Today we arrived at Achotines Laboratory, on the Azuero Peninsula on the Pacific Coast in Panama. The Laboratory is a project managed by the Inter-America Tropical Tuna Commission, an International Governmental Organization with cooperative support from the Panamanian Government. The primary purpose of the laboratory is to find out more about the life histories of pelagic scombrids that we know very little about, in particular the yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares). The facility has put an emphasis on researching the early life history of the animal. Some of the lab’s early research involved surveys of scombrid larvae by use of plankton trawling from a small research vessel. Since 1996 the facility has held captive broodstock of yellowfin tuna in a 1300 metric ton maturation tank. Currently, fourteen broodstock populate the facilities main maturation tank, which have been kept to a size as large as 200 lb.
Achotines is one of the world’s few labs that has been routinely successful at spawning yellowfin tuna in captivity. In fact, the lab is can occur on as much as a daily basis and the predictability of spawning is known with an almost scary precision. “The fish should spawn tonight at roughly 10 minutes ‘till 11,” said Dr. Vernon Schully, in an almost matter of fact tone. Schulley, the Laboratory’s director, has worked as a researcher and manager on the premises for over 20 years and has been instrumental in organizing the lab’s research projects and coordinating ongoing cooperative research programs. Just prior to the joint workshop with University of Miami, the Facility hosted researchers from Kinki University in Japan, whose researchers have been widely accredited as being among the most successful in the nascent field of bluefin tuna (Thunnus thunnus) aquaculture.
