Winter 2010

Volume 24 No 2 – Winter 2010

Ocean-grown barra expansion Hatchery’s marbled goby jackpot Aussie supplier of brine shrimp Get Shucked oyster’s sales pitch Collie Aquafarm takes shape Murray cod in irrigation water Consumers’ seafood preferences Aussie minicrustaceans for pets

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Contents

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Editor-in-chief Dr Tim Walker Regular contributors David O'Sullivan John Mosig Subscription/editorial Austasia Aquaculture PO Box 658, Rosny, Tas. 7018 Ph: 03 6245 0064 Fax: 03 6245 0068 Email: AustasiaAquaculture@netspace.net.au

15

Advertising Megan Farrer Design/typesetting Coalface Production Pty Ltd Prepress & Printing Geon Group Copyright © by Austasia Aquaculture.

Contents cannot be reproduced without permission. Statements made or opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Turtle Press Pty Ltd (ABN 98 506 165 857).

Austasia Aquaculture magazine (ISSN: 0818 552) is published by Turtle Press Pty Ltd (ABN 98 506 165 857) for the promotion of aquaculture in the Australasian and Asian regions – inclusive of farming in marine, freshwater, brackish and hypersaline waters. Reader's contributions are encouraged on the clear understanding they will be subject to editorial control and, if accepted, will appear in both printed and online versions.

Cover photo A montage of photos taken from stories contained in this issue. Captions and photo credits as per the details inside.

FA R M P R O F I L E

Ocean grown Barramundi expansion

3

Small hatchery cracks the marbled goby fingerling jackpot

7

At last – an Aussie supplier of brine shrimp biomass for aquaculture

11

Get Shucked oysters making a market splash!

15

Family-run barra farm finds its niche

20

Collie Aquafarm takes shape

24

Industry news from the National Aquaculture Council

Growing Murray cod in irrigation water a smart move

30

RESEARCH

35

Expanding pet and aquaculture markets for Aussie minicrustaceans

Trout farm looks to warmwater options

44 NAC

43

44

F E AT U R E

Is environmental sustainability important for Aussie seafood consumers?

37

TECHNOLOGY

Improve effluent water quality

48

Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 1

Advertisers Index

www.AustasiaAquaculture.com.au AAQ Conference Aireng

22

Ajay & Duraplas Tanks

39

AquaFauna Biomarine

40

Aquahort AQUASONIC

28, 45 Inside Front Cover

Aquatic Diagnostic Services International

23

Austasia Aquaculture - subscription page

29

AQUI-S

23

BGB Marine

39

BST Oyster Supplies

39

Fresh By Design Group

Outside Back Cover

HR Browne & Sons

7

KM Fish Machinery

35

Murray Darling Fisheries

42

Oblomov Trading

7

Quinntech P/L

41

Seafarm Systems

13

Seapa

27

Technolab Marketing

48

Teralba Industries

33

The Market Place – classified ads

2 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

9

Inside Back Cover

TTP Plastics by Design

17

Uarah Fisheries

23

FA R M P R O F I L E

Aerial view of the eastern end of Turtle island with some of the cages in the foreground and the supply vessel Merindah Pearl

Ocean grown Barramundi expansion With the demise of Marine Harvest (NT) and some production setbacks at Bluewater Barramundi (Qld), the amount of ocean-grown Barramundi has fallen since 2007-08. However, boosted production from Marine Produce Australia’s sea cage farm at Cone Bay (WA) has seen the return of large quantities of these beautiful fish on the market.

T

he barramundi’s (Lates calcarifer) iconic status is due to it’s large size, great fighting ability when hooked on a line and a juicy sweet taste, especially when grown in saltwater. Large quantities of these fish are back on offer thanks to the continued expansion of Marine Produce Australia (MPA) Ltd’s farm in Western Australia. The company is only one of just three aquaculture companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

The farm is located in Cone Bay, around 220km NNE of Broome on the Buccaneer Archipelago. Originally a pearl farm, trials on barramundi farming were undertaken

by Maxima Pearling Company in the early 2000s. MPA purchased the rights to IP from Maxima and started commercial farming of Barra in 2005. The pearling operations are not related in any business sense.

MPA general manager Guy Westbrook had more than 18 years experience in the Tasmanian salmon industry before beginning with MPA.

“We were lucky that we already had the infrastructure from the pearl farm,” he explains. “Our land base is on Turtle Island with air conditioned accommodation and offices, well-equipped workshop, galley and mess and vessels. We have added to the cages used during the Maxima trials; now there are 22, all of Polar Cirkel design but in two sizes – 80m and 60m circumference. We use larger diameter (355mm vs. 315mm) HDPE pipes due to the stronger tides and rougher weather experienced there.

The stanchions are made by Plastic Fabrications and we have white hand rails due to the intense sunlight making the black pipes too hot to handle.

“We can have 2.5m waves running through the farm and every year we have cyclone activity. In 2009 we had two come close by; for one we needed to evacuate the farm for the first time in its history. Cone Bay has a wide mouth and extends more than 20km long and

is 8km wide in many places, so we don’t have the huge water currents you can get in some areas close by. Even so we have current speeds which average 1m/sec and can get higher than 2m/sec currents associated with cyclone surges.

Outside the Bay you can get currents up to 9 knots (4.6m/sec).”

Water depths range from 12 to 22m (at Spring Low Tide). “We can get a tidal change of 11m twice a day, the smallest are with the neaps, around 4-5m. Water temperatures range from 25-32°C so the fish grow well most of the year, although a cool dry season can see a slowing of growth rates..”

Initially, galvanised steel nets were used to keep out the many sharks and crocodiles that frequented the area. They’ve been replaced with Kikko nets (Japanese, made from recyclable plastic PET) and brass nets from Kinoshita (also from Japan) have been recently trialled as well. The nets hang down an average of 7m (range Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 3

FA R M P R O F I L E

After a 2,400 km road trip from Perth to Derby, the containers are transferred to the company’s supply boat and are barged out to Turtle Island where the fingerlings are transferred into ten flow-through tanks (10m3). Here they are graded at least once a week and fed 3-4 times a day with formulated feeds from Skretting, until they reach 20g. This usually takes 6-8 weeks.

