Japan's Fisheries Research Agency is starting a project this week to farm bluefin tuna a highly-prized sushi staple in on-land tanks, reported The Japan News.
It will be the first time the species has been farmed on land, and the agency estimates it could produce 100,000 tuna in the next four years at its two 20-meter-wide, 6-meter-deep tanks.
"The tuna will be 2 years old at the start, and theagency hopes to collect fertilized eggs two years into the project," the paper reported. "It will then transfer the eggs to a tank.
When the young fish grow to about 6 centimeters long, it will release them into a pen at sea."
In 2011, shipments of conventionally farmed bluefintuna reached about 10,000 tons, 10 times the levelof 2001.
But the declining number of young fish is causing the expansion of farming to plateau.