Tuna Marine
Tuna Marine houses the headquarters of Viking Aquaculture. Situated in the heart of Hermanus harbour on the Cape south coast, Tuna Marine provides an ideal environment for the company’s aquaculture professionals to operate their diverse activities and liaise with customers and stakeholders across southern Africa and beyond.
There are extensive holding tanks, packing and grading facilities at Tuna Marine and it is here that live, wild caught rock lobster and abalone, and cultured abalone, are prepared for market.
Sorting and grading of live abalone harvested from the Buffeljags Abalone Farm takes place at Tuna Marine and a proportion of the harvest is also canned at the facility. Tuna Marine is the site of one of the original canneries in South Africa and the cannery continues to meet the very highest food safety and quality standards. Currently, limited quantities of dried abalone are produced at Tuna Marine, but there are plans to market this form of abalone as soon as the production of the Buffeljags Abalone Farm increases.
Management
Tim Reddell
Director of Viking Fishing Aquaculture
Tim Reddell is an entrepreneur who has had a long and varied career in the South African fishing industry. A director of Viking Fishing, one of the oldest and most diversified fishing companies in South Africa, Tim has recently turned his attention to aquaculture and plans to grow to 30% the contribution made by aquaculture to Viking Fishing’s total annual production.
For most of his career Tim has worked in South Africa’s deep-sea hake fishery, originally for I&J, one of the two big right-holders in the fishery, and later for the Viking Fishing group of companies which he has helped to grow. An active and vocal advocate for the fishing industry, Tim served 15 (non-consecutive) terms as chairman of the South African Deep-Sea Trawling Industry Association (SADSTIA) and in 2011 was instrumental in establishing FishSA, an umbrella body that represents 11 fisheries sectors in South Africa.
Ray Henderson
Ray Henderson is an aquaculture specialist who is responsible for the management of Diamond Coast Aquaculture.
Once it is running at full capacity, Diamond Coast Aquaculture will produce 200 tons of abalone per year and be transported to Tuna Marine for processing, packaging and shipment.
Ray has a B.SC. Agric. in Nature conservation, Genetics and Animal Physiology and a M.Phil Degree, both from Stellenbosch University. He has farmed abalone in South Africa and Chile and played a key role in the establishment and management of a finfish hatchery on the Cape south coast which pioneered the out-of-season spawning of silver kob (Argyrosomus inodorus) and dusky kob (Argyrosomus japonicus) and the natural spawning of yellowtail (Seriola lalandi).
Nick Loubser
Nick Loubser is one of South Africa’s most experienced abalone farmers. He is responsible for the management of the Buffeljags Abalone Farm.
For 20 years, Nick worked for I&J, one of South Africa’s biggest seafood producers, helping to grow the company’s abalone farm from start-up to full production. He was also instrumental in establishing a finfish hatchery for I&J and piloting the culture of popular South African linefish species, yellowtail and dusky kob, in cages in Port Elizabeth while completing an Environmental Impact Assessment process in Mossel Bay for a potential commercial-scale finfish cage farming operation.
Nick holds a B.Sc. Hons. degree from the University of Cape Town and has served as chairman of the South African Abalone Farmers’ Association (AFASA) and on the board of Amanzi Biosecurity, a non-profit company that manages the Health Management Programme of AFASA. He currently sits on the Western Cape Province’s Special Purpose Vehicle for Aquaculture and the Mariculture Advisory Forum of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Anton Schoonees
Financial Manager
Jenny Serfontein
Office manager
Louis Bredell
Grow out manager