The agreement will see Kinki University share its knowledge with Clean Seas through an exchange of technology and techniques.

Kinki University scientists will start work at the company’s Arno Bay hatchery in November this year and according to chairman Hagen Stehr, the university will become “part of the Clean Seas family” until the company achieves its long held goal of propagating the fish and beyond.

“They are committed to us and we are committed to them,” he said.

“We won’t move without them and they won’t move without us.”

Mr Stehr said from Japan on Tuesday he had seen northern bluefin tuna in the water that were successfully propagated by the university from 1kg up to 80kg.

He said a lot of people from within the fishing industry doubted the Kinki University would achieve its goal of propagating northern bluefin tuna, then once that was achieved, people doubted the university could make it cost effective, but it is well on its way toward achieving that.

“They have got their food conversion rate coming down all the time, and they are selling fingerlings to others to grow out so it must be cost effective,” he said.

The agreement was signed on Monday at Kinki University in Wakayama near Osaka, by Mr Stehr and Kinki University director Professor Osamu Murata.

Kinki University’s Northern Bluefin Tuna hatchery technology program started in 1970 and resulted in the spawning of the fish under natural ocean conditions in net cages off Wakayama in 1979, and the first successful completion of the tuna lifecycle in 2002.

The university’s propagated fish are being used as broodstock, which Mr Stehr said effectively fully closes the NBT life cycle.

Last year the university sold 1500 bred tuna of one kilogram (about 40cm) to the Japan aquaculture farming market.

Mr Stehr said Clean Seas Tuna was on track with its artificial breeding regime, with its primary objective being the grow out of southern bluefin tuna fingerlings produced from its own broodstock to sizes required by the rapidly expanding world seafood markets.