Congratulations to CRC Core Participant - Clean Seas Tuna!

World First Breakthrough as Clean Seas Creates Artificial Breeding Regime for Southern Bluefin Tuna

On the 4th March 2008, Australian aquaculture pioneer Clean Seas Tuna Limited announced it had become the first organisation in the world to create an artificial breeding regime for Southern Bluefin Tuna.

The successful collection of significant quantitites of Southern Bluefin Tuna sperm and eggs spawned by captive tuna in clean Seas' purpose-built land-based breeding facility at Arno Bay, South Australia will allow the realisation of the company's plans to close the lifecycle of Southern Bluefin Tuna, potentially establish a valuable Southern Bluefin Tuna sperm bank and secure sustainable production of this premium endangered species.

Clean Seas Chairman, Mr Hagen Stehr AO, said the breeding breakthrough - confirmed by the company's team of international aquaculture scientists - should give Clean Seas the ability to at least duplicate Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna annual quota within the next few years and to dramatically grow the aquaculture industry on south Australia's Eyre Peninsula without impacting on wild tuna stocks.

Mr Stehr said that from a global perspective, successfully recreating the natural breeding cycle of one of the world's premier pelagic fish species was a key step towards ensuring sustainability of this key species at a time when wild stocks are under significant pressure.

Technically, this breakthrough is testimony to the passion, expertise and commitment of an international team led by Clean Seas' Research and Development Director Morten Deichmann and Broodstock Manager Miles Wise.

Mr Stehr said scientists from the University of Dusseldorf, the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research and te US-based Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission also has supported the breeding program.

Clean Seas' Arno Bay breeding facility was also developed with the funding assistance of a Federal Government Comemrcial Ready Grant and Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. ongoing research is supported by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre, under a seven year participation agreement.

Mr Stehr said the next step in the commercialisation of the breeding program would be development of protocols for the production of Southern Bluefin Tuna fingerlings from the stored Southern Bluefin Tuna sperm and eggs in the company's hatchery.

"This has been our dream for more than a decade and I feel like a proud grandfather to these tiny Southern Bluefin Tuna - and a proud father to a new world of sustainable premium seafood production".