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ABOUT DINKO
Dinko, Croatia born, arrived in
Melbourne in 1956. In the early ‘60s he built himself
the boat “Orao” this was the boat on which Dinko first
polled tuna in the Great Australian Bight.
In the
1980’s government bodies stated overfishing of Southern
Bluefin Tuna had put stocks at severe risk and in 1985
quota was introduced and enforced for Australian
fisherman, with similar restrictions on the Japanese &
New Zealanders. This was considered not enough by the
governing body and in 1989 the tuna fisherman had their
quotas & income cut by two thirds. Port Lincoln; in
particular the tuna fishing industry experienced very
tough times and a number of fisherman went into
receivership.
Dinko Lukin came up with the idea of
farming this fast swimming ocean fish. This meant that
fishermen could demand a premium price for their fish in
Japan as they would be handled without bruising and
could be flown fresh, straight from the sea to the
markets.
It also effectively doubled the
fishermen's quota as the limit on their catch was
determined by the weight of the fish caught in the wild,
with any weight gained in captivity a bonus.
Many in the industry thought Dinko "was mad!" But - he
succeeded first time. In retrospect the idea is quite
simple but it had never been done anywhere else in the
world but is now the internationally accepted method for
tuna farming.
Dinko is widely recognised
as the "pioneer" of the tuna farming industry.
Excerpts from
article by Greg Bearup - The Australian 2001.
(Supplied by Lukin Fisheries Pty Ltd) |
