Australian fishing industry and aquaculture pioneer Hagen Stehr AO in his assessment revealed that the southern Hemisphere bluefin tuna stocks are in good shape. The chairman of listed aquaculture company Clean Seas Tuna Ltd expressed that his tuna fishing fleet has had its best seasonal start ever, catching about two-thirds of its quota in the first two days of the Southern Bluefin Tuna fishing season.
According to Stehr the fleet is already on its way back to Port Lincoln from the Continental Shelf with about 200 tonnes of live SBT in tow – a journey which will take the fleet about 14 days to complete. He told that his skippers also report that the catch comprises larger than average fish of excellent quality. He informed that this is the best stocks in almost 40 years of fishing in these waters.
It is time when the international community is trying hard to save the tuna stocks by approving various measures. The news of good stocks of tuna in this region is a welcome note. Report shows that Australia’s tuna quota stands at 5,265 tonnes a year – with fish caught under the quota grown out in the fresh cold waters of Boston Bay and Arno Bay, off South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula to approximately 10,000 tonnes for export to Asia and Europe.
