Toner News Mobile › Forums › Toner News Main Forums › FARMING ENDANGERED BLUE-FIN TUNA
- This topic has 0 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 9 years, 8 months ago by Anonymous.
-
AuthorPosts
-
AnonymousInactiveFarming endangered blue-fin tuna
The
Japanese eat 80% of the world’s blue-fin tuna.The problem is that, like
many other species, stocks of the fish are declining.The situation is
going to get a lot worse as other populous countries such as China are
developing a taste for sushi and sashimi, which is what most of the
blue-fin are used for.The species is hard to cultivate because it is
difficult to recreate the conditions they are used to in the wild.The
result can be seen at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market, where the frozen
tuna carcasses are laid out on the floor ready for the auction’s fierce
bidding.A single giant tuna can cost you more than a new car.
But
in the city of Shizoka, in a small shed on a university campus, a
businessman is trying to recreate the oceans that the tuna are used
to.Blue-fin tuna have been farmed before, but not indoors, the team
behind the project says.
‘Magic water’
To
get to where these tuna are housed, you have to go through a kind of
air lock designed to stop any of the outside light getting in to the
dimly-lit interior.Tuna, it seems, are rather sensitive to daylight,
and to pretty much anything else. That is why they are coddled and
protected from as much of the outside world as possible.Inside, in the
gloom, there are four large circular tanks, each with a diameter of
about five metres (16 feet).The water pumped up from deep down under
the surface is just about as clean as you can get – no bacteria, no
viruses and no parasites.Akito Yamamoto, the man behind the project,
calls it “magic water” – not too hot and not too cold; a constant 21C
(70F) which is just right for vigorous tuna to swim around in.The water
flows in circles in each tank – creating an effect like a treadmill for
the 15 fish in each tank.They need to keep moving to keep breathing.
Normally well-travelled fish, they are capable of crossing the Atlantic
in less than 50 days.Here, though, in the confines of the tank, every
detail has been designed to keep them happy and healthy.The tuna have
to be shown where to swim, so there are streams of bubbles flowing away
from the edges of the tanks which guide the tuna away from the
sides.All this equipment has cost thousands of dollars, and has been
developed specially, with no guarantee that it will actually work and
produce full-size healthy tuna.The blue-fin will not be big enough to
breed or be eaten for at least three years.”I know some people are
puzzled about why I am spending so much on this,” said Mr Yamamoto.
“But I am trying to make a facility that could be used for 10 or 20
years.””However much we spend it’s worth it if we can provide safe food
for consumers.”Wild vs farmed fish
This
is clearly a labour of love, but how will he feel when the time comes
to send his fish to the market to be slaughtered for the first time?”It
will be like sending my daughters off to get married,” he says with a
grin. “Joy and sadness.” But will he be eating them? “Definitely!”The
risk, of course, is that the farmed blue-fin tuna will not be as tasty
as the wild ones.At a nearby sushi restaurant the chef Yutaka Kuroda
skilfully fillets large pieces of tuna, cutting the delicate slices for
the lunchtime orders.He says it will be hard to persuade his customers
to make the switch.”The quality of farmed tuna is improving, mainly
because they feed them better,” he said. “I don’t think it tastes all
that bad, but still most Japanese people believe a wild tuna tastes
better than a farmed one.”The reality is of course that in the end the
Japanese may have no choice. Sushi from farmed fish could one day be
the only option on the menu.The huge appetite for fresh wild fish today
may mean that tomorrow there is none left in the oceans, so farmed
blue-fin tuna may be a taste they have to get used to. -
AuthorDecember 28, 2006 at 1:52 PM
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.