Aquaculture for all

Weekly Overview: Japan Reports Potential for Bluefin Tuna Aquaculture After Successful Onshore Spawning

Tuna Sustainability Breeding & genetics +6 more

ANALYSIS - In this week's news, Japan has successfully spawned bluefin tuna in onshore tanks, writes Lucy Towers, TheFishSite Editor.

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The Fisheries Research Agency also retrieved fertilized eggs from the specialized tanks which control water temperature and day length. The Japan Times newspaper noted that these results suggest potential for stable bluefin tuna aquaculture.

The Philippines has reported that its fisheries sector contracted by 3.25 per cent in the first quarter of the year due to the devastating damage of typhoon Yolanda which destroyed thousands of fishing boats in Eastern Visayas, which produces almost 25 per cent of the aquatic resources in the country.

Almost all of the major aquatic resources posted decreases in production, from roundscad (galungong) and milkfish to tiger prawn and seaweeds, except for skipjack tuna which expanded by 4.62 per cent.

India's Kerala State Governor Sheila Dikshit has stressed the need for intensifying research activities to improve the ecological and economic sustainability of fish and shrimp aquaculture.

A low-cost farming system which is affordable to farmers needs to be developed to exploit the high prospects of fisheries in Kerala, she said.

The European Commission has reiterated its commitment to implementing the international control measures for bluefin tuna during the 2014 main fishing season. Running from the 26 May to 24 June in the Mediterranean and the Eastern Atlantic, the season sees large vessels, purse seiners, allowed to fish for Bluefin tuna.

The short fishing season is part of the recovery plan agreed at international level to bring back the Bluefin tuna stock to sustainable levels.

European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki, said: "The EU has been working relentlessly to protect Bluefin tuna. We have reduced our fishing fleet, we have tightened controls and we have played a consistently active role within the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna which is responsible for managing this fishery. That helped to bring the Eastern Atlantic Bluefin tuna stock back from the brink of extinction. I am confident that we are on the right path."

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