March 6, 2008

Clean Seas develops breeding program for endangered tuna
 

Australian aquaculture company, Clean Seas has announced its creation of an artificial breeding program for southern bluefin tuna.

Successful collection of bluefin tuna sperm and eggs in Clean Seas' land-based facility at Arno Bay could fulfill the company's plans to close the lifecycle of bluefin tuna, and perhaps to also establish a bluefin tuna sperm bank and secure sustainable production of this critically endangered species.

The breeding program could help to grow the aquaculture industry on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula without impacting on wild tuna stocks, according to Hagen Stehr, chairman of Clean Seas.

Bluefin tuna bred under the program will not be subjected to Australia's wild catch quota, and the major markets such as the US, China and the EU do not have trade barriers for their sales.

The next step in the commercialisation of the breeding programme would be development of protocols for the production of bluefin tuna fingerlings from the stored sperm and eggs in the company's hatchery at Arno Bay, said Stehr.