Hagen Stehr
Hagen Stehr AO is an Australian multi-millionaire businessman, tuna fisherman and founder of the Stehr Group.
Career
Stehr lives in Port Lincoln, South Australia where he manages his business interests in fishing and aquaculture, most notably Southern bluefin tuna fishing and offshore ranching in Spencer Gulf for export markets. The Stehr Group also propagates and grows Australian Yellowtail Kingfish and Australian Mulloway through its aquaculture division, Clean Seas Seafood.One of the wealthiest men in South Australia, Stehr is also the founder and chairman of the Australian Maritime and Fishing Academy. The Stehr Group has a commercial fleet of nine vessels.
Stehr is sometimes referred to colloquially as a "tuna baron" or "tuna king", a term representative of the profitability of the business. He has previously boasted that when he sits down with his friends Sime "Sam" Sarin, Mario Valcic and Joe Puglisi, they are worth more than a billion dollars between them. According to the BRW Australian rich list, his personal wealth was approximately $US135 million in 2009 after peaking the previous year at AUD$271 million. In 2015, Stehr's business Clean Seas Tuna Limited was ranked number 88 in InDaily's Top 100 SA Businesses, with an annual revenue of $20,133,000. Stehr's son Marcus is the managing director of Clean Seas. In November 2016, shareholders of Clean Seas voted to change the company's name to Clean Seas Seafood Limited. Stehr's business interests are represented in the South Australian parliament by political lobbyists and former politicians, Graham Ingerson and Nick Bolkus.
Hagen Stehr was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia on Australia Day, 1997. He received the award for service to the commercial fishing industry and to education and training, particularly through the South Australian Fishing and Seafood Industry Skills Centre Inc. He also received the Centenary Medal for services to the community in 2000. Stehr was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the University of the Sunshine Coast in 2010, and was included in the "three wise men" ceremony together with diplomat Richard Woolcott and Deputy Chancellor of the university, Tim Fairfax. He was named Seafood Icon, South Australia in 2009 and initiated into the National Seafood Hall of Fame in 2013.
In 2014, Stehr participated in a trade delegation to China with Australia's Prime Minister, Tony Abbott as an ambassador for the seafood industry.
In 2016, Stehr began supplying southern bluefin tuna to Darwin for sale at the Darwin Fish Market.
Stehr has appeared in the 60 Minutes episode Drovers of the Deep, his business was the subject of the documentary film Tuna Wranglers and his attempt to close the life-cycle of the Southern bluefin tuna featured in the documentary Sushi - The Global Catch.
Research and development
Hagen Stehr through his company Clean Seas Tuna has invested in attempts to close the life cycle of the Southern blue-fin tuna by propagating them in a land-based tank. The tank's waters were climatically controlled to simulate the experience of wild fish traversing long distances and varied oceanic conditions. The mature fish required for the research were air-lifted to the facility from grow-out pens at sea by helicopter. The research was conducted in partnership with Kinki University, Japan and over the first four and a half years, $4.5 million was raised through government bodies. The Fisheries Research & Development Corporation and the Government of South Australia's Department of Trade & Economic Development were among them.In Bangkok, 2008 Hagen was presented with the Friend of the Sea, Sustainable Seafood Award in acknowledgement of being the first organisation in the world to create an artificial breeding regime for the Southern bluefin tuna. Time magazine rated this milestone as the second best invention of 2009. In developing this technology, Stehr established the first formal collaboration agreement between Kindai University of Japan and Australia for the propagation of tuna.
Tuna tourism
In 1996, Stehr briefly considered establishing a tuna farm in Encounter Bay as a tourist attraction to cater for Japanese tourists. A similar proposal was put forward by in 2015 by another Port Lincoln tuna baron, Tony Santic. Stehr's daughter, Yasmin, spoke representing the 2015 applicant, Oceanic Victor, at a meeting of the Development Assessment Commission. The following day, Oceanic Victor's proposal received DAC approval. Stehr's daughter Yasmin had previously worked in the tuna industry, flying spotter planes used to locate wild tuna schools so that they can be caught and fattened up in sea cages before export.Early life
Stehr left home at the age of 12 to join the merchant marines, then jumped from job to job working on cargo ships. He absconded at Port Lincoln at the age of 18, where he met his wife Anna and became a tuna fisherman in 1961. He arrived in Port Lincoln with little money and no employment prospects. He is also a former member of the French Foreign Legion.Memberships
For 24 years Hagen Stehr served as the inaugural chairman of the South Australian Seafood Industry Skills Centre. In 2005 the organisation was replaced by the Primary Industries Skills Council where he remains a board member. He is currently the Ambassador of Indigenous Employment Projects and food ambassador appointed by the South Australian Government in 2013. He is also a member of the South Australian Government's Aquaculture Advisory Committee.Stehr was the seed funder of a sculpture of a "tuna poler" fisherman made by Ken Martin that was unveiled in Port Lincoln in July 2019. Project funds were managed by the Axel Stenross Maritime Museum.