TURKEY
Akua-Group fattens tuna for the Japanese market
An industry subject to international monitoring Bluefin tuna is the world’s most expensive fish. In January 2013 a 222 kg specimen sold for USD1.8m at Tokyo’s Tsukiji market corresponding to a kilo price of more than USD8,000. Tuna is highly sought after on the Japanese market where the best fish are sold to make top quality sashimi and sushi. This demand for tuna from Japan has repercussions all around the world including in the Mediterranean where companies practice capture-based aquaculture i.e. catching young tuna and on-growing them in captivity.
T
he Integrated Taxonomic Information System, an American taxonomic database maintained by various federal agencies, classifies the genus Thunnus comprising tunas and albacores into eight species of tuna. The variety that is captured and fattened in the Mediterranean is the northern bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus).
Slow transport from catching to ongrowing site The northern bluefin tuna is a pelagic fish that schools by size and can tolerate a wide range of temperatures. The fish enters the Mediterranean from May to July to spawn and leaves again for the Atlantic from midJuly to September. They feed on other schooling fish such as anchovies and the effect of this activity can be seen on the water surface allowing fishers to easily detect schools of tuna. The fish are typically captured using purse seines which are then connected with transport cages by binding the nets on the two structures together and then lifting the purse seine slightly to encourage the fish to swim through into the transport cage. Catches from several purse seines can be added to 46
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one transport or towing cage before it is slowly moved to the on-growing site, a journey that can save several weeks depending on the distance to be traversed. The towing cages are usually transported at a speed not exceeding 1 to 1.5 knots in order to reduce stress and physical injuries to the fish, which in turn lead to higher mortality rates. The better the condition of the fish when they arrive at the on-growing site the quicker they adapt to captivity and start feeding. The slow speed and long distances that need to be covered also mean that the fish must be fed during the journey. The management of tuna in the Atlantic is the responsibility of ICCAT, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. In 2014 the total allowable catch (TAC) for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean was set at 13,400 tonnes of which the EU was allocated just under 8,000 tonnes and Turkey got 557 tonnes. The TAC was the same as it had been in 2013 as campaigned for by environmental organisations concerned about overfishing, despite claims by fishers from many parts of the Mediterranean that they had been seeing more and more tuna in the sea.
Cenk Yurttas, Farm Manager at the Akua-Group, one of four tuna ranching companies in Turkey.
Tuna from other countries fills requirement In Turkey the quota is split between fishers who sell the fish to four on-growing companies, one of which is the Akua-Group. Cenk Yurttas, farm manager of the Akua-Group, says the company has a quota of 1,800 tonnes of catch and 2,400 tonnes of harvest capacity. Companies like Akua-Group buy the fish they
need from the quota of fishers from countries other than Turkey. Moroccan fishers are their main external supplier, in fact the company has joint fishing operations with two Moroccanflagged vessels that sail to the Mediterranean in the catching season. In addition, the company has a contract with Libyan fishers and another with Tunisian fishers. Without the fish from the Moroccan, Libyan, and Tunisian quotas we would not www.eurofishmagazine.com
05/04/14 5:48 PM