AQUACULTURE IN AUSTRALIA

An article in AQUACULTURE magazine online (USA) (http://www.aquaculturemag.com) and released via http://www.natfish.tafensw.edu.au/news/christmas_99.htm

The following excerpts are from an article written by Trevor Rees.

More Australians are eating fish produced by aquaculture as a result of increasing demands for more diverse foods, and rising levels of Asian migration influencing the country's eating habits. Internationally, Australia's expertise in producing fish from aquaculture is acknowledged in SouthEast Asia, and both China and Taiwan have expressed interest in some Australian species such as the silver perch, which has strong potential for aquaculture development.

In its relationship with its Asian neighbors, Australia is using aquaculture as a diplomatic tool to solve a dispute with Indonesia over that country's fishermen intruding into Australian territorial waters off the coast of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. The University of Sydney is offering technical assistance to an Indonesian giant clam aquaculture venture. And an exchange of staff and students will take place between the two countries to develop Indonesia's fishing industry and marine research. Funds are being raised to establish a marine laboratory at Jepara in Central Java. A similar program has been started by the Northern Territory University in conjunction with Indonesian universities. The first phase of this project will see the development of trochus shell hatcheries for the eventual farming of this species in northern Australia, eastern Indonesia, and the Pacific.

Australia's close association with Asian aquaculture is seen at work at the University of Queensland. Here a Japanese researcher has adapted a Japanese technique used on spiny lobsters for his work on the lobster species, Thenus orientalis, or as it is commonly known in Australia, the Moreton Bay bug, the Balmain bug, or the slipper lobster. Mr. Satoshi Mikami claims a success rate greater than 80% in his breeding program. Mikami has been collecting the 4000 to 60,000 eggs produced by each lobster and nurturing groups of them through several metamorphoses over a four-week growth period to the juvenile stage. He said the species seemed to have a high potential for aquaculture.

"People haven't had much success in the past growing them because they are so fragile at the larval stage, and their natural habitat is the open ocean. This makes adjustment to laboratory conditions difficult. However, I have been able to adapt techniques I learned while working with spiny lobsters in Japan, and developed a nutrition program based on a natural diet of fresh shellfish. If given the opportunity, I would like to develop an artificial feed for commercial operations," Mikami commented.

Mr. Mikami's supervisor, Dr. Jack Greenwood, said this research was timely, as the Moreton Bay bug fishery was "largely fished out," with only very small catches recorded recently. Dr. Greenwood said successful culture of larvae and juveniles offered opportunities both for releasing juveniles into coastal waters to reactivate the fishery and for continued culture of juveniles through to a marketable size.

Dr. Macaranas said the use of genetic techniques in aquaculture could see domestic consumption rise at a rate to rival the explosion in poultry use. While genetic improvement has been used in agriculture and animal breeding for a few decades its application in the fish industry began only in recent years. "The first to use fish genetic breeding techniques were the Norwegians with their Atlantic salmon industry some 15 years ago," she said. "With genetic improvements, plus improved management, and other reforms, the salmon industry has made a 60 to 70% improvement in that time."

In other ventures, Australian aquaculture is the beneficiary of Asian capital and expertise. A number of major kuruma prawn enterprises in the state of Queensland have been established or modified over the last few years financed by Asian sourced capital.
At a recent Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics conference, Gavin Emery, of the Queensland Industry Development Corporation said: "Production of the kuruma prawn, which is exclusively exported to Japan only began in earnest in Queensland in 1992. Exports have increased from 20 tons in 1992-93 to 100 tons in 1994-95. Average prices received for these prawns which are exported live were A$75/kg (approx. US$56) in 1995-95."

Gavin Emery noted that in many respects Australia had gained from the 1980's experience of Asian aquaculture. He said during this decade Asian countries had environmental and disease problems which had decimated their fish farming yields. Emery believed Australia's aquaculture industry had learned from this experience, and had predicted a promising future for the country's fish farming enterprises and its relationship with Asian markets.