Clean Seas is planning to refloat its bluefin tuna farming project. (Photo: Clean Seas/FIS)
AUSTRALIA
Tuesday, August 19, 2014, 01:50 (GMT + 9)
Fish farmer Clean Seas has decided to offer new encouragement to its bluefin tuna breeding programme and trusts it can find the right partner to be able to produce commercial quantities of this resource.
After experiencing negative results for seven years, the Lincoln Port-located firm has turned in a AUD 11.145 million (USD 10.4 million) profit thanks to the fact that its hiramasa kingfish (Seriola lalandi) farming expansion starts to reap rewards, The Advertiser reported.
The firm suspended the bluefin tuna breeding programme in 2012 after racking up losses, since the fingerlings died soon after being transferred into cages in the chilly waters of the Spencer Gulf.
Chief executive Craig Foster said the bluefin tuna programme had more chance of success if the company harvested eggs at its brood stock facility in Port Lincoln and flew them to warmer waters in west or east Australia or even Indonesia to grow to maturity, the Sydney Morning Herald informed.
“Certainly, we’ll have to look at Indonesia as part of the possibility. They have got aquaculture facilities that have been built that have very little usage and could be quite suitable for this purpose," he pointed out.
And he added: “There is a good research station at Port Stephens [in NSW], Fremantle in WA and there’s a reasonable research station in Geraldton WA.”
All in all, Foster explained Clean Seas won’t be rushed and in the meantime will be focusing on its kingfish programme, the success of which has returned the company to profitability a year ahead of schedule.
“We hope next year that we will achieve close to 1500 tonnes of fish sales. That’s what we set out to do in our first objective,” he stressed.
With this aim getting close to reality, the firm is starting to think about their second target which was "to rebuild the business to about 3000 tonnes of sales."
The firm intends to grow kingfish sales in Asia and the Pacific as well as domestically.