Harvest fish ready to be hand fed into SI5 stunner before chilling in an ice slurry.

Photos courtesy of Marine Produce Australia

Management Metrics Key Management Decisions for Marine Produce Australia include: • Use of rigid plastic or metal netting to control predation. Increased use of PET Kikko netting (made from recycled plastic has strong sustainability rationale).

• Use of larger diameter HDPE pipes in cages due to higher water currents.

• Mechanisation of cleaning, grading and moves toward automation in feeding.

• Contracting trucks for feed transport in and fish transport out.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) include: • Culture System utilised: floating 60m and 80m circ Polar Cirkel cages and rigid nets • Growth rate (from stocking to market): 24+ months (0.25g to 3.5k) • Survival rate: >95% for sea cage grow out phase • Av. stocking density: up to 40kg/m3 at market size • Annual harvest: 1,000 tonnes (FY10) • FCR: 1:2:1 to harvest (number of kg of food to produce 1kg stock)

6.5-8m) with the sides and bottom kept tight with a steel or brass ring.

Secchi disc readings for neap tides are 4-5m; with spring tides they can drop to 2.5m. Guys says that this has management implications in that remote cameras can’t be used to check feeding activity of the fish.

Biofouling can be an issue, especially a type of red weed which grows quickly.

“This can be cleaned off with high pressure water hoses with a rotating head mounted on long poles moved by people from the net rings or divers can move them around underwater. We are investigating a large 4 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

surface operated system as this activity cries out for mechanisation.” If not kept in check, heavy fouling of barnacles and oysters can totally cover a net adding significantly to its weight.

Stocking Small (0.25g) weaned fingerlings are purchased from a number of hatcheries.

“We have purchased fingerlings from Darwin Aquaculture Centre and also Broome TAFE. Recently we have been getting them from Challenger Institute (Fremantle) and shipping them up in live by road in purpose built fish transport containers.”

At this stage the fish then transfer into eight nursery cages (6m x 6m x 4m deep) made from Aquagrid, a semi-rigid plastic netting; a Kikko predator net surrounds the whole lot. After another 6-8 weeks the fish will have grown to 150-200g and been graded several times – using a small airlift fish pump to send them to a newly purchased Faivre fish grader.

“These 150g+ fish are transferred into our growout cages,” Guy continues. “In these cages the hexagonal mesh net is 35mm wide so there is plenty of water flow for the fish. We aim to harvest these fish at 3.5kg average, about 2 years from the time of stocking into the nursery tanks.”

From a management point of view the farm has found it best to keep fish sizes as even as possible in a cage. So Guy says they do a grade when the cages are first stocked. “But we’ve found that the fish don’t handle the hand-grading operations very well; there’s been some mortalities,” he continues. “So we’ve now automated with a 300mm diameter airlift pump, a 200mm Silk Stream fish pump (purchased from a Tassie salmon farm) and a recently acquired Faivre marine fish grader.

Hopefully this will reduce both the stress on the fish and the staff numbers required to undertake the grading.”

Both Skretting and Ridleys feeds have been used. “Both are quality feeds,” Guy reckons. “We used to go with a 45:20 pellet (45% fish meal, 20% fish oil) but have now swapped to a high energy diet of 40:30. The results have been very good.

The fry feeds (<4mm) come in 10-25kg bags, whilst the 4mm+ pellets are in 1,000kg bulk bags. We use feed boats with air cannons for the cage feeding.”

As part of the farm improvement program, MPA have been experimenting with

FA R M P R O F I L E

Clockwise from top: The ex-salmon feeder boat the Sea Supply is perfectly suited with its air cannon for feeding the Barramundi The head of a 2 year old 4kg fish just harvested from one of the cages. A 2.5m tiger shark nuzzles up to the cage looking for a way in.

Adam Norris with a beautiful 5-6kg Cone Bay Ocean Barramundi. All photos courtesy of Marine Produce Australia

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table. The fish are then hand-fed into a S15 fish stunner which kills them before they are placed into the ice slurries. We do not bleed the fish. We do one harvest a week and in a day we can harvest about 20 tonnes. It is a 6-hour trip to Derby where the fish bins are unloaded onto the wharf. The chilled fish are then dry packed into insulated fish bins (total of 300 kg of fish) or 50kg foam boxes. We charter a truck so that it brings our fish food one way and then takes our fish back.

It is a lot more cost effective that way.”

there are usually two feeds a day – one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Smaller fish in sea cages can be fed up to three times each day.

Fish mortalities mainly occur through cannibalism and aggressive behaviour, mostly in the juveniles (tanks and nursery cages). “Once the fish are in the growout cages we see very little mortality, probably only 1-2 fish per month for cage of 40-50,000 fish; larger numbers occur post handling. In the past escapes were a problem, especially from metal nets damaged in summers storms. This is much better managed now, with divers inside the cages every day removing any mortalities and mending or re-rigging nets.”

From top: Several 80m circ. cage with the white plastic hand rails.

A 5kg recently harvested fish on ice.

The juicy fillets are fresh cut at a processor in Perth ready for sale.

All photos courtesy of Marine Produce Australia

Harvesting and expansion As of May 2010, there are 1,100 tonnes of fish in the cages with a harvest every week, year-round. That’s enough fish for a harvest of 3,000 tonnes over the next two years.

acoustic methods to gauge the appetite of the barramundi; high water turbidity means that cameras can’t be used like they are on the salmon farms. “We have recently taken delivery of an auto-feeder with a 6 tonne hopper which uses acoustic controls. This is looking promising.”

The supply vessel Merindah Pearl, a 32m long ex-pearler and longliner, is used for the harvesting operations. It has deck capacity capable of holding 50 tonnes of fish bins or feed and is able to supply the farm with all of its fish food and fuel requirements.

