A Tokyo fish market saw a giant bluefin tuna sold for $632,000 in the first auction of the year on Thursday, making it the second-highest amount ever to be bid on a fish after a 2013 bid of $1.7 million, CNBC noted.

The 470-pound imperiled fish was sold to sushi chain owner Kiyoshi Kimura, who has submitted the winning bid at the annual Tsukiji market for the past six years, Fortune noted.

"I feel it was a bit expensive, but I am happy that I was able to successfully win at auction a tuna of good shape and size," he said, according to Fortune.

According to Japan Today, the auction comes amid calls for a trade ban on the Pacific bluefin tuna in Japan, which faces possible extinction after being depleted by more than 97 percent from its pre-industrial levels.

Japan is the largest consumer of the fish and an uptick in consumption has led to overfishing of the species.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has warned that "unsustainable pressure" was being placed upon the fish due to a surging global demand, The Daily Mail reported.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reported that all bluefin tuna populations, including Atlantic bluefin tuna, Pacific bluefin tuna and Southern bluefin tuna, were declining severely due to overfishing and illegal fishing over the past few decades.

The organization noted that these dwindling numbers were driven by demand at high-end sushi markets.

A report by the WWF shows that over 85 percent of global fish stocks in the oceans are at risk from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. This includes the bluefin tuna as well as snow crabs to shrimp, and hundreds of other species.