WAKAYAMA (Kyodo) The world's first fully cultivated bluefin tuna raised from eggs will shortly be shipped to market, researchers at Kinki University in Osaka said Friday.
The researchers at the university's Fisheries Laboratory, located in the town of Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, have succeeded in farming Pacific northern bluefin tuna from eggs, unlike existing farmed tuna that are reared from larvae caught in the wild.
The researchers plan to ship three 1-meter-long bluefin tuna, each weighing about 20 kg.
While they are relatively small compared with their standard counterparts, they are rich in fat, which is prized as a delicacy, the researchers said.
The tuna will be sold at various stores, including Hankyu Department Stores Inc.'s Umeda main store in Osaka.
The laboratory began fish-farming research in 1970 and succeeded in having tuna lay eggs in an artificial environment for the first time in history in 1979.
But for about a decade after 1983, the laboratory made little progress after tuna stopped laying eggs inside fish-farming nets.
