A giant bluefin tuna fetched 16.3 million yen ($177,000) in an auction Tuesday at the world’s largest wholesale fish market in Japan.

The 513-pound fish was the priciest since 2001 when a 440-pound tuna sold for a record 20.2 million yen ($220,000) at Tokyo’s Tsukiji market.

The enormous tuna was bought and shared by the owners of two Japanese sushi restaurants and one Hong Kong-based sushi establishment, said a market representative.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas in November slashed the quota for the 2010 catch by about one-third to 13,500 tons, a move criticized by environmentalists as not nearly enough to save the close-to-extinct fish.