Oceanic Victor

Oceanic Victor is an Australian privately owned company which has established a marine tourism operation based at Granite Island, Encounter Bay, South Australia. The company's directors include Tony Santic and Michael "Mick" Dyer, who are also director and operations manager respectively at Tony's Tuna International- a company which ranches Southern bluefin tuna for export sale. In 2015, Oceanic Victor sought and received planning approval to establish a venture similar to the Swim with the Tuna attraction which operated previously in Boston Bay, Port Lincoln from 2010 to 2015. The facility is located within a Habitat Protection Zone of the Encounter Marine Park. The facility opened to the public on 2 September 2017.

Oceanic Victor planned to use existing infrastructure on Granite Island to service tourists, who were to be transported by boat to a pilot aquaculture lease adjacent to the island. The main attraction is a single modified tuna seacage moored to the seabed, which was purchased from Swim with Tuna in 2015. Visitors have the opportunity to swim with and feed southern bluefin tuna, and observe other species via an underwater viewing deck and two touch-tank aquaria. The sea cage was proposed to contain up to five tonnes of southern bluefin tuna, and up to 0.5 tonnes combined of other species native to South Australian waters. Tuna were to be fed with South Australian caught pilchards.

In 1996, "tuna baron" Hagen Stehr considered establishing a tuna farm in Encounter Bay as a tourist attraction to cater for Japanese tourists. In 2010, a similar venture was launched in Boston Bay near Port Lincoln, which ran from 2010 to 2015 where it was managed by Emma Forster.

A similar proposal was made in 2015 by another Port Lincoln tuna baron, Tony Santic, acting as a director of the newly formed company, Oceanic Victor Pty Ltd. The new company's co-director is his business associate, Michael "Mick" Dyer, who is Operations Manager at Santic's commercial tuna farming business, Tony's Tuna International.

During the planning and approval process, the applicant was also represented by Heather Montgomerie, a former State Government employee who held senior positions at Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA) Aquaculture for over a decade. Also representing the applicant was Hagen Stehr's daughter, Yasmin, who has previously worked for her family's commercial tuna and kingfish farming business, Clean Seas.

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