About Us
You may be aware of the Bluefin Tuna farming activity in Port Lincoln, South Australia. This is a fabulous example of conservation and value enhancement of a limited resource. Originally some 25,000mt (metric tonne) of Bluefin Tuna was caught at a value of maybe $2/kg for canning.
When the resource came to be in danger there was a quota introduced of just 5,000mt nationally and this 5,000mt came to be farmed and fattened to nearly double its weight over 6 months and with an increased value to something like $20/kg for the Japanese sashimi market.
Alongside this is the original cannery which cans the more plentiful but less high grade Skipjack Tuna. This is the only tuna cannery left in Australia..
 Charles Franchina holding a bait and tuna oil sample. |
 Rye grass and Barley with and without Sampi tuna fish emulsion treatment. |
In both cases there was a problem on the one hand and a dream on the other. The problem was discarding the offal or the inedible parts of the fish. The dream was Charles Franchina's desire to turn some 5,000mt of this offal into a bait for lobster and other trap fisheries both commercial and amateur so recycling our own waste and replacing the large volume of imports. Peter Laughton shared this dream but was mostly interested in extracting the very rich omega oils to be sold to nutraceutical markets. Those objectives were mostly met but as agriculture came to understand the importance of soil biology and the negative impact of chemical fertilizers, the demand for fish hydrolysate (emulsion) has grown to a point where the major production is now exactly that. The fish contains potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, selenium and a broad spectrum of other trace elements in plant available form. Fish hydrolysate feeds the essential soil microbes which in turn produce natural essential nutrients which ensure plant health and soil sustainability without chemicals and their negative impact on soil, plant life, the environment and our health.
The oil from the Bluefin is the highest grade tuna oil possible due to the fish itself and the perfect freshness of the raw material. Very high in Omega 3s and, since the process is totally natural with no high heat or chemical treatment there are no odours or unsavoury flavours. Nowdays that is not extracted as most others do. It is all left in the hydrolysate to benefit the soil and livestock too
 Click to enlarge ( 572 KB ) |
Baits we make by adding pollard and alginates to the liquid hydrolysate. Treated like a bread dough, we malax and extrude into baits
which are then vacuum packed. Nowdays we make the logs and tossers which have proved the most effective and most popular.
Very effective as a slow release berley, trap and hook bait which does not need to be refrigerated, which is portion controlled, which
is long lasting and with high attractant properties as testified by fishermen around Australia.
We are hoping to create the final, magnificent chapter of this wonderful Port Lincoln Tuna story - pure poetry in motion and a lesson to the world in resource management, resource enhancement and recycling to advantage.
Landline segment on Sampi.