The aim is for at least one main feed a day for fish over 2kg. However, as a number of factors (sunlight, predators, water currents) can affect the feeding activity,

“We starve the fish for 1-2 days prior to harvesting,” Guy explains. “A purse seine crowds the fish and a wet brail scoops 60 – 80kg of them onto a stainless steel

6 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

MPA sell their fish in Perth (30 hours transport) or tranship through Darwin where the product is split into the various east coast sales (Adelaide 30hrs, Melbourne 40hrs, Sydney 40hrs and Brisbane 30hrs). “We use Bain Transport for our most of our transport and they’ve been very supportive of our development.

Although some fish are being exported through customers we don’t have the fish numbers yet to do that regularly.”

The fish are marketed as Cone Bay Ocean Barramundi. “The product has been really well received and we’re confident that demand will stay strong due to the fact we are producing a large, ocean grown fish of consistent size and quality. We don’t have the issue of muddy flavour.”

According to Guy the company has confirmed more capital investment to allow a significant expansion. “We will need a larger service boat to handle the extra volumes of feed and harvest fish and will look to go fully onto auto feeding. We sold 600 tonnes last calendar year and will do 1,000 tonnes in the 2010-11 financial year. We’ll need to see how the market demand goes but hopefully will be able to move quickly to 2,000tpa with an average fish size of 3.5kg.”

By Dos O’Sullivan For more information contact Guy Westbrook Marine Produce Australia Ltd PO Box 1009, West Perth WA 6872 Tel: 09 9321-9200 E: gw@marineproduce.com

FA R M P R O F I L E

Small hatchery cracks the marbled goby fingerling jackpot M

arbled goby (Oxyeleotris marmoratus) is one of the top value fish on the aquaculture pantheon. Prized, particularly in Chinese cuisine, for it’s sweet delicate flesh, the price is kept high because of the challenges associated with growing this premium species. It is a difficult species to wean onto pellets and, in comparison to other commercial species, it is slow growing. To top it off, it has been difficult to produce the required numbers of Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) fry the market demands.

These challenges are being taken up by a small private hatchery in an industrial estate in Kuala Lumpur.

Aquacliq is operated by Eric Lim Kai Siang and his small band of committed and highly skilled staff. Eric started off in his brother’s garage. After convincing himself that he could condition broodstock and raise the juveniles the two brothers decided to put the technology to use in a commercial venture. They have been able to close the breeding cycle on this lethargic ambush predator and ‘soon hock’ – as it is called by the local Chinese communities in Malaysia – is bred all year round in their multi level establishment. In a multi-lingual community like Malaysia the fish has many names: lam kor, ikan ketutu, ikan hantu, malas, bodoh, kayu, ubi and in Bahasa Indonesian it becomes ikan betutu.

Advantages & disadvantages Eric had realised that to produce marbled goby seedstock efficiently the hatchery and nursery stages would have to be done indoors. This gave maximum control over the husbandry, water quality management and environmental factors such as temperature fluctuations, predation and attrition.

He also recognized the disadvantages that came with this. While a

First Class Honours graduate in Fisheries, Koh Shiau Hui, evaluating embryo development.

Eric Lim with the filter mat that forms part of the in tank filtering system.

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Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 7

FA R M P R O F I L E

Clockwise from top left: Broodstock habitat is open to allow good water flow throughout the tank and to reduce bacteria loads. The open habitat also acts as a bio-filter medium.

The engine room - water condition tanks and air pumps on the top floor.

Technical Assistant Goh Chee Shiun checking the progress of juvenile fish at Aquaclic Three month old juveniles ready to go to growout.

recirculation aquaculture system (RAS) is great for giving control over the stability and balance of the operating system, it takes a lot of experience and expertise to make sure it works efficiently.

“There’s a higher initial cost and a higher degree of technical expertise required,” Eric says. “We’re conditioning the brood stock, taking the larvae through metamorphosis to fry and weaning them onto a pellet. There’s a lot of patience involved, a lot of skill, a lot of training and scientific understanding and a great deal of dedication.”

Currently the main source of seedstock for the industry is from pond-reared juveniles. Teams of broodstock are left 8 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

to their own devices and the surviving juveniles are periodically collected from the ponds, transferred to growout ponds and fed. It is nearly impossible to monitor food up-take and consequently growth rates are haphazard. Predation and attrition rates are high and production targets are a matter of potluck.

Aquacliq have removed those variables.

By establishing a controlled and stable environment Eric has been able to meet the three challenges he gave himself when he set out. The enterprise is able to spawn broodstock each month on the lunar cycle, hatch the eggs, raise larvae through metamorphosis to fry and wean the fry onto a dry feed. Growth rates

have improved with the balanced, species-specific diet and training of the juvenile fish to feed more regularly.

An indoor system also allows him greater flexibility of management.

Broodstock from the wild can carry a range of pathogens and fish health is always an issue. Incoming broodstock are treated for anchor worn (Lernia), gill fluke (Dactylogyrus), Branchiora (Argulu) and protozoans such Trichodina, Epistylus, Myxozoan and Tetrahymena.

Saprolegnia fungus is ubiquitous and preventing it from infesting the hatchery fish is ongoing.

These are all issues with growing fish in open pond systems and are particularly

FA R M P R O F I L E

difficult to deal with once they take hold. Eric says this is another reason for growing indoors. He dips the incoming broodstock for 10 minutes in a full salinity bath, dips them in Neguvon three times and quarantines them for a fortnight.

Ease of handling also allows the crew at Aquacliq to grade regularly. This keeps each cohort evenly sized, in turn eliminating the natural attrition found amongst pond reared fry and fingerlings.

Eric says he always makes sure they’re well fed, reducing the tendency to cannibalism and maximising their genetic growth potential.

Conditioning & selection of the broodstock Broodstock are fed a range of rations: squid, trash fish and a formulated wet ration are all used to give the broodstock some variety and to keep their appetite sharp. The wet ration is formulated by Aquacliq to keep the broodstock in a forward breeding condition.

