NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 17, 2009
AUSTRALIAN FISH BREEDING BREAKTHROUGH SECOND IN
TIME MAGAZINE’S 50 BEST INVENTIONS OF 2009
An Australian company’s breakthrough in the breeding of Southern Bluefin Tuna in
captivity has been named as the world’s second best invention of the year by influential
international magazine Time.
Time magazine has named the work of Australian aquaculture pioneer Clean Seas Tuna
Limited and its founder Hagen Stehr AO at the top of its 50 Best Inventions of 2009.
The company’s propagation of aquaculture bred Southern Bluefin Tuna at its purpose
built hatchery at Arno Bay, South Australia came second on Time’s list of the 50 Best
Inventions of 2009 behind “the best and smartest and coolest thing built in 2009” –
NASA’s Ares 1 rocket - and ahead of the AIDS vaccine.
Commenting on Clean Seas’ breakthrough breeding program, Time magazine says “by
coaxing the notoriously fussy Southern Bluefin to breed in landlocked tanks, Clean Seas
may finally have given the future of bluefin aquaculture legs (or at least a tail.)”
Mr Stehr said the Clean Seas team and its collaborators were delighted by international
recognition of the company’s breakthrough and excited by its commercial potential and its
potential to provide a sustainable source of quality seafood for a protein hungry world –
particularly at a time when wild tuna stocks are under threat from over-fishing.
Last month, the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna agreed to
a net 20% cut in worldwide wild catch quota for SBT over 2010 and 2011. Australia’s
share of the worldwide quota will be reduced from 5,265 tonnes to 4,015 tonnes (a
decrease of 23.4%). In the past few days, member nations of the International
Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas agreed to cut the annual quota for
Atlantic bluefine tuna by one third.
“Our achievement is a world first, and a major stepping stone to presenting the world
with a sustainable food resource for the future. It is with confidence that Clean Seas
Tuna will shortly commence commercialising its achievements to grow and produce
Southern Bluefin Tuna,” Mr Stehr said.
“Australia – and South Australia particularly – has been seen as a clean and reliable
supplier of premium quality seafood products for some time.
“The emergence of a reliable and significant source of high quality propagated fish,
grown independently of wild catch in the clean waters of the Spencer Gulf at the same
time as Northern Hemisphere fish stocks are declining will make our seafood even
more attractive in world markets.”
Over the next few months, Clean Seas will commence a commercial propagation and
grow-out program for Southern Bluefin Tuna after becoming the first organisation in
the world to close the life-cycle of SBT in April this year.
Time Magazine
At 8:47 a.m. on March 12, fish history happened in Port Lincoln, Australia. A tankful of
southern bluefin tuna — regal, predatory fish prized for their buttery sashimi meat —
began to spawn, and they didn't stop for more than a month. "People said, 'It can't be
done, it can't be done,'" says Hagen Stehr, founder of Clean Seas, the Australian
company that operates the breeding facility. "Now we've done it." Scientists believe the
breeding population of the highly migratory southern bluefin has probably plummeted
more than 90% since the 1950s. Others have gotten Pacific bluefin to spawn and grow
in ocean cages, but by coaxing the notoriously fussy southern bluefin to breed in
landlocked tanks, Clean Seas may finally have given the future of bluefin aquaculture
legs. (Or at least a tail.)
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“Clean Seas Tuna wishes to acknowledge their appreciation for the contributions made
to our endeavours by the following organisations, Ausindustry, Seafood CRC,
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, University of Sunshine Coast,
South Australian Research and Development Institute, Flinders University, New South
Wales Department of Primary Industries, Northern Territory Department of Regional
Development / Primary Industry / Fisheries and Resources, Tasmanian Aquaculture
and Fisheries Institute, Kinki University, Hellenic Center for Marine Research,
Heinrich-Heine Universität, University of Maryland, EU research consortiums
SELFDOTT and REPRODOTT, Inter American Tropical Tuna Commission and the
Tuna Research and Conservation Center".
FURTHER INFORMATION:
Hagen Stehr, Founding Director - Clean Seas Tuna Limited
Phone: (08) 8621 2900 (O) or 0400 920 020 (M)
ISSUED BY: Tim Hughes, Hughes Public Relations
Phone: (08) 8412 4100 (O) or 0417 788 891 (M) E: tim@hughespr.com.au
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