There is ‘some fin’ quite extraordinary about Kiyoshi Kimura’s latest purchase. The Japanese sushi tycoon has just paid a record 333.6m yen (£2.5m) for a single bluefin tuna.

The 613lb fish, caught off the coast of northern Japan, was the star lot at Tokyo fish market’s first auction of the year.

The sale, which traditionally reels in the biggest prices from PR-hungry restaurateurs, doubles the previous record for one tuna, set by Kimura six years ago.

The celebrity fish will now be served up to wealthy diners at Kimura’s Sushizanmai restaurant chain.

“The tuna looks so tasty and very fresh, but I think I did pay too much,” said a reflective Kimura. “I expected it would be between 30m and 50m yen, or 60m yen at the highest, but it ended up five times more.”

With growing demand for bluefin, it is becoming an endangered species. Anyone with a conscience and/or a lower net income who de-baits the pleasures of raw bluefin (kuro maguro in Japanese) could trawl their local supermarket for a bargain tin of the rather more plentiful (and much smaller) longfin.