Broodstock are conditioned in 1,000L tanks. Housing is provided by open mesh extruded plastic cylinders making for a cleaner environment, as the solid plastic habitat is difficult to keep clean.

Gender identification is simple. Both genders have a small protuberance (urogenital papilla) behind the vent. In the males it is long and round, in the females it is round and tubular.

When the female’s vent becomes swollen and inflamed she is ready to spawn. A male is chosen based on the motility of the spermatozoa. Checking of the eggs’ development stage isn’t necessary as she is already mature and ready for hormone inducement as soon as her papilla turn red.

Both sexes are injected with a hormone to trigger ovulation and spawning activity. The females receive 1,000iu/kg and the males half that. A range of hormones are used: HCG, Ovaprim, PG & LHRa.

The induced pair is placed in the spawning tank and courtship can take from 2-24 hours, depending on the development stage of the eggs at inducement.

After the male fertilizes the eggs he guards them during incubation. At 28-29°C, most (>90%) hatching has occurred by 71 hours. After that the chances of survival of any larvae that hatch are not great.

Larvae swim vertically with their heads pointing down in the water column until their swim bladders inflate. In fact they stay in the water column until they are fully developed at day 35.

Feeding The yolk sack lasts for three days and swim bladder inflation occurs on day four. A phytoplankton bloom is induced in the tank and enriched rotifers are introduced. Artemia feeding starts on day 20 through to day 30. Moina are fed from day 30 to day 55. By day 40 the juveniles are fully developed and have settled. With survival as high as 80% and at a size of 12mm, the fry are now ready for the weaning process.

This starts with a micro diet – 250µm on day 30 while the fry are still on Artemia.

The dry feed is introduced gradually and weaning success is universal.

Eric then adds a wet diet manufactured at the hatchery (Aquacliq’s own formula) along with tubifex and blood worms. The wet diet is extruded in 1mm strips so the young fish can handle it easily. The dry diet is continued at the same time and by two to three months the juveniles are 25mm and are fully weaned onto a dry diet of 2mm pellets.

At this stage they are sold to the growout farms – both pond and RAS farmers.

Growth rates & fecundity Fry held back at the hatchery are 125mm by six months. It takes the weaned juveniles two years to reach a kilo on the farms.

Because of the isolated nature of the marbled goby’s habitat, different strains evolved over time. Eric has found the strains from Sabah to be faster growing and more suited to aquaculture.

Fecundity is high. These fish are serial

AAQ Conference 13 – 14 August 2010 The 2010 conference returns to the popular Kondari Resort at Hervey Bay. AAQ’s annual conferences and workshops have become widely accepted as an ‘event not to be missed’.

The conference committee have again organised an excellent program of guest speakers including Ready-Steady-Cook’s Dominique Rizzo, and DPI Vic’s Brett Ingram, plus the always popular workshop sessions and presentations by one of Australia’s leading aquaculture suppliers.

For more information and registrations please contact Conference Co-ordinator Andrew Bray on 07 3396 5730

The spawning tank has a slab sitting on two bricks and the female lays her adhesive eggs on the underside of a structure.

Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 9

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breeders and a spent pair will be ready to spawn again a fortnight after incubating their previous brood. They will spawn 117,000 eggs per 1kg of body weight ). However, survival after three months in the hatchery is around 10%.

No wonder the species is so expensive to produce.

When Aquacliq took over the abandoned factory two years ago it had been

From top: Bio-filtration is simple but effective.

Dividing the system into small units makes it easy to isolate any problems that may occur.

This is belts and braces aquaculture.

This innocuous commercial estate houses some of the most important aquaculture technology developed in Malaysia.

The broodstock holding facility.

completely gutted: light fittings taps, everything. Although this had a replacement cost, it enabled Eric to build the hatchery over the four floors to his own specifications.

KL tap water is delivered to the top floor where it is conditioned. There are two delivery lines – one for salt and one for fresh water. The water gravitates from the conditioning tanks to the floors below where the broodstock conditioning, spawning and juvenile rearing takes place. The ground floor is used as a storage area.

An assortment of tanks and aquaria are used and each step in the process is isolated with its own bio-filtering system and bacteria and fungal control mechanisms.

The team have set themselves a production target of 50,000 juveniles a month and are already up to 10,000.

Broodstock supply is a constant problem. Eric likes to use young broodstock as he has found them more productive.

However, when growout farmers get the fish up to 300g they are reluctant to sell them, as they only have to double their size to reach the market target of 600g at which point they are worth RM190/ kg (USD56).

Aquacliq is an example of what can be achieved with observation thoroughness and not a little courage. It is difficult not to feel the tranquillity and harmony in the building as Eric’s staff go about their business. The success didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen without a great deal of patience and trial and error.

Two signs on the wall sums up Aquacliq’s philosophy. Prevention is better and cheaper than cure, and Look after the water and the fish look after themselves.

No truer words have ever been spoken in aquaculture. There is no doubt that they have played a role in the major technology break through achieved in this urban surrounding by Eric and his dedicated team.

By John Mosig

10 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

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A microscopic view of two female Artemia ready to release cysts from their brood pouches.

Photo courtesy of Cognis.

At last – an Aussie supplier of brine shrimp biomass for aquaculture Break-through closed-system tank cultivation technology is being used in Western Australia to produce Artemia biomass for the aquaculture hatchery and ornamental fish industries. While current production is focused on satisfying Australian requirements, it is expected to grow quickly as the product cuts itself a share of the international market (aquaculture and ornamental fish). The next steps include the production of high quality cysts and use of brine shrimp products as feed attractants

E

veryone involved in aquaculture is aware of the importance of live feeds for the hatchery production of a number of our main crops, notably prawns and marine finfish. The brine shrimp (Artemia spp.) has been used for decades as its resting stage or cyst is easily ‘hatched’ by adding it to warm seawater.

