Preliminary experiences in the development of bluefin tuna Thunnus Thynnus (L., 1758) electroslaughtering techniques in rearing cages

Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus Thynnus) Farming and Fattening in the Mediterranean Sea

“…The first two methods are used for tuna that are larger than 80 Kg, whereas the third method is only used for smaller individuals. The method of electrocuting using an electric harpoon, which was evaluated in the early 2000s, is no longer employed (Soto et al, 2006).…”

Aquatic Food Products

“…Decreasing temperature and providing moderate amounts of carbon dioxide as an anesthesia prior to slaughter can reduce the stress to fish and improve muscle quality. Stunning larger fish with a blow to the head is effective, although some animal welfare advocates, out of ignorance, particularly in Europe, consider this to be cruel and are in favor of electroshock, which instead is a more stressful method even under the best of conditions for freshwater fish (Holiman & Reynolds, 2002), resulting in hemorrhaging, muscle bruising and gaping, and is clearly highly stressful for large marine fish such as tuna (Soto et al, 2006). In aquaculture, harvest techniques are generally less stressful than for wild harvest of the same species since capture occurs under conditions that are usually easier to control, although some stress always occurs.…”

Species-specific welfare aspects of the main systems of stunning and killing of farmed tuna

“…The effects of slaughtering methods on some meat parameters in farmed tuna was studied by Garcia et al (2002) and Soto et al (2006) and showing some negative effects of electroslaughtering on physical injury sufficient to compromise the marketing of the fish. The effect of two different slaughter procedures was evaluated on large tuna in a fattening farm located in western Sicily (Italy).…”

“…There are also some papers on the evaluation of levels of stress determined by different slaughtering methods and its effect on meat quality (Soto et al, 2006;Messina & Santulli, 2007) (see Section 5).…”

“…The method of using an electric harpoon (Soto et al, 2006), which was evaluated in the early 2000s, is no longer employed in the EU.…”