$1M Tuna Scale Breeding Heights ff

Amid tight security, nine 140kg tuna worth more than $1 million each have been airlifted from sea pens off Eyre Peninsula and lowered into the world's first on-shore hatchery at nearby Arno Bay.

Port Lincoln tuna baron Hagen Stehr said he had successfully moved the tuna during an eight-hour helicopter operation involving a team of scientists and divers to look after the welfare of the six-year-old stock. “This is a world first, the Japanese won’t try it at all, the Americans tried it and failed and the Europeans have failed,” Mr. Stehr said. “They’ve been in there 150 hours and they’re absolutely well.”

One by one the tuna were airlifted to a newly built three million-liter tank -believed to be the second largest in the world- and lowered through a hole in the roof last Thursday. 

Mr. Stehr said the tuna would be kept in controlled conditions, creating the “perfect” environment for spawning. “We’ve got it all on computer, we can make it light or darker,” he said. “We can leave the fish in a state of well-being, we’ve got the sun going up, the sun going down. That takes some time before we can convince the fish that they're in Java in tropical conditions.” A second group of nine tuna will be transferred next month when Mr. Stehr is confident the first nine have settled into their onshore tank. 

The first nine are being watched around the clock to monitor how they adapt to their surroundings. 

Mr. Stehr’s Clean Seas company is closely guarding the site until the tuna begin to spawn in February. He has already refused a Japanese film crew entry to his site. “It’s like Stalag 13, it’s like the Baxter detention camp,” he said. The company chairman said onshore propagation would ensure the future of tuna fish stocks, which had already been depleted in European waters. 

The fish stock has been listed as critically endangered but propagated tuna is not subject to international catch limits. 

“We have the potential to duplicate Australia’s 5200-ton tuna quota in a decade, without impacting on wild tuna stocks.” 

The international catch has been under close scrutiny in the wake of revelations the Japanese tuna industry were illegally catching up to 10,000 tons of southern bluefin tuna annually, worth an estimated $8 billion. 

“What a disgrace, that’s fraudulent,” Mr. Stehr said. “They have to stop or there will be a shortage of SBT.”