JAPANESE scientists may have found a way to save wild bluefin tuna from extinction by successfully breeding and raising the fish in captivity for the first time.
Scientists from Kinki University in Wakayama have been working on the technology for 30 years.
“The first challenge was to increase survival rates from harvested eggs to hatchlings, and we got it to 5 per cent,” the university’s Professor Yoshifumi Sawada said.
“The bluefin hatchlings ate each other, so we then had to introduce other types of hatchling species for them to eat.”
The scientists also faced the difficulty of replicating the best conditions for bluefin, which are notoriously hard to breed in captivity due to their sensitivity to water temperature, currents and noise.
Read the full story at: http://abc.net.au/news/6373310
A typical southern bluefin tuna caught in Australian waters. Image: Jamie Crawford
