SHOALS OF TUNA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23637, 22 October 1938, Page 28

SHOALS OF TUNA

SEEN OFF AUSTRALIAN COAST RESEARCH VESSEL’S CRUISE (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, Oct. 14, In recent weeks extensive shoals of tuna, or tunny, the famous fighting fish, whose existence in Australian waters interested Zane Grey, have been discovered by the Commonwealth research steamer Warreen off the coast of New South Wales. The Warreen is carrying out a rapid survey of the Australian tuna grounds from the neighbourhood of Rockhampton, Queensland, to the southern coast of Tasmania. The importance of the Warreen’s present cruise lies in the prospect of the early establishment in Australia of a tuna canning industry, an industry that has made such a rapid de-. velopment in California that it is now worth from £3,000,000 to £4,000.000 a year to the United States. Tuna has a pleasant flavour, described as like a blond between Canadian salmon and chicken, and it is highly prized in the United States as a table delicacy, especially as a filling for savouries ■and sandwiches. By-products are tuna liver oil, which is gradually replacing cod-liver oil for medicinal purposes, and tuna fish meal, widely used as a stock feed. From observations made by the experts in (he Warreen in conjunction with a seaplane, it appears that tuna arc far more plentiful and extend over a much wider area than is popularly supposed. - Large migrating shoals have been seen from the air several miles off the coasts of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, and it is expected that the present cruise of the research ship will determine several questions, the answers to which commercial interests have been eagerly awaiting. The most important discovery made in Australian waters for many years was the location by the Warreen off the Queensland coast four weeks ago of specimens of yellow-fin tuna, the principal species of tuna which is used in the Californian canning industry. Before the steamer’s present cruise only two specimens of this species had been caught and identified. The research steamer will return to Queensland later in an attempt to determine the distribution of this valuable commercial fish.