A quarter of Australia Queensland's tuna fishing vessels are out of action as operators become embroiled in a financial crisis.
The strong Australian dollar, and economic downturn in Australia's two biggest tuna customers, Japan and the United States, has left a number of commercial fishermen unable to meet fuel costs and loan repayments.
Brett Taylor, from Sunshine Coast tuna processor Four Seas, says several boats operating in Queensland waters have already been sold, and more are under threat.
â€Five vessels have been repossessed. There are another four vessels, which I believe have a question mark over them as far as whether than banks are just about to become involved and foreclose on them. And there are probably another three or four vessels that are at the moment voluntarily tied up and not fishing, just through the poor economics of the fishery.â€
However a spokesman for the Commonwealth Bank says the five boats were not repossessed, but sold voluntarily by an angler who could not service loan repayments.