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True-bluefin

Farming one of the ocean’s greatest fish

Jun 22nd 2010

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1-17 of 17 Kouroi wrote: Jun 22nd 2010 7:03 GMT

Also studies show that farmed salmon contains more PCBs for instance, compared with the wild salmon (I don't know about methylmercury) so all the processed food that goes into the salmon's mouth is definitely not organic...

(55) Permalink Report abuse willi5 wrote: Jun 22nd 2010 9:33 GMT

Is it the quality of the meat from a bluefin killed straight after being caught that is less tasty, or is it the meat from a bluefin killed straight after being caught that is less tasty?

(48) Permalink Report abuse miteee wrote: Jun 22nd 2010 9:58 GMT

The True-bluefin should be left alone.....who gives the right to these people to slaughter a species that is already on the edge of not surviving.....these animals belong to everyone on this earth....shame on them for their killing ways.....

(61) Permalink Report abuse caoaman wrote: Jun 23rd 2010 4:39 GMT

it is not environmently friendly

(44) Permalink Report abuse cul de castor wrote: Jun 23rd 2010 12:44 GMT

Silly Mediterraneans. Let the Japanese worry about their own fish.

(43) Permalink Report abuse eep13 wrote: Jun 23rd 2010 3:19 GMT

An inadequate innovation for an immediate problem. Bluefin tuna stocks are at the point of coloapse in nearly all the oceans. This form of fat farming is simply moving a step down the foodchain which is even less well researched in terms of stock levels and the likelihood of sustainable supply. It takes something like ten kilos of feed to grow one kilo of tunameat.
It will not become a 'premium' product but the first commonly human-consumed species to largely disappear from the world's collective plate. The real question will be if we'll learn anything from it, or go on with gluttony as usual...

(44) Permalink Report abuse D. Sherman wrote: Jun 23rd 2010 3:30 GMT

Maybe we can use soylent green as fish food for a few decades before we have to resort to eating it ourselves.

(51) Permalink Report abuse cowichan61 wrote: Jun 23rd 2010 6:33 GMT

Can't speak for farmed tuna but I find farmed salmon inedible mush. Fortunately living on Canada's west coast means I can occasionally afford a wild salmon. My children will have to learn to enjoy jellyfish and algae.

(46) Permalink Report abuse Anjin-San wrote: Jun 24th 2010 12:46 GMT

Any article on Tuna farming that does not include a visit to the Kinki University for their full cycle (eggs to egglaying adults) tuna farming research & development is simply WRONG. If your correspondent can't get his/her editor to pay up the travel expense to Japan, then don't even bother writing!!

(41) Permalink Report abuse Anjin-San wrote: Jun 24th 2010 12:52 GMT

@willi5
According to my acquaintance living at Tsukiji, it is a bit of both actually; freshly caught bluefins have less fat than farmed tuna, and also the stress induces hormone production that degrades the taste of the meat temporarily.

@miteee & cul de castor
Here in Japan, we have been farming bluefins from eggs to adults, and leave some breeding stock for multiple generation farming. Give us a decade and we won't have to fish for tuna ever again...

(41) Permalink Report abuse Alex OTL wrote: Jun 25th 2010 6:55 GMT

@ Anjin-San - You should check your facts as well. Firstly Kinki have closed the life cycle, but that is not the same as commercial success. Kinki have published papers on the extent of their losses, including the walling and spooking problem. Secondly, the Japanese have been doing your so called successful breeding since the late '70s yet only a year ago Japanese tuna ranchers were filmed capturing 100s of thousands of tuna only 6-8 months old in well boats and putting them into ocean cages. Why would they have to do that if they had successful commercial breeding? Thirdly the tuna that are caught in the Med and the Gulf of Mexico are caught post spawning, which means that they have converted most of their fat reserves into energy, milt and eggs for the spawning process. Not the tasteist bluefin. That is why tuna fattening was started, to value add fats and oils and meat onto a depleted fish. And if you want to talk about world leading expertise then you have failed to mention the Inter Amercian Tropical Tuna Commission, IATTC, and their research lab in Achotines. The place that everyone around the world sends their people to learn about spawning, including Kinki and Clean Seas. Achotines have daily spawning, of yellowfin tuna, for 10-11 months of the year while other groups claim success when they have a single spawning and batch of eggs. If you think they look majestic swimming, watching them and their spawning behaviour in a 16 metre tank is awe inspiring. Just remember for every company out there that is dependent on investor dollars and universities that need research grants, there will be the required spin doctoring and hype that makes them seem like they are at the top of the world in their field.

(39) Permalink Report abuse Sam Gardner wrote: Jun 27th 2010 6:51 GMT

How does feeding veggies into tuna transform into Omega 3 oils? Or does it not?

(26) Permalink Report abuse eep13 wrote: Jun 27th 2010 12:53 GMT

it doesnt really, apparently thats the real struggle, feeding them nonfish based foods depletes their omega 3 values...

(25) Permalink Report abuse ocassiuso wrote: Jun 27th 2010 8:08 GMT

If you take the juveniles from the wild, fatten them and slaughter them, there will not be many left to breed. The population is crashing. Read this from the NYTimes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/magazine/27Tuna-t.html

(28) Permalink Report abuse Plumb Bob wrote: Jun 28th 2010 3:43 GMT

Genetically modified bluefin will be the ultimate answer. Next year giant GM salmon will be arriving in our markets. This should reduce the pressure on wild populations and be good for the fish and reduce the carbon output as well. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/7857310/Giant-salmon-will-be-first-GM-animal-available-for-e...

The wild fish should be left in the wild and the new GM fish can be our food.

(29) Permalink Report abuse El Rev wrote: Jun 28th 2010 1:45 GMT

This sort of soothing, National Geographic-toned piece jars with the reality of the blue-fin tuna disaster, as highlighted repeatedly by marine scientists and NGOs across the world. The timbre of the article belongs in "Aquaculture Quarterly" and not in the world's leading organ for informed journalism. How about some context, perhaps including the shocking behaviour of ICCAT and the EU ministers commanded by their fisheries lobbies?

To abuse a metaphor, this polite musing is so much talk about possibly installing radar on the Titanic, in the near future, after all due care and consideration.

Bluefin tuna is at, or past, the point of collapse. Anything short of a moratorium on the ranchers' activities, coupled with marine reserves and years of observation to monitor stock recovery, is typical human folly: putting the short-term and massive profits of the few above the environment in which millions live and must subsist.

(30) Permalink Report abuse Kouroi wrote: Jun 28th 2010 6:06 GMT

Bye cod fish, bye salmon, bye tuna...

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