Sustainable Tuna Farming

With the massive amounts of fresh tuna consumed global today, one wonders what regulations are placed on tuna fishing and will wild populations withstand the insatiable desire of humans for high quality tuna?

To better understand the later question we took a closer look at what is going on down under in Arno Bay, Australia at Clean Seas Tuna Ltd.

Mr Hagen Stehr, founding director of Clean Seas Tuna Ltd. has taken a large gamble on Southern Bluefin Tuna aquaculture and it appears it will pay off big for him.

The German born Stehr spent the premier years of his life as a traditional tuna fisherman in Arno Bay, Australia. Back in the heyday companies would fly “spotter” planes out with accompanying boats to spot large schools of fish. Large hauls of tuna would ensue and fisherman were happy. However, as regulations on tuna fishing grew tighter over time it became apparent that no one group would profit with ever tightening regulations.

Enter aquaculture. Farm raising salmon in ocean cages has been a highly contended practice for some time. Though breeding of large highly predatory fish, such as the Bluefin Tuna, in isolated land locked tanks presents a different set of issues entirely: 1) since Bluefin Tuna eat their young, how is a sustainable population maintained? 2) How is mating triggered in predatory fish?

With the help of several staff and non-staff scientists from around the world Stehr and his team figured out that hormone injections could induce Bluefin Tuna to breed. Once the eggs are fertilized they float to the surface where they are collected and raised in separate tanks until the fry are ready to be moved to ocean cages. Once in the ocean cages fish are monitored carefully and fed a healthy diet to encourage rapid, sizable growth.

Currently this strategy appears to be the best method to keep consumers happy while maintaining a healthy wild Bluefin Tuna population. With a little help from marker assisted breeding for specific, highly prized traits, farm raised tuna should become a healthy, sustainable and lucrative business venture.