TIME awards tuna tank farming

This break-through was made possible by a recirculation aquaculture system for land based farming of tuna, delivered by Akva group in Denmark. For the first time, Southern Bluefin Tuna successfully spawned in a controlled environment in captivity. Akva group's environmentally friendly tank farming technology was only beaten by Nasa's new Ares 1 space exploration rocket. The advanced tank farming technology was delivered to Clean Seas Ltd. in Australia, after they took the initiative for the development of this idea. Clean Seas are now hatching and rearing fingerlings in the tanks, after which the fish are transferred to ocean farming cages where they are grown to a harvest weight of 50-80kg. Consequently, consumption of this tuna can now be done based on environmentally sustainable principles while at the same time reducing the pressure on wild stocks. "This success story is the result of a close cooperation with our Australian customer. We delivered the first recirculation system to Clean Seas back in 2007 and they started the operation by transferring 150kg brood fish into the tanks", says Akva group's CMO, Trond Severinsen. "Clean Seas' specialists then began the work of getting the fish to spawn in captivity, and succeeded early 2008, making it an international break-through. We are of course very proud to be part of this project and very flattered to have our technology recognized by Time Magazine in this way".