This makes it an ideal “instant” live food source as the resultant embryos (or nauplii) are highly nutritious and can be further enhanced by feeding various enrichment formulae. The free swimming larvae act as a nutrient delivery mechanism and their movement teaches important predatory feeding behaviour.

More recently various forms of frozen or dried Artemia or other zooplankton species have become increasingly popular. This ‘biomass’ is thought to have specific benefits for feeding juvenile prawns and fish.

Research by world-renowned expert Prof Patrick Sorgeloos has shown that natural strains of Australian Artemia offer unique benefits for aquaculture, due in part to the small size of the Shark Bay and other Western Australian strains. .

So the siting of Cognis Australia Pty Ltd’s state-of-the-art production facility on the pristine coastline of central Western Australia, around 1.5 hours drive north

of Geraldton, is particularly appropriate.

Cognis has been producing natural betacarotene from salt tolerant microalgae (Dunaliella salina) on the salt lake called Hutt Lagoon. A dry climate and plentiful supplies of clean saline water allow year round production of the algae in a 500 hectare lake system. The algae is concentrated with a unique mechanical system followed by extraction with essential oils without the use of any petrochemical solvents. It is further refined for use in animal and pets feeds, natural food colorants for beverages, spreads and purified nutritional supplements for humans (e.g. Betatene® natural mixed Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 11

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Clockwise from top: Rows of the Artemia production tanks with the algal ponds in the background at Hutt Lagoon.

A harvest of carotenoid rich Artemia biomass.

Noel Clements operating the foil packing machine for the PosAqua aquarium product. All photos courtesy of Cognis.

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carotenoids and beta-carotene).

Now those same waters are being used to grow Artemia that is carotenoid enriched, heightening its usefulness as a critical feed for young fish and prawns.

In April this year, Cognis unveiled its state-of-the-art facility for production of carotenoid-enriched Artemia. A ribboncutting ceremony attended by guests from around Australia recognized the achievement of the joint partnership between the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC), Department of Fisheries Western Australia (DoFWA), and Cognis. The commercialisation of world class Artemia biomass product is a successful completion of three years of intense research and development.

Industry commentators are suggesting that this high quality supply of Artemia will address the gap in the quality and quantity of this aquaculture feedstock, leading to reliable and sustainable improvements in fish farming practices.

At the opening of this new facility, Norman Moore, the Western Australian Minister for Fisheries said: “This project is a fine example of how industry and government can cooperate to achieve environmental and economic advances.

Today’s opening is an important step in helping advance current best practices in aquaculture and the long-term preservation of our oceans’ resources.”

Roger Taylor, General Manager of Cognis Australia was generous in reply.

“We are delighted to contribute our

production expertise, and facilities, to the partnership, and the support we have received from the Australian and West Australian Governments has been outstanding.”

Cognis claims that their supply of Artemia is nutritionally superior, as well as reliable and renewable. The pure and Australian carotenoid-enriched Artemia will be sold under the trade name NutremiaTM for the aquaculture industry. Packaging for the hatcheries and prawn farms consists of a convenient ‘easy break’ 300 gram block sold in 3 packs.

In Australia, hobbyist and aquarium enthusiasts will know the product as PosAqua’s* PureTrueBlue. Hobbyist packaging consists of the superior popout cubes with such improvements as a perforated ‘tear away” format that allows the consumer to separate and discard empty cube trays. It also features a larger seal area to prevent foil delamination. Single serve 10 grams sachets are also available.

Sustainable and biosecure “The sustainability of this project is due to an elegant integration between Cognis’ high-salinity natural algal cultivation lagoons producing mixed carotenoids and the brine shrimp that thrive on the algae,” explains Boyd King, Nutremia Project Manager at Cognis Australia. “The symbiotic existence of the two cultivation processes makes it uniquely positioned to provide a muchneeded natural resource to the aquaculture market. We are currently targeting

Roger Taylor Managing Director of Cognis Australia and The Honourable Norman Moore Minister for Fisheries cutting the Nutremia cake at the March opening of the Artemia biomass plant.

Photo courtesy of Cognis.

the Australian market and actively seeking international distribution partners for our products.”

NutremiaTM is produced with proprietary closed-system hypersaline cultivation technology and fed algae rich in natural mixed carotenoids. Being rich in nutrients, NutremiaTM helps improve the colour, fertility, and immunity of prawns and fish. To preserve its nutritional value, NutremiaTM is instantly frozen on-site and packed in the best quality, user-friendly packaging on the market.

“We are currently getting a new nutritional analysis as we’ve installed a precooler system that brings live shrimp to -3°C before live packaging. This helps prevent breakdown of the protein into

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Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 13

FA R M P R O F I L E

aquaculture industry as it struggles to find alternatives. Cognis’ Artemia production is in a large scale closed system, the first in the world of its kind and is far less affected by the vagaries of changing weather and ecological cycles.

Independent analysis of the naturally occurring cysts in our system have shown a sum(n-3) HUFA content of 24.7 mg/g which is comparatively high to even the best quality cysts currently available . We are confident that the system will be capable of delivering cysts that will produce nauplii with a consistently high nutritional profile.

The Posaqua PureTrueBlue product destined for the aquarium market with 3g cubes. Photo courtesy of Cognis.

the water. We also have installed a live shrimp rinse to reduce the salinity of the biomass prior to freezing.”

Boyd says that one of the biggest concerns for the aquaculture industry is biosecurity. “In particular, pathogens can quickly devastate our industry.

Using closed systems and naturally hyper-saline conditions, we are able to produce Artemia in a way that greatly reduces biosecurity risk.

“Another advantage of this new source is the nutritional profile of the Artemia, which are fed a lush diet of carotenoidrich algae. The bright orange colour of our Artemia indicates good health, specifically the presence of carotenoids.”

Industry members agree.

“Nutremia has become an important component of our balanced hatchery diets, and the prawns feed on it aggressively,” reports Tony Charles, Australian Prawn Farms’ Hatchery Manager. “The addition of Nutremia with other fresh and pellet feeds helps me achieve an effective nutritional balance. Before I started using Nutremia I had been looking for a source of quality Artemia biomass for a long time.”

