Farmed Kindai bluefin tuna

Washington Post (March 11): "In fact, Kindai tuna (whose name comes from a contraction of the university's Japanese name) still has many of the disadvantages of its other farmed counterparts. Trident Marketing Inc. President Nick Sakagami, who distributes the fish to a handful of U.S. restaurants, said Kinki researchers use between 12 and 13 pounds of wild fish to produce a single pound of tuna. And though they are raising hatchlings rather than ranching tuna the traditional way, the scientists still keep the fish in open-ocean pens and must catch a few dozen wild bluefin each year to ensure the population has enough genetic variability."Of course Kindai tuna isn't perfect, but I think it's a major step forward," Sakagami said." Read more.

Eventhough the new approach to farming Kindai type of bluefin tuna is an attempt to address the un-sustainable methods of bluefin tuna farming, note that the EDF considers bluefin tuna, which is popular for sushi and sashimi, as an eco-worst choice of seafood due to depleted stocks and high mercury and PCBs levels.