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Next level of tuna aquaculture Jan Giebichenstein, Paul-Daniel Sindilariu, Next Tuna
Figure 1. Schematic set-up of Next Tuna production facility. Created with BioRender.com.
Next Tuna is dedicated to sustainably producing and commercializing Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (ABT) in the Mediterranean Sea. We aim to be the first company to start the ABT reproductive cycle in an aquafarm at an industrial scale. Using new and innovative methods, we can meet the demand for high-quality ABT and mitigate the pressure from commercial fishing on this valuable species. To tackle this ambitious goal, Next Tuna combines state-of-the-art development in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), the latest improvements in feed technology, and novel knowledge on ABT biology. Financed by EIT Food and private investors, the first goals of Next Tuna are to develop a commercial production concept for ABT and develop a shovelready project at the Mediterranean Coast to license and build our facility starting 2023. For us, tuna is teamwork. Our partners include the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, IEO (Spain), Seafarming Systems (Norway), Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands), CFEED AS (Norway) and CM Aqua (Denmark). In this article, we focus on
our innovative production concept, specifically our hatchery design.
Next Tuna: The production concept Next Tuna is setting out to produce a total of 1,200 tons of Atlantic bluefin tuna juveniles per year in a size range of 2-10 kg to stock existing ABT grow-out farms all around the Mediterranean Sea. The ambitious goal is based on a three, up to four times per year reproductive cycle including broodstock derived from a species-specific breeding program in recirculating aquaculture systems. The hatchery, including first feeding and weaning up to a fish size of 3 g, as well as the pre-growing up to a size of 50 g, will be located in a land-based facility, while the on-growing to sales size of 2-10 kg will be performed in floating RAS in an allocated harbor area (Fig. 1). Next Tuna hatchery and live feed production The Next Tuna hatchery consists of a hatchery as such, where the ABT eggs are incubated, and fish start with
Hatchery Feed & Management Vol 9 Issue 4 2021
