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Sunday, March 14, 2010

Breeding Bluefin Tuna.

We’ve managed to raise and breed salmon, catfish and other small fish in commercial fish farms.  Experts say that breeding the bluefin tuna outside their natural habit is difficult and will require more time and research.  These tuna can take up to 12 years to reach sexual maturity compare to 3 years for catfish.  There’s a lot of research and schools that are spending time trying to find the solution that would allow bluefin tuna to reproduce at a younger age which has been the main problem when it comes to reproducing them.  Japan has been the leader on trying to make breeding happen in captivity for the bluefin tuna but thirty years have passed and yet hardly any progress has been made.  Captive breeders were able to produced fish that laid eggs but not consistently. Some scientists are skeptical that breeding these fish won’t happen not for another 10 years.  Then you have the environmentalists saying the breeding efforts have so far been a distraction.  That money has been thrown into research but without any huge advancement. Saying the real problem has been the overfishing of the bluefin tuna.  Overfishing has been the root problem in the declining population of the bluefin tuna.   It’s getting so bad that some commercial operations have been using planes to track schools of tuna but even then are still having a hard time finding them. Restricting the amount of tuna that can be fished is the only real solution until scientist can come up with a way to successfully find a way in breeding them in captivity.


Post by: Alfonso C III

For more on the breeding of tuna, visit the link below.

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