Tony Šantić (born 17 October 1952) is a noted

Croatian Australian Croatian Australians (), Australian Croats (''Australski Hrvati'') or Croats in Australia (''Hrvati u Australiji'') are Australian citizens of Croats, Croatian ancestry. Croatia has been a source of Human migration, migrants to Australia, parti ...

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a list of horse breeds, horse breed developed for Thoroughbred racing, horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thorough ...

owner and

Southern bluefin tuna The southern bluefin tuna (''Thunnus maccoyii'') is a tuna of the family Scombridae found in open southern Hemisphere waters of all the world's oceans mainly between 30°S and 50°S, to nearly 60°S. At up to and weighing up to , it is amon ...

farmer.

Career

Born in

Lastovo Lastovo () is an archipelago municipality in Dubrovnik-Neretva County in Croatia. The municipality consists of 46 islands with a total population of 792 people, of which 94.7% are ethnic Croats, and a land area of approximately . ''Lastovo Munic ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

, Šantić grew up in

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a city on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of South Australia. Known as Galinyala by the traditional owners, the Barngarla people, it is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, ...

. He gained initial success in tuna fishing there, and his early exploits in the fishing industry also included fishing for

orange roughy The orange roughy (''Hoplostethus atlanticus''), also known as the red roughy, slimehead and deep sea perch, is a relatively large deep-sea fish belonging to the slimehead family (Trachichthyidae). It is bathypelagic, found in cold (), deep () ...

in a leaky boat called the ''Vigorous'' off the coast of

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

. He went on to establish "Tony's Tuna International" in 1994. In the early 1990s, Šantić suffered financial hardship after tuna quotas were reduced twice. The tuna industry and a number of related businesses suffered while others shut down entirely. Santic's business survived, and by 1996 it had grown to include tuna ranching operations in Mexico, the Mediterranean and Port Lincoln. The development of ranching turned the tuna industry around, and Tony's Tuna International became one of the three largest tuna ranching operations in Port Lincoln. In 1997, Šantić decided to pursue his interest in horse racing, which ultimately led to three

Melbourne Cup The Melbourne Cup is an annual Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia, at the Flemington Racecourse. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and older, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club that forms part of the ...

victories courtesy of a horse he named Makybe Diva. Šantić featured in the BRW Rich List in 2003, with an estimated personal wealth of $200 million. Fellow Port Lincoln tuna ranchers Sam Sarin and Hagen Stehr also featured on the list. By 2005, Šantić's horse Makybe Diva had won back-to-back

races, and according to Robert Skeffington, editor of the BRW Rich List, Šantić was worth $150 million. In January 2010, an

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...

cylinder exploded at Šantić's tuna processing facility, destroying a shed and releasing ammonia gas into the atmosphere. No-one was injured during the explosion and Šantić was out fishing at the time of the event. Safework SA announced that they would investigate the incident. In 2012, Šantić's company, "Tony's Tuna International", initiated plans to trial an alternative ranching regime involving the capture of younger, smaller fish, and extending ranching time from six to 18 months. The initiative planned to make better use of the quota system, which allocates a total allowable catch to license holders, measured in tonnes. Later that year, Šantić and his wife Deslee became victims of fraud. The

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

newspaper '' The Advertiser'' was informed that $700,000 had been siphoned out of their business interests and that a 33-year-old

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignt ...

man was under police investigation. As of 2015, Šantić remains the CEO of "Tony's Tuna International".

Oceanic Victor Pty Ltd

In 2015, South Australian Environment minister Ian Hunter revealed that Šantić was a director of Oceanic Victor Pty Ltd. With fellow director Michael "Mick" Dyer (who is also Šantić's Tuna International's Operations Manager) and long-term friend and advisor Emma Forster, the company intended to offer offshore marine tourism opportunities for visitors to the Victor Harbor area. The company proposed to use the kiosk at Granite Island as a departure point, from which tourists would be taken by boat to an offshore facility where they would be able to feed and swim with fish, and watch them from and underwater observatory. The attraction opened to the public in 2017.

Personal life

Šantić came to Australia with his family in 1958, aged six. His parents lived in

Geelong, Victoria Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

, for the next eight years, after which Tony and his mother moved to

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. In 1996, about nine years after the death from

Hodgkin's disease Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the lymph nodes. The condition was named a ...

of his first wife, Sonya, Šantić married Christine, his family's former cleaning lady. The couple shared three Melbourne Cup victories together with their racehorse, Makybe Diva. In 2006 Šantić and his wife separated, with the divorce being finalised in 2008, involving the carve-up of his $200 million business. On 25 April 2009, he married his third wife, Deslee Kennedy, who had been his media manager. Šantić has three children, Emily Šantić, born to his first wife, Sonya, Joseph Šantić, born on 8 March 1989 to his second wife, Christine, and Charli Rose, born in October 2009 to his third wife. He was also stepfather to Christine's children, Leith, Adam and Bianca, from her first marriage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santic, Tony Living people 1952 births Croatian emigrants to Australia Australian racehorse owners and breeders People from Geelong Australian fishermen People from Port Lincoln Aquaculture in Australia