Fish farming of Tuna and the Quota for tuna catch feat. South Korea tuna quota
Fish farming of bluefin tuna – Livestock farming of bluefin tuna
Due to the high market value of bluefin tuna, many countries operate fish farms of bluefin tuna. Yet, bluefin tuna aren’t raised from a hatchling but young bluefin tuna are caught and raised in the fish farms.
This is called livestock farming where young fish are caught and raised to a size that could satisfy the market.
Fish farming of bluefin tuna is an important industry due to the high market value of bluefin tuna. In the Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic bluefin tuna fish farms are located in Italy, Malta, Croatia, Turkey and Spain and became an important industry.
Many Atlantic bluefin tuna that originate from Spain, Tureky, Malta, Croatia and Italy come from these livestock farmed bluefin tuna.
In these fish farms, young blue fin tuna are fed and fattened until they reach a certain size. Most of these tunas are exported to Japan.
Fish farming is also abundant in many countries such as Australia, South Korea and Japan and due to the high market value of blue fin tuna, many countries are researching to achieve sucessfull fish farming of bluefin tuna.
Fish farming of bluefin tuna in South Korea
South Korea and Japan also fish farm bluefin tuna to supply the market. However only Japan was successful in completely controlled culture fish farming of bluefin tuna.
Completely controlled culture fish farming refers to successful cultivation of fish from Fertilization to hatching, growth and shipment to the market.
South Korea also only have livestock fish farms in the oceans of Tongyeong. Near the islands of Yokjido, Tongyeong, there are bluefin tuna farms that are supplying bluefin tuna to the market.
Controlled culture fish farming of bluefin tuna – Kindai bluefin tuna
By the research of Kinki University and collaboration of Toyota Tsusho Corporation , Japan is the only country that was successful from hatching bluefin tuna to raising them and releasing them to the market.
Thus, as of 2025, Japan is the only country that was successful in fully controlled culture fish farming of bluefin tuna. These bluefin tuna that were born and raised completely in fish farms are marketed under the name of Kindai tuna.
Why is the tail of the bluefin tuna checked for quality
In the auction of bluefin tuna, the tails are cut and presented for each bluefin tuna. The bidder must decide the price that they shall bid by examining the tail of the bluefin tuna. The tail part of bluefin tuna and even any type of fish has the poorest quality of meat.
Thus, the tail parts are considered the cheapest cut of meat for all fish including bluefin tuna. Thus the tail of the bluefin tuna itself doesn’t have much value so it doesn’t harm the quality and overall cost of the fish.
Bidders could examine the fat distribution by examining the tail as they could estimate the fat distribution of the whole bluefin tuna.
The tail part as the lowest fat composition and the fat composition increase in proportion towards the head. Thus, the bidders could have a great guess of the whole bluefin tuna quality by examining the tail without harming the market price of the tuna with the cut off tail.
Regional fisheries management organisations – RFMO – Tuna Quota Determination
To prevent overfishing and maintain a sustainable population of tuna(in fact all fish) Regional Fisheries Management Organizations(RMFO) set the annual quota of fish per each country every year depending on the fish population of the region.
Depending on the region, there are different organizations that evaluate the annual tuna catch quota.
The five major decisive Regional Fisheries Management Organisations are the ICCAT(International Commission for the Conversation of Atlantic Tunas), IOTC(Indian Ocean Tuna Commission), WCPFC(Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission), IATTC(Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, and the CCSBT(Commission for the Conversation of Southern Bluefin Tuna).
There are other several fishery management orgnanizations per region. These organizations would evaluate and analyze the tuna population of each region and decide the annual tuna quota.
The organizations would determine the quota for small sized tuna and large size tuna over 30kg. This Quota isn’t limited to the country’s territorial waters and includes all catches whether foreign or in territorial waters.
Tuna Quota of South Korea
The tuna quota of both Japan and South Korea are under control of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission(WCPFC).
However, due to the rise of the ocean temperature, both South Korea and Japan have an unusual increase of tuna population in their waters.
As of 2025, South Korea has a quota of 718 tons for small sized tuna and a quota of 501 tons of large sized tuna over 30kgs. Thus a total of 1,219 tons of tuna quota is assigned to South Korea.
This is due to the significant increase of the bluefin tuna into the East Sea of South Korea. The quota of large size tuna(over 30kg) was only 30 tons for South Korea but increased to a 501 tons by the increase of bluefin tuna in the East Sea.
