's worse than the stock market.
[345]
It can go all the way up
and go all the way down.
[354]
- The personalities that
come with dealing with
[357]
a multitude of buyers.
[358]
Everyone's friends, you know.
[360]
But you know, it's business.
[361]
And.
[362]
When the competition starts, you know,
[363]
it can be a little heated.
[367]
If the customer's calling and
telling me he needs this fish,
[370]
I cannot not get it
because of a friendship,
[373]
or because of something else.
[374]
I've gone to some strategy
moves to get some fish.
[378]
You know, I'm not gonna say that
[379]
I've been all nice about it.
[381]
You have to do what you have to do
[384]
to get your customers.
[386]
Because if I don't supply them.
[388]
Believe, somebody else will.
[392]
They'll get angry at each other.
[393]
- They'll get angry at the auctioneer.
[395]
And you know, but you
know, as an auctioneer,
[397]
you have to be impartial,
[398]
you have to maintain your ground,
[399]
and really hold up the standards
[401]
that we're trying to set here.
[404]
- You nitpick and stuff
on a daily basis here.
[409]
After we walk outta
here, we can shake hands,
[410]
and go each lunch and stuff.
[414]
- Tuna is so special to me
[416]
is because it's the last
industry that we have out here.
[427]
- We specialize in items
[428]
that are a little bit hard to source.
[430]
You name it, we can bring it in.
[432]
So whatever comes in
today, will be out today.
[434]
Two primary problems that we
find in tuna specially, right,
[438]
are burn and sashi.
[440]
Burn occurs when fish is
struggling on a line, right?
[442]
That's almost a kid to, making a ceviche,
[445]
where the acid cooks the raw
fish a little bit, right?
[448]
Right at the crown of the loins.
[449]
And so that radically devalues the fish,
[451]
because simply put it,
[453]
it tastes like (bleep).
[454]
Sashi is actually a parasite.
[456]
'Cause as a sashi, the
individual parasite dies.
[460]
Every single piece of the meat
[461]
that surrounds that parasite
that it touched, also dies.
[465]
And so that ruins, you know,
[467]
the quality of the meat of course.
[469]
It doesn't taste good.
[484]
(cheers)
[488]
- This has a lighter color,
[489]
because it has a higher fat content
[491]
than this particular loin.
[492]
This particular loin is
pretty much color only,
[494]
with very little fat.
[495]
So it's a very lean fish.
[500]
As you can see there's a color change
[502]
right from this ruby red
down to this lighter color.
[505]
And so this is the fat
line over here, the abura.
[508]
You kinda tell how fatty it is
[511]
by just looking at the difference
in the color of this fish.
[514]
The belly section over
here is a little lighter
[515]
than the other one.
[524]
One, two. Two finger fat.
[529]
The special quality about
Hawaiian line caught tunas,
[531]
is something that is
difficult for me to describe,
[534]
because having grown up here,
[537]
it's been naturalized.
[539]
And so I almost take it
for granted sometimes,
[541]
that we'll have good quality fish here.
[546]
- We got a nice 18-pound bigeye here.
[549]
This is a quarter loin.
[550]
We get a fish through Tropic Fish,
[552]
and they choose the fish at the auction,
[554]
and send it to us.
[555]
We prefer bigeye for the fat content.
[557]
A lot of people in Hawai'i really prize
[559]
of the more fattier pieces of fish,
[562]
which is why ahi is usually
better in the winter time,
[564]
because of the colder water.
[565]
It means more fat on the fish.
[566]
You can kinda just see the gradient
[568]
that it runs along.
[569]
This is closer to the skin inside,
[571]
so there it's where all
the fat content stays.
[582]
- You know we're a
year-round tuna fishery,
[584]
raw tuna it's kind of a
staple in Hawai'i culture.
[590]
- I've been in the
industry for 20 years now.
[593]
Little over 20 years maybe.
[596]
And even after 20 plus years,
[598]
I'm still learning something new daily.
[601]
On a daily basis, six days a week,
[603]
5:30 every morning.
[604]
It's a daily grind.
[607]
- It's a small community.
[608]
We stare across each other for 12 years,
[611]
back and forth.
[612]
Doing the same product but
reinventing yourself every day.
[616]
- You know years ago, this
was truly God's country.
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