About the Author
My interest in all things marine began when I was eight years old after a move to Australia and I saw the wild and beautiful Southern Ocean for the first time. This eventual love of the sea led to marine biology studies at James Cook University where I majored in fisheries science and aquaculture. It was there that I learned about the importance of tuna fisheries, their management, the ranching of Southern bluefin, and the biology of fish.
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After spending some time in Japan, I also developed a love and a respect for the people, culture, language and of course the cuisine of the country - especially sushi and tuna.
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The two interests fused and I ended up doing research in the qualities of farmed sashimi grade Southern bluefin tuna at Port Lincoln in South Australia with Flinders University and the Tokyo University of Fisheries. This saw me spending time on that Southern Ocean, time at the world famous Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, going from capture to consumption. In collaboration with the university professors, the auction company Toichi, and researchers in companies like Nippon Suisan, we developed the world's first sensory analytical protocol for bluefin tuna, as well as digital grading system.
MY PROJECTS
Verifiable traceability
After completing my research, I set up a company in Japan to import, auction and direct sell tuna. Companies in the UK and Singapore followed where we developed tuna processing operations and built traceability systems that, when combined with CSIRO's Close Kin project, could enable DNA traceability and identify which individual Southern bluefin tuna a single slice of sashimi came from. Verifiable traceability is critical to identify and reward sustainable and responsible fishers.
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MY PROJECTS
Fishcoin Project
Currently I am working with Eachmile Technologies, a company that is leading the Fishcoin Project as part of the mFish initiative. mFish is a multilingual free to access and free to use electronic catch documentation system, and Fishcoin is a blockchain traceability system that using tokens to reward fishers and farmers for sharing their traceability data. The system allows the market to price traceability data that can be used for improved fisheries management and the allocation of rights and stock ownership to fishers.
MY PROJECTS
Value Adding
Full fish utilization and adding value to the cuts and off-cuts of tuna is important to reduce waste and make more from less as our population and resource demands increase. I am currently involved in projects in Australia and the Pacific to value add and to use 100% of fish caught.
Hooked on tuna
Tuna are not only fascinating fish, as apex predators they play a very important role in the functioning of marine ecosystems. They are also a very important source of food, micro-nutrient and income to many around the world.
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They deserve our respect and our protection from over-exploitation. My purpose with this site is to educate consumers about these amazing fish that will hopefully drive demand for more sustinable and responsible fisheries and consumption.
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Alistair Douglas
In The Press
