Close to solving the tuna problem

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If you read Fat City regularly, you know that blue fin tuna is going extinct. Scientists are predicting the species could be wiped out by 2012.

While bluefin isn’t the variety that comes in the can — that’d be albacore, skipjack and yellowfin — it is an important ingredient in sushi and a delicacy in any form. One fish can be worth upwards of $20,000, so hatcheries have been trying like mad to breed them in captivity — only to face many problems, the foremost being that bluefin have the habit of eating their own young.

But scientists at an Australian hatchery called Clean Seas believe they have broken through and are on the way to breeding sustainable bluefin. From Bloomberg:

To get the bluefin to breed, scientists at Clean Seas

designed the tank to simulate conditions in the ocean. Using

overhead lights to suggest the sun and moon, saltwater piped in

from the ocean, artificial currents and temperature controls,

the scientists have tried to re-create the experience of a

spawning journey for the fish. The fish entered the tank in 2006, and for three years the females didn’t produce eggs although the males were making sperm … scientists changed almost every variable, including water temperature and the age of the males.

At this point Clean Seas was no different from several other hatcheries trying to get the bluefin to breed.