Umami Sustainable Seafood, supplies sashimi-grade Northern bluefin tuna around the world.
Umami CEO Oli Steindorsson said it is the first time the highly prized tuna has spawned on a large scale.
"This is basically like eight years of hard work and research and development that we have been developing our techniques," said Steindorsson.
He said growing bluefin tuna in ocean farms could take pressure off the wild species, which is in decline.
"If you care about high quality seafood and if you care about the issue of diminishing stock of various fish species, higher-end fish species, around the world, then you should care about this development," said Steindorsson.
He said the company has 800 employees worldwide, with 15 in San Diego.
Steindorrson said growing the bluefin will help grow the company too.
"This gives credibility for the company to the exisiting investors," he said. "It will bring in the right type of investors who are reading and understanding our story."
"There is still a lot of work left to achieve the company's main goal of developing economically viable processes of raising the fish," Steindorsson said.
He said the long-term goal is to grow the bluefin tuna from egg to plate and enrich the company's bottom line.
Umami Sustainable Seafood owns and operates Kali Tuna, which is an established Croatian-based aquaculture operation raising Northern bluefin tuna in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea.
The company said in November 2010 it acquired Baja Aqua Farms, a Mexico-based aquaculture operation raising Northern bluefin tuna in the Pacific.
