With Port Lincoln being a major tuna center, the University of Tasmania Aquaculture School saw an opportunity to expand its research operations interstate, and using funding from the Cooperative Research Center for Sustainable Aquaculture of Finfish, established a full-time research facility doing research into the presence of parasites in farmed Bluefin tuna.
Currently staffed by parasitologist Dr Craig Hayward, and PhD student Hamish Aiken, next year will see two more of the university's honors students join the pair to do field work at Port Lincoln before returning to Launceston to write up their results.
But even getting out of Tasmania is not enough remoteness for Dr. Hayward and Mr. Aiken. Both are heading overseas after the tuna-farming season this year, Dr. Hayward collecting tuna parasites from Japan for comparative work, and Dr. Aiken sampling Mediterranean tuna in Spain.
The work in Port Lincoln during the past two years is already producing results, with research suggesting farmed tuna have diverse, but not numerous, parasites.
Dr Hayward said while this was the case, none of the parasites posed any danger to consumers -- and actually had no significant effect on tuna health.
This research already has been presented to an Australasian Aquaculture Conference in Sydney, as well as a European conference.
South Australian industry players have backed the university’s involvement in the state's rapidly developing tuna aquaculture industry.