Clean Seas tuna operations. (Photo Credit: CSS YouTube)
AUSTRALIA
Thursday, June 18, 2015, 03:40 (GMT + 9)
Clean Seas Tuna Limited has filed charges in the Supreme Court of South Australia against one of its former feed suppliers, Gibson’s Limited for the economic losses the firm considers were caused by aquaculture feed which was allegedly deficient in a key nutrient.
As it has been stated in a firm’s release received by FIS.com, the firm's CEO Craig Foster indicated that in the proceedings, Clean Seas asserts that the feed supplied in the 2009 –2012 financial years by Gibson’s Limited (trading as Skretting Australia) contained insufficient taurine.
The taurine is a sulphonic acid recognised to be an essential dietary requirement of a number of fish species, including yellowtail kingfish, which resulted in mortalities and poor growth in this species stocks.
Dr Foster pointed out the firm’s solicitors have engaged independent forensic expert accountants to produce a report quantifying the losses attributable to this claim.
Clean Seas CEO stressed that it has been found out that once the firm decided to supplement its yellowtail kingfish feeds with taurine since July 2012, the health of the stocks materially improved, and fish survival rates and growth has since then exceeded all previous benchmarks.
Clean Seas is the only Australian commercial producer of farmed yellowtail kingfish, a species which is valued for use in sashimi and on restaurant menus as a cooked table fish.