Aquaculture company Clean Seas Tuna has reported a successful transfer of its young Southern Bluefin Tuna to offshore cages, marking a significant milestone in the company’s pioneering work breeding the fish in captivity. The young tuna, known as fingerlings, are now 8-10cm long, and have been weaned onto a specially-developed manufactured diet. 90 of the small fish were transferred to 25-metre offshore cages, with a similar number remaining in onshore nursery tanks. The transfer is a marked... ...Read more »

Clean Seas has returned a stronger-than-expected half-yearly result, with the company’s kingfish business generating cash flow for the first time. The company’s after-tax loss for the half year ending December 31 was $9.3 million, compared to $14.1 million in the previous half-year, and the company said it expects a positive impact on earnings in the current half year due to the nature of the lifecycle of the fish produced. The company attributed its results improvement to operational... ...Read more »

The hotly-anticipated spawning season for Southern Bluefin Tuna researchers Clean Seas Tuna has begun, with the company’s broodstock beginning spawning late last week. The company have come closer than any other establishment to successfully breeding the prized fish in captivity, with disappointment last year when none of the company’s young ‘fingerling’ tuna survived past 38 days. The company suffered further misfortune with the accidental death of a large number of its kingfish... ...Read more »

Results of an independent investigation launched this weekend have revealed a complex international black market in East Atlantic bluefin tuna worth an estimated $4 billion, with many cases of quota violation, widespread underreporting, use of banned spotter planes, catching of undersized fish, and even governmental misreporting coming to light. Reporters from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) have spent eight months investigating the fishery and trade of the highly... ...Read more »

The European Union’s Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has called for a significant cut in catches of East Atlantic bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and East Atlantic, ahead of the EU’s leadership role at a major fisheries management meeting next month. Commissioner Maria Damanaki announced her support of a substantial decrease in next year’s total allowable catch of the controversial fish yesterday in Strasbourg, at a meeting of the Greens of the European Parliament. WWF,... ...Read more »

Territory seafood consumers will have their chance to have their say on the Territory’s first-of-its-kind seafood labelling laws, introduced by the NT Government two years ago. The Territory introduced Australia’s first fresh produce Country of Origin labelling as a condition of licences to sell seafood in the NT in 2008. NT Minister for Fisheries Kon Vatskalis last year also provided $17,500 to the NT Seafood Council, for a promotional campaign to encourage Territorians to buy local seafood.... ...Read more »

The Fishery status reports 2009, released last week, shows a substantial improvement in the number of Commonwealth-managed stocks classified as “not overfished” and “not subject to overfishing”, with only 15 species still at risk. The seven stocks that are both overfished and subject to overfishing are: blue warehou, gulper sharks and school shark in the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery, sandfish in the Torres Strait Sea Cucumber Fishery, bigeye tuna in the Eastern Tuna and... ...Read more »

Global fisheries, a vital source of food and revenue throughout the world, contribute between US$225-$240 billion per year to the worldwide economy, according to four new studies released today. Researchers also concluded that healthier fisheries could have prevented malnourishment in nearly 20 million people in poorer countries. This first comprehensive, peer-reviewed estimate of the global economic contribution of fisheries was published online today in four papers as part of a special issue of... ...Read more »

Author, journalist and science writer Julian Cribb has created a sobering text in The Coming Famine: The global food crisis and what we can do to avoid it, from CSIRO Publishing. Cribb’s view of the global food crisis paints a frightening picture: demand for food slowly outstripping supply, food production and urbanisation draining the world’s fresh water resources, food products siphoned for biofuel, developing markets with a taste for more exotic, protein-rich and plentiful dinner fare,... ...Read more »

After ten years of careful breeding and research, CSIRO scientists and the prawn industry have developed what could be the world’s most perfect prawn. The Black Tiger prawn is producing record yields in aquaculture farms and winning awards, netting five gold medals at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in the past two years, including ‘Champion of Show’. Selective breeding for desirable traits like size, markings and preferred conditions are assisted by DNA fingerprints to capture the very best Black... ...Read more »