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EUROPEAN researchers believe they may have made an important discovery which could prove a lifeline for the endangered bluefin tuna. Essentially, they believe they have found a way of extracting mass quantities of bluefin tuna eggs.
The discovery was made possible following three years' work by biologists at Selfdott, a research project funded by the European Union to the tune of 2.98 million euros and co-ordinated by the Spanish Institute of Oceanography. The tuna in the study were able to adapt to favourable breeding conditions after three years of domestication, producing a total of 10 million eggs in a single day and potentially easing pressure on endangered wild stocks.
The Selfdott team will now study the embryonic and larval development of the tuna eggs, however, seeking to improve their chances of survival and growth and produce guidelines for the mass-breeding of the species and soothe diplomatic tensions over fisheries, an issue currently hampering Iceland's accession to the EU.
Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn welcomed the project's findings as a contribution to solving what is known as a global problem. She said: "If the results of this research can ultimately be commercialised, it can improve food supplies and contribute to economic growth and employment while also helping to ensure a sustainable management of bluefin tuna."
Catch limits are voted upon on an annual basis by the EU's 27 fisheries ministers and have historically been subject to major haggling between countries, for example during the 'cod wars' between Iceland and the UK in the 1970s. Bluefin tuna fishing is currently banned in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic after Commission official Kenneth Patterson announced in May this year that 60-70% of stocks are still at risk of being depleted.
The EU had earlier this year had a proposal for the banning of Atlantic bluefin tuna fishing until stocks recovered rejected at the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in March.
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