The Australian Seafood CRC was awarded the prize for Excellence in Innovation at the recent Cooperative Research Centre Association Conference held in Alice Springs, Australia.
The prize was awarded in recognition of a series of research breakthroughs which have enabled the breeding and rearing of the prized southern bluefin tuna in land-based hatcheries.
The award recognised the huge, collaborative scientific effort that stands behind the commercial development of bluefin aquaculture by the South Australian company Clean Seas Tuna Ltd.
Dr Graham Mair, program manager at the Seafood CRC, said the project epitomised the CRC’s mantra of end-user driven research partnerships.
“Over the past three years scientists from more than 15 institutes around the world and across Australia have worked together to deliver this outcome for the seafood industry”.
Through the vision of its founder Hagen Stehr, Clean Seas Tuna has learned how to effectively engage with teams of scientists to undertake discovery research and to take this on to commercial delivery in partnership with the Seafood CRC.
According to Mair, as a result of this prize-winning collaboration, “consumers will soon be able to buy fresh bluefin tuna in the knowledge that the supply is sustainable through the combination of aquaculture and ocean fishing.”