14 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

The key advantages of carotenoidenriched Artemia are: • Strengthens efficient aquaculture farming in Australia – better yield, fertility, immunity • Provides reliable domestic source – reduced need to import products of lesser quality • Reduces bio-security risk, such as white spot virus • Parlays otherwise unusable land into renewable resource • Increases food supply security and availability of healthy seafood to the Australian public • Supports local production.

Cysts production planned The next step for Cognis’ Artemia project is to commercially produce Artemia cysts to supply the aquaculture industry.

The cysts are shipped in dry form to fish or prawn hatcheries where they are hatched on-site specifically for those species that thrive on live feeds.

According to Boyd, the global demand for cysts is currently served by harvesting wild blooms of Artemia from salt lakes. “The annual harvest volumes from salt lakes can vary dramatically in quality and quantity, causing turmoil in the

“Fish are so attracted to the taste and smell of Artemia that it is also being developed as an eco-friendly attractant to make plant-derived protein more palatable to fish,” he explains. “Current industry practice is to use fish-meal based feeds to raise fish for human consumption; that’s unsustainable in the long term. Our product could provide a solution.”

By Dos O’Sullivan For more information contact Kathleen Grassi, Asia Pacific Marketing Manager, Phone: 08 9368 4944, Fax: 08 9368 4933 Mobile: 0417 328-706 Email: kathleen.grassi@cognis.com Web: www.cognis.com Cognis is a worldwide supplier of innovative specialty chemicals and nutritional ingredients, with a particular focus on the areas of wellness and sustainability. The company employs about 5,600 people, and it operates production sites and service centres in 30 countries.

Cognis distributers are also in Europe, North America and Latin America.

Posaqua produces a wide range of feeds for the aquarium industry including brine shrimp and bloodworm – they will soon be providing Intrafeed rotifers and copepods.

They are a wholesaler to the retail trade only – 08 8824 2244 E: posaqua@bigpond.com

FA R M P R O F I L E

The Get Shucked oysters finished product that is sold from their farm shop. (1 dozen Split oysters).

Get Shucked oysters making a market splash!

How many times have we heard people say we need to promote our fabulous aquaculture product more? Hundreds? Thousands? Well Joe Bennett isn’t sitting back and suggesting industry need to get moving; he’s working hard on lifting demand for oysters with his own distinctive and catchy methods

J

oe Bennett and partner Nicole Adams have been farming Pacific Oysters (Crassostrea gigas) at Great Bay on the east coast of Bruny Island since 2004. Bruny Island is just an hour south of Hobart (including a 15 minute ferry ride) and the location offers great water quality for oyster culture. Joe and the other eleven oyster farms in the region produce close to 500,000 dozen oysters a year.

The business’s name is an obvious

conversation opener. “We wanted one that people would remember, so we went for ‘Get Shucked’,” Joe explains. “The name sticks in people’s heads and is great entertainment value. We get good feedback and patrons can even specifically ask for our oysters in some restaurants. Other restaurants prefer to use the more ‘refined’ Bruny Island Oysters. We are members of the local group of oyster farmers who have registered that

marketing name so we have two options to market our product.”

Joe and Nicole are justifiably proud of what they have achieved in a short time.

“Now Get Shucked is established as a well known business that prides itself in offering a unique brand promoting the nutritional and health benefits of oysters along with the exciting and pleasurable experience derived by eating our oysters.”

Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 15

FA R M P R O F I L E

Empty stacks of trays are placed on rails to dry.

Hessian stacks of market ready oysters, these ones are sold under Bruny Island Oysters brand.

Management Metrics Key Management Decisions for Get Shucked Oysters include: • Catchy company name with an alternative regional marketing name • Focus on short term growout of ongrowns for a high farm turn over • Farm gate sales to take advantage of expanding tourism and local market • Actively promotes the region, oysters in general and own product.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) include: • Culture System utilised: surface longlines with stacks of AquaTray plastic trays • Growth rate (from stocking to market): <4-6 months (30g to 60g) • Survival rate: 95% from first stocking to sale size • Av. stocking density: 65 dozen per 5 tray stack • Annual harvest: 120,000 dozen (mostly buffet 60-70mm and 75-90mm standards) • Production rate: 120,000 dozen, likely to expand to 150,000 dozen.

They have 20 hectares of subtidal leases, mostly in water 4-6m deep, of which 4ha is developed producing an annual harvest of around 120,000 dozen. The oysters are cultured in 900mm by 900mm plastic AquaTrays (made by Tooltech, www.ttpplastics.com.au) which are held in stacks of 5 trays suspended from surface longlines.

The 100m surface longline backbones are made of 20mm polypropylene rope tied in a rolling hitch onto steel eyelets on 3 tonne concrete block anchors at each end. “We have a 200L Mussel Co buoy at each end of the backbone, the 16 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

ropes extend at an angle of 45° down to the mooring blocks. Plastic drums (20L) are tied along the backbone every 1.2m between which are hung the stacks of AquaTrays. Each of the twelve longlines has 60-65 stacks of trays so we can hold a lot of oysters on them.”

The stacks are held together by 8mm ropes threaded through the four corners of each tray – these are tied to plastic toggles so they hang down about 1.5m below the surface; the stacks can spin around in the currents so the toggles assist in preventing the lies from becoming tangled. Pieces of 40mm polypipe

around 20mm long are used to space the trays to allow for water flow and food availability.

The $60,000 work punt Oyster Catcher 1 is a purpose-built, 7.5m long and 3m wide with freeboard of 1-1.3m and driven by twin 60HP Yamaha outboards.

Not only does it have a 9HP hydraulic telescopic crane but also forward and aft davits used to lift the backbones out of the water. The crane can then hook onto a stack of trays to lift it out of the water and placed on the deck for transport back ashore. Joe says that with two operators they can pickup and drop in 20 stacks of trays an hour.

