The Future of Tuna-Farming
The Future of Tuna-Farming
Author: Aw Jeanice
Overfishing of the Bluefin Tuna
There are many ways to serve up tuna—raw, boiled, cooked, smoked, grilled, on a roll, in a sandwich, in a wrap, with mayonnaise, with wasabi, with soy sauce, just to name a few. Tuna can even be in your cat's feed with all kinds of combinations the animal-feed companies can conjure. The global demand for tuna has driven tuna fisheries along the Northern Atlantic, Pacific and Southern Ocean to thrive, and caused the tuna population to dwindle to precarious numbers.
The tuna-farming technology was introduced in 1975 to relieve pressure on natural tuna stocks. Wild tuna populations were allowed to regenerate while tuna farmers hold a certain amount of tuna and sell them instead. Tuna-farming is the practice of harvesting wild tuna and rearing them in open pens to be fattened for the markets. The tuna are kept in open sea feedlots and fed with fresh or frozen fish pieces. This essay will discuss the benefits of tuna-farming, and the Precautionary Principle (PP) (United Nations Environment Programme, 1992) will be used to analyse why tuna-farming is not sustainable and to argue that immediate attention is required to prevent irreversible serious damage to the tuna population. The tuna-farming industry reaps high profits and improves many economies, but it has inadvertently worsened the over-exploitation of fishes, and caused water pollution. However, the farming industry does seem hopeful as long as we look into solutions and improve the farming practices. Economic Benefits
Year Total Export Value (Millions)
1994 $45
2001 $252
2002/03 $266
2006 $300
Table 1: Total Export Value of Tuna-farming industry in Australia. Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; Economic Impact Report 2002/03
The tuna-farming industry generates numerous direct and indirect benefits to the local economies. Table 1 shows that the direct revenue from the tuna-farming industry
Author: Aw Jeanice
Overfishing of the Bluefin Tuna
There are many ways to serve up tuna—raw, boiled, cooked, smoked, grilled, on a roll, in a sandwich, in a wrap, with mayonnaise, with wasabi, with soy sauce, just to name a few. Tuna can even be in your cat's feed with all kinds of combinations the animal-feed companies can conjure. The global demand for tuna has driven tuna fisheries along the Northern Atlantic, Pacific and Southern Ocean to thrive, and caused the tuna population to dwindle to precarious numbers.
The tuna-farming technology was introduced in 1975 to relieve pressure on natural tuna stocks. Wild tuna populations were allowed to regenerate while tuna farmers hold a certain amount of tuna and sell them instead. Tuna-farming is the practice of harvesting wild tuna and rearing them in open pens to be fattened for the markets. The tuna are kept in open sea feedlots and fed with fresh or frozen fish pieces. This essay will discuss the benefits of tuna-farming, and the Precautionary Principle (PP) (United Nations Environment Programme, 1992) will be used to analyse why tuna-farming is not sustainable and to argue that immediate attention is required to prevent irreversible serious damage to the tuna population. The tuna-farming industry reaps high profits and improves many economies, but it has inadvertently worsened the over-exploitation of fishes, and caused water pollution. However, the farming industry does seem hopeful as long as we look into solutions and improve the farming practices. Economic Benefits
Year Total Export Value (Millions)
1994 $45
2001 $252
2002/03 $266
2006 $300
Table 1: Total Export Value of Tuna-farming industry in Australia. Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; Economic Impact Report 2002/03
The tuna-farming industry generates numerous direct and indirect benefits to the local economies. Table 1 shows that the direct revenue from the tuna-farming industry