Wild stocks of tuna species are either fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted (FAO 2002). The increasing demand for tuna by the sashimi-sushi market in Japan, Europe and United States (Catarci 2004 in Mylonas et al. 2007) has put increasing pressure on the wild stocks. The technology for cage culture of the Atlantic Bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) (ABT) in Mediterranean countries, Pacific Bluefin tuna (T. orientalis) (PBT) in Japan and Mexico and Southern Bluefin tuna (T. maccoyii) (SBT) in Australia has been well developed and industrialised (Sawada et al. 2005).

Domesticating these ranched species (i.e. breeding them in captivity) would allow for a larger number of fish to be produced to aid the development of sustainable farming (Sawada et al. 2005, Corriero et al. 2007, Mylonas et al. 2007). While work has been done on the domestication of PBT and ABT, including the development of captive broodstock management and spawning methods (Sawada et al. 2005, Corriero et al. 2007, Mylonas et al. 2007), little work has been done on SBT.

The candidates rersearch project allows for basic research to be carried out alongside commercial operations and development. This unique situation provides the opportunity for sound basic student research to be embeded into a broader commercially focused research project. It also adds a highly innovative aspect of exploring germ cell transplantation as a possible long term alternative to holding SBT broodstocks.