Cleas Seas Tuna has received international recognition for their attempts to breed Southern Bluefin Tuna in captivity, with Time magazine naming it as the world’s second best invention of the year.

Time magazine, one of the world’s most influential publications, named the work of the Australian aquaculture pioneer 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).”

Clean Seas founder Hagen 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. The company is hopeful of the prospect of offering a sustainable source of quality seafood for a protein hungry world at a time when food security is of concern.

“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.

Share