Production of Farmed Bluefin Tuna Rising in Japan

Tokyo, Oct. 14 (Jiji Press)--Japan's farmed bluefin tuna production
is rising sharply amid global efforts to strengthen restrictions on fish
catches.


There were about 70 bluefin tuna farms in Japan as of August, up
some 50 pct from two years before, according to Marino-Forum 21, an
organization that researches tuna aquaculture.
Japan is able to produce over 13,000 tons of bluefin tuna annually,
about twice the amount of last year, according to the organization.
The rise in farming production came also because a growing number
of trading houses and companies that import tuna are entering the business.
In addition, some farmers have switched to tuna from less profitable
yellowtail.
Industry leader Maruha Nichiro Holdings Inc. <1334>, which opened a
new farm in the central prefecture of Wakayama this year, expects its
shipments to rise 50 pct from a year earlier to 2,400 tons.
The company plans to ship some 3,000 tons next year, a spokesman
said.
At Kinki University's Fisheries Laboratory in the prefecture,
production of juvenile bluefin tuna for farming has seen a sharp rise.
The laboratory has developed a complete farm-raising cycle in which
it raises 100,000 bluefin tuna fry which was born from farmed fish, not
natural. It plans to ship 50,000 young bluefin tuna this year, triple the
number of last year.
Laboratory chief Osamu Murata said the laboratory has established a
bluefin tuna production system that does not depend on natural fish.
Such technology will probably prevail in the industry in the
future, Murata said.
Farming is considered the key to reducing Japan's reliance on
overseas catches as the country imports 20,000 tons of Atlantic and
Mediterranean bluefin tuna a year.