Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Breeding Bluefin Tuna Like Cattle. Home, home on the Range.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Breeding Bluefin Tuna Like Cattle!
In Australia a company called Clean Seas Tuna Limited is attempting to breed the highly sought-after Bluefin Tuna in captivity.
For the Tuna this may be a little like trying to get drunk on Sherry. It can be done, but it’s a lot of work, and probably not very satisfying. But, for the sushi and sashimi eater it could be very satisfying.
In 2003 researchers near Osaka Japan became the first in the world to successfully spawn southern Bluefin tuna in captivity. They were able to grow that generation of fish to the point where some actually produced their own eggs.
Remember how excited the world was when the first Panda Bears actually bred in captivity? This, for a lot of people is something like that.
In 2004 Marcus Stehr, Clean Seas Tuna Limited, was able to successfully move 6 Bluefin tuna from offshore nets into an onshore dam. At the time Clean Seas Tuna may have been the only company to even attempt such a thing, let alone succeed.
In April 2007 Clean Seas Tuna’s Bluefins started pairing up. Marcus Stehr be lived this to be one more milestone moving toward his quest. The Bluefins were very healthy and they were showing spawning tendencies. The captive tuna’s were also very healthy eaters.
Showing signs of wanting to breed, and having a healthy appetite sounds like the tuna aren’t too depressed with their situation. Maybe fish Viagra keeps their spirits high.
In the Clean Seas’ Arno Bay Breeding facility male Bluefins were given hormone therapy to stimulate their ‘need to breed’. Again, maybe like trying to get drunk on Sherry, as I recall the Panda’s were shown some X rated Panda films. What ever does the trick I suppose. Though the release of sperm by the Southern Bluefin Tuna was captured on film by an underwater video camera.
How are the females responding to all this courtship behaviour? Hagen Stehr Clean Seas Chairman says the broodstock will continue to be monitored and the therapy potentially repeated, with the expectation of completing their reproductive maturation and producing viable (fertilised) eggs.
If all of this turns out to be really successful the Bluefin in the wild may be given a chance to get a little R&R. While they rest up maybe their Bluefin Brethern in captivity can help shoulder the burden of supplying at least some of the world the protein it so desperately craves.
Oh please, someone pass me the Sherry!
Photo thanks (c) Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank
Labels: Bluefin Tuna, Longline Fishing, Ocean, aquaculture, bycatch
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Breeding Bluefin Tuna Like Cattle. Home, home on the Range.
