page_title: Southern bluefin tuna
section_title: Pollution
hierarchical_section_title: Southern bluefin tuna / Negative impacts / Pollution
caption_attribution_description: Sardinops sagax
context_page_description: The southern bluefin tuna is a tuna of the family Scombridae found in open southern Hemisphere waters of all the world's oceans mainly between 30°S and 50°S, to nearly 60°S. At up to 2.5 metres and weighing up to 260 kilograms, it is among the larger bony fishes.
  Southern bluefin tuna, like other pelagic tuna species, are part of a group of bony fishes that can maintain their body core temperature up to 10 °C above the ambient temperature. This advantage enables them to maintain high metabolic output for predation and migrating large distances. The southern bluefin tuna is an opportunistic feeder, preying on a wide variety of fish, crustaceans, cephalopods, salps, and other marine animals.
context_section_description: Tuna farms are point sources of solid waste onto to the benthos and dissolved nutrients into the water column. Most farms are more than a kilometre off the coast, thus the deeper water and significant currents alleviate some of the impact on the benthos. Due to the high metabolic rates of SBT, low retention rates of nitrogen in tissue is seen, and there are high environmental leaching of nutrients (86-92%).
  Ranching of southern bluefin tuna is the largest contributor of industrial nutrient pollution to Spencer Gulf's marine environment. The industry contributes 1,946 tonnes per annum, distributed across Boston Bay & Lincoln Offshore aquaculture zones. Kingfish aquaculture is the region's next largest nutrient polluter (734 tonnes per annum) but is distributed across a larger area which includes Port Lincoln, Arno Bay, Port Neill and Fitzgerald Bay (near Whyalla). These combined nutrient inputs are ecologically significant, as Spencer Gulf is an inverse estuary and a naturally low-nutrient environment. Wastewater treatment plants from the region's largest settlements at Port Augusta, Port Lincoln, Port Pirie and Whyalla contribute a combined total of 54 tonnes of nitrogenous nutrient to Spencer Gulf.
  
  Other polluting processes include the use of chemicals on the farms, which leach into the surrounding environment. These include anti-foulants to keep the cages free from colonial algae and animals, and therapeutants to deal with disease and parasitism. Toxicants, such as mercury and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), can build up over time, particularly through the tuna feed, with some evidence of contaminants being more elevated in farmed fish than in wild stocks.
caption: Sardinops sagax
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