4 October 2002
Australia Proponents of breeding captive tuna believe Australia could miss out on the next step in aquaculture because of the local tuna industry's opposition to propagation. This is being said in a report by Fish Information and Services.
Tuna farmer Hagen Stehr on the weekend hosted internationally renowned propagation advocate and Isreali aquaculture expert Hillel Gordin, who took time to explain why he believed propagation of large fish such as tuna was inevitable, profitable and the right thing for the environment.
But the majority of the local tuna industry is standing behind its claims that breeding southern bluefin tuna would remove the one advantage the local waters have, and that is its proximity to the wild, caught fish that currently sustains the industry.
The joint industry and government funded group known as the Aquafin Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) with its seven-year cash budget of about AUD 30 million in upcoming months will determine what priority should be given to propagation.
Indications are that the industry will not favour resources being allocated to solving propagation.
Both Mr Gordin and Mr Stehr believe there needs to be a focus on breeding tuna. Mr Gordin was in Australia primarily to focus on efforts in Queensland to breed and farm yellowfin tuna, but he took time to visit South Australia and to visit Mr Stehr's Cleanseas Hatchery in Arno Bay.
"I almost didn't recognise the place after two years," he said.
"It certainly is state of the art with cutting-edge technology."
He said the kingfish hatchery was the perfect "launching bed" for jumping into tuna propagation, and scientists there had already started developing feed and other technologies specifically for tuna.
According to United Nations figures, the growing world population would require at least another 40 M/T of additional seafood every year.
One of the only ways to meet that sort of demand was to breed and farm larger fish.
"Tuna are fast growing, have excellent food conversion rates and 70 per cent of their body is edible," Mr Gordin said.
Past approaches to crack the "holy grail" of tuna breeding failed because they had not taken a holistic, interdisciplinary approach.
The latest development on the world propagation stage was that a partnership had been developed among several European countries as well as other such as Israel to start a new northern bluefin tuna propagation research program funded in part by the European Union.
Mr Gordin recently convened an international propagation conference in Spain.
This programme beginning in 2003 would involve laboratories in eight different European countries with an industry partner and plans to farm the propagated fish off Spain.
"This is going to be an orchestra," Mr Gordin said.
Mr Stehr said he was disappointed with the apparent shift against propagation, but insisted his desire to solve the challenge had only increased.
He said he had already invested significant funds into his project, with plans to gain new partners and to remain involved in international research such as Mr Gordin's European project.
Australian tuna industry spokesman Brian Jeffriess confirmed the majority of the industry was more interested in using the CRC funds to solve more pressing issues such as the import of foreign bait, the development of the new offshore zone and further review of the risk assessment associated with fish health.
The industry believed propagation should take a back seat to these issues, he said.
