Introduction to Southern Bluefin Tuna

Found in the Southern Hemisphere, Southern Bluefin Tuna are a large and fast-swimming pelagic fish.  Southern Bluefin Tuna exist largely in the world’s southern oceans and congregate in the costal waters off southern Australia.

They spawn between September and April each year in the only known spawning grounds in the Indian Ocean, between the north-west Coast of Australia and Indonesia. The eggs are estimated to hatch within two to three days.

At approximately 20 days, the Southern Bluefin Tuna larvae become fingerlings, which feast on a wide range of food, including fish larvae and juvenile fish.

Southern Bluefin Tuna usually reach approximately 15 kilograms over the next two years and this size is the principal wild catch of the Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna industry.

Clean Seas believes that Southern Bluefin Tuna become sexually mature between 9 and 12 years of age in the wild.

History of Southern Bluefin Tuna Catch

The population has decreased over the past 50 years due to the increasing demand from overseas markets.  Improved refrigeration techniques in the mid 1960’s paved the way for the transportation of fresh Southern Bluefin Tuna across the world.

Until the late 1960’s, the majority of Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna were either caught  the Eden/Ulladulla region of New South Wales or in Port Lincoln, South Australia. During the 1970’s almost all of the Southern Bluefin Tuna fishing companies moved permanently to Port Lincoln.

The world Southern Bluefin Tuna catch was approximately 80,000 tonnes per year in the early 1960’s – and by the mid 1960’s it had plummeted to 60,000 tonnes. During 1980, the catch had declined even further to 40,000 tonnes a year.

This sharp decline was soon recognised by the fishing countries of Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and a voluntary catch quota was enforced.

Despite these protective measures, numbers still continued to decline and in 1989 the three countries reduced the quotas even further to their current levels of 11,750 tonnes between them.

The arrangement between the countries was formalised in 1994, when the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) was formed.

The current quota for CCSBT members are14,030 tonnes per year of Southern Bluefin Tuna.