Record-breaking fish sold at auction

A giant bluefin tuna has sold for a record-breaking amount at Tokyo's Toyosu fish market in Japan.

The enormous fish weighs a whopping 243kg - that's about as heavy as a fully grown lion - and sold for 510.3 million yen ($3.2m; £2.4m) at the market's first auction of the year.

The winning bid came from Mr Kiyoshi Kimura from Kiyomura Corp, who owns a popular sushi chain named Sushi Zanmai.

"I'd thought we would be able to buy a little cheaper, but the price soared before you knew it," he said.

Toyosu is one of the biggest markets in Japan, and sells all kinds of fish and vegetables all year round.

However at the beginning of the new year, the first tuna fish auction is a special one.

The fish are caught off the coast of Oma in northern Japan, an area that is regarded as having some of the country's best tuna.

These tuna are then sold in the New Year auction, where people pay much higher prices as part of a celebration.

"The year's first tuna brings good luck," said Kiyoshi Kimura.

Mr Kimura has broken his own bidding record many times over the years for the most expensive tuna, which has earned him the nickname of 'Tuna King'.

His million-dollar tuna was cut up and prepared for customers at Kimura's sushi restaurants shortly after it was bought.

"I feel like I've begun the year in a good way after eating something so auspicious as the year starts," one of the customers at Mr Kimura's restaurant told a journalist from AFP.

Pacific bluefin tuna was previously listed as a threatened species due to climate change and overfishing, but it is now recovering after conservation efforts.