Clean Seas Tuna Limited has reported early progress with its strategy of bringing forward spawning from the company’s Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) broodstock.
The company says that it is encouraged that the first element of the strategy has been achieved with spawning commencing significantly earlier than last year’s spawn start at the specialised hatchery at Arno Bay on the Spencer Gulf, South Australia. Clean Seas says that it expectantly awaits the crucial next stages towards achieving further progress overall with its SBT breeding program.
The earlier start is with a regular number of small but viable spawns in the past month, allowing the instigation of the all-important new season’s larval rearing trials at the hatchery.
The company says its aim is to continue spawning the tuna for as long as possible to enable its team of experts to further progress the company’s understanding of tuna juvenile production.
The ultimate target strategy for the new spawn is to advance timing and provide older, more resilient fingerlings for marine grow-out by the time ocean water temperatures begin to drop in the autumn.
The next key stages are the spawning build for production volume and then transfer of fingerlings for controlled grow-out trials to either sea cages or holding tanks.
The company has also recently announced the appointment of Australian aquaculture industry expert Dr Craig Foster, as Chief Executive Officer. The appointment follows an extensive global executive search for a CEO, to lead Clean Seas into the next phase of its revolutionary Southern Bluefin Tuna and Kingfish breeding operations.
Dr Foster is well known to the international aquaculture industry and for the past four years has been independent Chairman of Clean Seas Tuna Research Management Advisory Group, which includes research providers, the Australian Seafood Cooperation Research Centre and Australian Fisheries Research and Development Cooperation, supporting the technological progress of Clean Seas’ bluefin lifecycle closure for commercial operation.
