First results of the Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) larval rearing in Europe in the frame of the SELF-DOTT project.

Tunas probably constitute the most valuable fishery in the world. During the last decade, a capture based aquaculture industry has been developed for the Atlantic Bluefin tuna, which is the species with the greatest value. The activity is dependent on wild catches and is not considered sustainable as the species is regarded as over-exploited. Thus the artificial propagation of this species is essential for two reasons; to sustain the farming industry and to allow for population enhancement strategies. Recently the reproduction of the Atlantic Bluefin tuna (BFT) in captivity was achieved and a procedure developed in the framework of the EU project ReproDOTT. This procedure was confirmed successful in the next two years within the EU SelfDOTT project and the Italian regional project, ALLOTUNA. In the framework of the SelfDOTT project which focused also on the larval rearing of BFT, a wide range of methodologies were applied for larval rearing as indicated below.