Found in the Southern hemisphere, southern bluefin tuna are a large and fast-swimming open ocean fish.  They exist largely in the world's southern oceans and congregate in the coastal waters off Australia. 

They spawn between September and April each year in the only known spawning grounds in the Indian Ocean, between the northwest coast of Australia and Indonesia.  The eggs are estimated to hatch within two to three days.  

After only twenty days, the southern bluefin tuna larvae become fingerlings, which feast on a wide range of food--including fish larvae and juvenile fish.  They continue to grow to 15 kilograms over the next two years and this size is the principal wild catch of the bluefin tuna industry.  

The population has decreased over the past 50 years due to the increasing demand from overseas markets.  Improved refrigeration techniques in the mid-1960's paved the way for the transportation of fresh bluefin tuna across the world.  

The world southern bluefin tuna catch was approximately 80,000 tons per year in the early 1960's  --  and by the mid-1960's it had plummeted to 60,000 tons.  During 1980, the catch had declined even futher to 40,000 tons per year.  Japan, Australia and New Zealand soon recognized this sharp decline and a voluntary catch quota was enforced.  Despite these protective measures, numbers still continued to decline and in 1989 the three countries reduced the quotas even further to their current levels of 11,750 tons between them. 

Clean Seas Tuna Limited is a company that has been working over the past number of years in delivering their stated goal of "growing out southern bluefin tuna fingerlings produced from their own brood stock to sizes required by the rapidly expanding world seafood markets, enabling year round production of southern bluefin tuna and lowering the overall cost of production." 

Their breeding breakthrough should give Clean Seas the ability to at least duplicate Australia's southern bluefin tuna annual quota within the next few years and to dramatically grow the aquaculture industry in Australia without impacting on wild tuna stocks.  

Until the fingerlings are mature enough for harvesting, Clean Seas will continue to provide tuna as they have for a number of years--the tuna are captured wild, then fattened up with natural feed on a "ranch" before being harvested.  Since there are no brood-stock or hatchlings as yet, they are labelled wild.  However, from a global perspective, successfully recreating the natural breeding cycle of one of the world's premier pelagic (open ocean) fish species is a key step towards ensuring sustainability of this species at a time when wild stocks are under significant pressure.  Hopefully, that will translate to a better quality fish that costs less and that will contine to thrive for years to come. 

Salmon is the common name for several species of Fish of the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the family are called trout. Salmon live in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Great Lakes and other land locked lakes.

Typically, salmon are anadromous: they are born in fresh water, migrate to the ocean, then return to fresh water to reproduce. Folklore has it that the fish return to the exact spot where they were born to spawn.

In Alaska, the crossing-over to other streams allows salmon to populate new streams, such as those that emerge as a glacier retreats. The precise method salmon use to navigate has not been entirely established, though their keen sense of smell is involved. In all species of Pacific salmon, the mature individuals die within a few days or weeks of spawning, a trait known as semelparity. However, even in those species of salmon that may survive to spawn more than once (iteroparity), post-spawning mortality is quite high (perhaps as high as 40 to 50%.)

The salmon has long been at the heart of the culture and livelihood of coastal dwellers. Most peoples of the Northern Pacific shore had a ceremony to honor the first return of the year. For many centuries, people caught salmon as they swam upriver to spawn. A famous spearfishing site on the Columbia River at Celilo Falls was inundated after great dams were built on the river. The Ainu, of northern Japan, taught dogs how to catch salmon as they returned to their breeding grounds en masse. Now, salmon are caught in bays and near shore.


Salmon population levels are of concern in the Atlantic and in some parts of the Pacific but in Alaska stocks are still abundant. Fish farming is outlawed and the State of Alaska's fisheries management system is viewed as the global leader in the management of wild, sustainable fish stocks. The most important Alaska Salmon wild sustainable fisheries are located near the Kenai River, Copper River, and in Bristol Bay. In Canada, the Skeena River wild salmon returning which support commercial fisheries, aboriginal food fisheries, sports fisheries and the area's diverse wildlife on the coast and around communities hundreds of miles inland in the watershed. The Columbia River salmon population is now less than 3% of what it was when Lewis and Clark arrived at the river.

We are now accepting reservations for all size parties

this Mother's Day--Sunday, May 11, 2008.

We will be serving our Mother's Day Brunch from 10am until 2:30pm

Dinner service begins at 5pm and goes until 10pm.

Reservations are recommended.

Join us on our beautiful outdoor garden patio and treat your Mom right. 

She deserves it.

We will be accepting pre-orders for individual cakes.  Your choice of

a 6" cake with three flavor options for $45: Chocolate, Lemon or Carrot. 

The cut-off date for ordering individual cakes is Thursday May, 8th.

For reservations or other inquiries, please call (510) 883-1720