Ongrowns Like other growers in Tassie’s well developed oysters industry, Get Shucked focus on a specific stage of the production cycle to make the best out of their growing sites. At Bruny the water temperatures vary from 7-8°C in winter up to 24°C in summer. For the oysters a metre or so below the water surface there isn’t much variation in water temperatures – no hot water flushes with tides or polling of water which can occur in intertidal culture.

“We have westerly and south-westerly prevailing winds so the lease is sheltered

FA R M P R O F I L E

The Get Shucked crew at the sorting table, left to right Daniel Stuhmcke, David Roser, Mark Jarvis and Joe Bennett.

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Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 17

FA R M P R O F I L E

The specially designed work punt Oyster Catcher

Stacks of trays filled with marked ready oysters.

and we don’t get conditions that are too rough for working the lines; we may only lose a couple of days a year. There is also great water quality with loads of food so growout to market size is quick.

We are only half a kilometre from our shed to the launching ramp, and only a further 400m to our leases so we can have a quick turn around time. There are seven other leases in Great Bay, some are intertidal, some subtidal. Everyone works together pretty well.

“We buy 40-60mm oysters and ongrow them for 4-6 months to fatten for market. We get our ongrowers from Port Cygnet Oysters and Smith Shellfish, usually for $3/dozen. These have been cultured intertidally. We sell them at 60-70mm (buffet size) and some at 75-90mm (standard).”

As the purchased oysters are well graded (sizes 40mm, 50mm and 55mm), they can be stocked straight into the trays at set stocking densities designed to achieve fast growth. “During summer we can also buy oysters that have spawned and 18 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

condition them back up for market. We sample around 20 oysters per stack to check on their condition before harvest.”

The oysters show uniform growth so Joe says it is pretty easy to sort the oysters at harvest. “We use hand grading to sort between the oysters. Once ashore the stacks of trays are lifted from the punt and tipped into a hopper which feeds the oysters onto a sorting table. Then we can quickly grade which oysters need to be put back into the water, and which ones can be sold.”

Get Shucked employs three full time staff and some seasonal workers. “Our full time staff are very experienced and can accurately hand grade the oysters.”

Following grading the oysters which need further growout may be left ashore to dry for a few days before being resubmerged. Overcatch by Pacific Oysters is avoided by drying out the trays of the oysters. There’s no problems with barnacles. “In the summer and spring we may get a little weed on the baskets which is easy to remove. We haven’t had any

problems with diseases or parasites. A few years ago we had some unexplained deaths on the farm. These may have been due to a freshwater flush or maybe weak stock. In any case, we were able to get back into production quickly.”

Under the Tasmanian Shellfish Quality Assurance Program, the oyster growing area is classified as low risk and has only been closed once – for three days 15 years ago.

Vision Joe is driven by his vision to increase the number of oysters consumed by Australians. “We aim to do this by making fresh quality oysters more readily available to the public. Currently Australians only consume around six oysters per person per year. If Get Shucked can help increase this to 12 oysters per person per year then the sky is the limit! EAT UP!” Joe has actively pursued branding opportunity and, as a result, been involved with several local, state-wide and national promotions:

FA R M P R O F I L E

The plastic covered ropes on each of the corners of the trays allows them to be easily opened to allow the oysters to fall out, as seen here when they are placed into the sorting hopper.

• Stallholder at Slow Food Federation Square, Melbourne • Food Lovers Guide to Australia TV • Mercurios Menu TV • Discover Tasmania TV • 9am with Dave and Kim TV • Boys Weekend (Lifestyle channel) TV • Jetstar in-flight magazine • Cover of Scene Magazine TAS • Organised and ran the shucking competition at the Taste of the Huon • Organised the “Oyster Shuckoff” on Bruny Island • Sponsors the Cloudy Bay Classic surf competition • Sponsors the Kingbourough Tigers football team • Getaway TV. All of this is about getting the message out there – oysters are great to eat! There is an intriguing story around how they are produced! Whilst the industry can still joke around about the aphrodisiac properties of the oysters, it is important to give the general public more information.

Get Shucked run a well stocked onsite

sales van which is open for direct to public sales seven days a week during spring, summer and autumn; in winter it is only open Mondays and Thursdays. Shucked oysters sell for $10 a dozen whilst live oysters are $8 a dozen. Both are packed in attractive lined snack boxes.

Joe believes that the onsite van allows people to get very close to the production source. He says that knowledge is power, so giving people all the background gives them something to impress their friends with. Feedback from shop customers indicates that around 70% like to have the oysters naturale’, or maybe with a little pepper and some lemon. Others are looking for a simple sauce or dressing to add some flavour. A few oysters will cook the oysters. Joe himself loves to make up some oyster pies!

For transport the oysters are packed in labelled hessian sacks (30 dozen) which are stacked in lots of 17-24 onto pallets.

In addition to some local restaurants, the main market for Get Shucked oysters is in Queensland, with good sales

also into Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney.

“We use refrigerated trucks for transport and the longest travel period is three days. Even then we know that our oysters will have a shelf life of at least one week after delivery, sometimes longer.”

Joe is working on point-of-sale presentation boxes for his oysters and also has plans to build a new on-site shop offering beer and wine to go with his oysters plus value-added products. Other products like fish and mussels will be sold.

And he plans to offer oyster information days which include a tour, cooking class and shucking lessons. “Let’s inform as many people as possible about the wonderful, humble, nutritious oyster.”

By Dos O’Sullivan.

For more information contact Joe Bennett, Get Shucked Oysters, 1865 Bruny Island Main Road, Great Bay, North Bruny, Tasmania 7150. M: 0428 606 250, P: (03) 6260 6250, E: info@getshucked.com.au W: getshucked.com Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 19

FA R M P R O F I L E

Family-run barra farm finds its niche M

ichael Anderson took up barramundi growing in 2004 when he purchased an aquaculture facility just south of Innisail that had been operating for nearly twenty years. On an arm of the brackish Moresby Creek, the farm turns off around 25 tonne of barramundi each year.

