USD 9 Million? That’s For Four Tuna!ff

“If someone would give me, for those nine fish, $10 million, I couldn’t sell it. These fish are worth a fortune ... at least AUS $3 million each (USD 2.3 million each)”, says their owner.

The Australian tuna kingpin Hagen Stehr is holding nine of the 140-kilogram southern bluefin tuna in an onshore hatchery in South Australia. Mr. Stehr derived the AUS$3 million a head book value by looking at the breeding potential of the fish and the cost of keeping them.

He said that food alone costs his company, Clean Seas, between AUS$1000 and AUS$2000 a day. “We’ve had the fish for seven years, and each fish can make ... millions of tuna eggs. And you know what tuna is worth, so really, how much is that fish worth? If someone would give me, for those nine fish, $10 million, I couldn't sell it,” Mr. Stehr said.

The USD 4.5 million hatchery, located in Arno Bay, has been designed specifically for breeding the tuna, in order to cater for rapidly increasing customer demand and reduce the impact of overfishing.

Moving the tuna to the new hatchery was a major ordeal, involving a helicopter, divers and a team of scientists. They were previously being held in sea pens off Eyre Peninsula. The tuna were airlifted to the hatchery one at a time last week, and pinpoint piloting skills were required to ensure the fish weren’t put under significant stress.

”A number of organizations in other countries have already tried and failed to transfer tuna to onshore facilities,” said Mr. Stehr.

The Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry lists the status of the southern bluefin tuna, which are found in waters off South Australia and eastern Australia, as being “overfished”. It says the “spawning stock is severely depleted and current catches severely limit the probability of rebuilding”.

The Government’s plan is to “rebuild spawning stock to its 1980 level by 2020”, and Mr. Stehr said his farm will help achieve this target by taking fewer fish from the wild. “We have the potential to duplicate Australia's 5200-tonne tuna quota in a decade, without impacting on wild tuna stocks,” Mr. Stehr said.

Patrick Hone, the executive director of the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, says the hatchery will also help meet global demand for tuna, which is currently outpacing the amount that can be caught in the wild. “The demand for seafood is rising. Currently world fisheries are at their sustainable limit. If we are to meet demand we have to get alternative seafood, and aquaculture [breeding fish on a fish farm] offers the best opportunity for that,” said Mr. Hone.

The tuna will be monitored all day to ensure they adapt well to their new environment. Entry to the site will be restricted until the tuna begin to spawn, which is expected to occur in February.

”We’ve got people sleeping next to the tank,” said Mr. Stehr.

Southern bluefin tuna were last in the news in October, when an investigation was launched into Japan's illegal netting of up to $8 billion worth of the fish. The investigation found that Japan had overcaught up to 178,000 tons over the past 20 years.

As a result of the scandal, Senator Eric Abetz, the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation, issued a statement last week that said Japan’s allocated catch had been more than halved for the next five years, from 6065 to 3000 tons.