If you read Fat City regularly, you know that blue fin tuna is going extinct. Scientists are predicting the species could be wiped out by 2012.
While bluefin isn't the variety that comes in the can -- that'd be albacore, skipjack and yellowfin -- it is an important ingredient in sushi and a delicacy in any form. One fish can be worth upwards of $20,000, so hatcheries have been trying like mad to breed them in captivity -- only to face many problems, the foremost being that bluefin have the habit of eating their own young.
But scientists at an Australian hatchery called Clean Seas believe they have broken through and are on the way to breeding sustainable bluefin. From Bloomberg:
To get the bluefin to breed, scientists at Clean SeasAt this point Clean Seas was no different from several other hatcheries trying to get the bluefin to breed.designed the tank to simulate conditions in the ocean. Using
overhead lights to suggest the sun and moon, saltwater piped in
from the ocean, artificial currents and temperature controls,
the scientists have tried to re-create the experience of a
spawning journey for the fish. The fish entered the tank in 2006, and for three years the females didn't produce eggs although the males were making sperm ... scientists changed almost every variable, including water temperature and the age of the males.
What finally made the difference was giving females a special hormone
injection via spear gun. It worked, and millions of eggs were spawned. Nature worked to the scientists'
advantage, with the eggs rising to the top of the water where scientists could remove
them before their parents had a chance to eat them.
Clean Seas
is owned by an eccentric Australian millionaire named Hagen Stehr. He
has a dragon tattooed on his forearm and once jumped out of an airplane
with his parachute in a shoebox he held under his arm. When he
"feels low" he reads General George Patton. To start Clean
Seas, he hired a Vietnam vet to airlift the tuna 400 miles.
His adversaries
admit he's crazy but also smart and it's a mix that just might
make Stehr go down in history as the man who saved the bluefin.
(Image via Flickr: Giant Ginko)
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