A FILIPINO INVENTION that Keeps Caught Tuna Meat Pink-Fresh Up to Two Weeks.
By Randy V. Urlanda pp 22-23 Philippine Panorama Sunday, February 10, 2008 (summarized below)
Fishing is a Php50-billion industry in the Philippines, contributing about 4 percent of the country’s GNP. With an expected production of 5.34 million metric tons of fish (approximate) for 2008, it directly provides livelihood and employment to over one million Filipinos. Tuna is among the 200 or so species of fish found in the country that has high commercial value. The Philippines ranks 7th among the top tuna-producing countries in the world (both in terms of fresh or frozen tuna and canned tuna).
Aside from canned tuna, General Santos also exports a large volume of chilled and frozen sashimi tuna to Japan and other countries. Chartered flights regularly carry fresh tuna from the city’s world-class airport directly to Japan. There are approximately 2,500 pump-boats (large motorized outriggers) in General Santos that fish for tuna outside the waters of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Micronesia. It is estimated that an average of 300 metric tons of high-grade tuna is landed in the city’s sprawling fish port daily.
In the middle of 2007, the South Seas Tuna Handline Institute (SSTHI) in General Santos City, of which Bonifacio Comandante (BONI), a Master of Science degree holder and a candidate for Ph.D. in Marine Biology from Siliman University, is the technical consultant and president of the Dumaguete City-based Buhi Worldwide, Inc. with marketing offices in Makati, Philippines, commissioned Boni to engage in a tuna meat enhancement experiment using his Buhi solution and his expertise in waterless export of live fish that is induced to hibernate up to 24 hours.
The successful project began in September 2007 and ended in February 2008.
As demonstrated, live tuna catch by mini fishing boat and up-loaded to a mother boat and then it was put in a holding tank filled with cold water (25-degree Celcius) called Buhi water bath to reduce capture stress. Buhi (Pilipino-Visayan for “life”) is an organic , non-toxic solution, which Bonifacio invented four years ago that puts to sleep instantly live lapu-lapu fish so they could be air shipped to Hongkong without water.
After the fish has calmed down in the cold water, it is then injected with 30 ml of mineral salt solution into its tail, followed by air-ventilating it by hosing its mouth with water to put oxygen back to its gills, thus keeping its blood circulating in its body. This procedure keeps the meat pink-fresh up to the time it reaches the port seven days later, a facemask is then put on the fish while at the conditioning tank to prevent stress from visual contact with people and its environment.
The Siquijor-born Boni, as Bonifacio Comandante is called by friends and business associates, is the inventor of the prize-winning waterless transport of live fish that won a special award in an international inventors’ tilt at the University of San Francisco in the USA four years ago. He is on a successful pelagic venture, this time, using his globally-patented Buhi solution to enhance and estend the meat quality and freshness of caught tuna fish.
According to Boni, a University of the Philippines-Los Banos agriculture engineering graduate, “Metabolic acidosis is a condition commonly induced by capture techniques. Muscle contractions under anaerobic conditions result in lactic acidosis, which in turn depress both cardiac output and systemic blood pressure, due to lack of blood circulation, the meat of the fish turns pale. With this technique, the occurrence of lactic acidosis is prevented, thus when the tuna’s meat is graded at the fish port seven days later, its meat is still firm and pink.
Boni’s next project is a year-long one that involves putting captured yellow-fin tuna into hibernation like what was done with lapu-lapu fish, whose invention; the buhi solution is being coveted by big-time live fish exporters in Asia and Australia. They will design vivier (latin for life) boats with large aquarium tanks to ferry live tuna to General Santos City, where they will be transferred into four-cubic meter fiberglass hibernating tanks (two to a tank) where they would be induced into hibernation by Buhi solution. Once they are asleep, they would be shipped in waterless containers to Japan. After reaching Tokyo, the fish would awaken once it is put in a pool of water, as though it just came out from the sea.
By Randy V. Urlanda pp 22-23 Philippine Panorama Sunday, February 10, 2008 (summarized below)
Fishing is a Php50-billion industry in the Philippines, contributing about 4 percent of the country’s GNP. With an expected production of 5.34 million metric tons of fish (approximate) for 2008, it directly provides livelihood and employment to over one million Filipinos. Tuna is among the 200 or so species of fish found in the country that has high commercial value. The Philippines ranks 7th among the top tuna-producing countries in the world (both in terms of fresh or frozen tuna and canned tuna).
Aside from canned tuna, General Santos also exports a large volume of chilled and frozen sashimi tuna to Japan and other countries. Chartered flights regularly carry fresh tuna from the city’s world-class airport directly to Japan. There are approximately 2,500 pump-boats (large motorized outriggers) in General Santos that fish for tuna outside the waters of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Micronesia. It is estimated that an average of 300 metric tons of high-grade tuna is landed in the city’s sprawling fish port daily.
In the middle of 2007, the South Seas Tuna Handline Institute (SSTHI) in General Santos City, of which Bonifacio Comandante (BONI), a Master of Science degree holder and a candidate for Ph.D. in Marine Biology from Siliman University, is the technical consultant and president of the Dumaguete City-based Buhi Worldwide, Inc. with marketing offices in Makati, Philippines, commissioned Boni to engage in a tuna meat enhancement experiment using his Buhi solution and his expertise in waterless export of live fish that is induced to hibernate up to 24 hours.
The successful project began in September 2007 and ended in February 2008.
As demonstrated, live tuna catch by mini fishing boat and up-loaded to a mother boat and then it was put in a holding tank filled with cold water (25-degree Celcius) called Buhi water bath to reduce capture stress. Buhi (Pilipino-Visayan for “life”) is an organic , non-toxic solution, which Bonifacio invented four years ago that puts to sleep instantly live lapu-lapu fish so they could be air shipped to Hongkong without water.
After the fish has calmed down in the cold water, it is then injected with 30 ml of mineral salt solution into its tail, followed by air-ventilating it by hosing its mouth with water to put oxygen back to its gills, thus keeping its blood circulating in its body. This procedure keeps the meat pink-fresh up to the time it reaches the port seven days later, a facemask is then put on the fish while at the conditioning tank to prevent stress from visual contact with people and its environment.
The Siquijor-born Boni, as Bonifacio Comandante is called by friends and business associates, is the inventor of the prize-winning waterless transport of live fish that won a special award in an international inventors’ tilt at the University of San Francisco in the USA four years ago. He is on a successful pelagic venture, this time, using his globally-patented Buhi solution to enhance and estend the meat quality and freshness of caught tuna fish.
According to Boni, a University of the Philippines-Los Banos agriculture engineering graduate, “Metabolic acidosis is a condition commonly induced by capture techniques. Muscle contractions under anaerobic conditions result in lactic acidosis, which in turn depress both cardiac output and systemic blood pressure, due to lack of blood circulation, the meat of the fish turns pale. With this technique, the occurrence of lactic acidosis is prevented, thus when the tuna’s meat is graded at the fish port seven days later, its meat is still firm and pink.
Boni’s next project is a year-long one that involves putting captured yellow-fin tuna into hibernation like what was done with lapu-lapu fish, whose invention; the buhi solution is being coveted by big-time live fish exporters in Asia and Australia. They will design vivier (latin for life) boats with large aquarium tanks to ferry live tuna to General Santos City, where they will be transferred into four-cubic meter fiberglass hibernating tanks (two to a tank) where they would be induced into hibernation by Buhi solution. Once they are asleep, they would be shipped in waterless containers to Japan. After reaching Tokyo, the fish would awaken once it is put in a pool of water, as though it just came out from the sea.
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