The farm Having unlimited access to water from the creek, Hanging Flat Barramundi takes it with a 3-phase pump at high tide to maximize salinity and minimize runoff from traditional coastal farming activities; a 60hp diesel pump acts as a back up should the power go out.

The farm consists of four 50m x 20m juvenile ponds and three 0.5ha growout ponds. Each season the smaller ponds are alternated so that two are empty and ready for a larvae run and the other two used as growout ponds for plate size fish. All ponds are 2m deep.

There is also a nursery annex in which juveniles can be weaned and graded in 10,000L tanks. This facility can also be used to hold and purge fish before sending to market.

All the ponds are aerated with 1.5hp, four-paddle aerators running off 3-phase power. When biomass builds up Michael runs two aerators per pond.

From top: Floating nurseries are used to retain the slower growers so they can be sold off as soon as they reach the baby barra market size.

Drag nets are becoming a thing of the past at Hanging Flat.

Drying and renovation of the ponds is done at the end of each cycle

20 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

FA R M P R O F I L E

Production cycle The production cycle is straightforward.

Starting in September, Michael buys larvae from Dave Borgelt at Jungle Creek Aquaculture. On average he gets a 25% recovery from a stocking of 100,000 larvae.

Michael has found this is more economical than buying 25,000 x 30mm fry.

There can be failures. But, given that the survival rate is evident in a week or two, and that a replacement green water pond can be made ready very promptly, the cost differential between larvae and fry more than compensates for the short amount of lost growing time. Two of the fry ponds are kept dry at any one time in the growing season and continually rotated to give them exposure to the air and sun as a health measure.

The dried plankton ponds are fertilized before flooding, which is done three days before the larvae are due to arrive.

Growth rates are good. By October water temperatures are getting up towards the 30°C mark. From time of liberation in the rearing ponds to harvesting at 25mm for stocking in nursery tanks is just three weeks. From there it takes another three weeks for the leaders to reach 60mm. At that point they are transferred from the nursery tanks into floating nursery cages until they reach 120mm. This takes another six weeks.

As the fish reach 120mm they are graded into ‘free-range’ growout ponds. The first third will go into one pond, the second third into another pond. The remaining third, the slowest-growing, is held in cages until they reach 600g to 700g.

Michael has established a market for these fish in Cairns.

It takes one summer for these laggards to reach ‘baby barra’ size, providing Michael with a ready cash flow. As he puts it: “With feed approaching $2,000 a tonne, it helps pay the bills.”

From top: The view across the plankton ponds at Hanging Flats.

The packing room at Hanging Flat.

Michael at one of the nursery tanks.

Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 21

FA R M P R O F I L E

While the growout ponds don’t carry a dense plankton bloom, there is sufficient phytoplankton to maintain daytime DO at or above saturation levels.

However, at the peak of summer, water temperatures can get up to 30°C, in which case the aerators are operated around the clock.

He also sees it as good stock management. This stocking method grades off the faster growing fish early in the production cycle. These are the ones put out into the ponds. The slowest growers are held in the cages and are the first of the particular batch of larvae ‘culled’ from the production chain.

The fish in the ponds are grown out to 3kg over three summers, basically two and a half years from coming onto the farm as larvae. Pond stocking densities are reduced to make sure they don’t exceed 20t/ha.

The ponds are drained at the end of each cycle. Once dry enough to work,

Top: The meshed drainage outlet holds back fish during a water exchange.

Left: The fishout and water diversion pit for the nursery.

the build up of pond waste is pushed up onto the banks. This serves two purposes. It clears the pond bottom of silt and renovates the bank batter that may have been eroded by the wash from the aerators and general weathering.

Aeration In the warmer months, the ponds are aerated from 4pm – as the sun goes off the water – until 9am the next morning.

The larval/fry rearing ponds carry a healthy bloom, which keeps dissolved oxygen levels high during the day.

During the short winter of the far north, air temperatures can fall to 8°C but generally no cooler than 15°C with pond temperatures down to 17°C. Michael tends not to aerate during the winter months. Feeding rates are low and the water is relatively free of phytoplankton blooms. He’s found that on the cool nights the pond temperature can drop by up to 1.5°C because of heat loss from the fine droplets thrown up by the paddlewheels into the night atmosphere.

Water exchange The EPA license for Hanging Flat allows a megalitre a day discharge. Although pumping 500,000L an hour is possible using the variable load 3-phase pump, Michael rarely has to exchange more than 200,000L a day.

“It all depends on what the ponds look like and what the DO meter is telling me,” he says. “Salinity is not a problem with the barramundi but we don’t let the ponds get too green.”

There are two settlement ponds, each one up to 4m deep and 20m x 100m long. A large biomass of reed and water weed strips nutrients from the water before it finds its way back into the natural system.

Feed Michael uses Ridleys floating barramundi feed. “Ridleys have a range of high density weaning diets ranging from 0.3mm to 0.8mm as well as growout pellets in all sizes,” he says. “The freight up from Brisbane adds to the cost but it’s not as dear as other options”.

Food efficiency, based on food in and fish out, normally comes up as 1.4:1.

Feeding – to satiation – is based on observation. Whilst summer feeding is daily, the cooler winter months sees

22 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

FA R M P R O F I L E

feeding cut back to every second day.

Trapping while feeding is the primary method used to harvest fish. The fish are fed in a 6mm x 150mm square mesh cage and, when Michael needs some for the market, he just pulls the mesh up under the fish. After allowing the fish metabolize any feed in their system Michael selects the ones he wants.

This method has made dragging a 50m net through the ponds all but obsolete.

Apart from that, the build up of a couple of years of pond waste was making it nigh near impossible once the lead line bit into the substrate. The silt was also getting into the fishes’ gills.

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Markets The fish are sold whole. Harvested into an ice slurry in 1m3 fish bins and brought to the packing room, they are graded and packed in crushed ice in polystyrene boxes ready for market.

Michael says the markets have been soft lately. “Sydney is holding up pretty well.

There seems to be a bit of a shortage of supply down there. But swine flu and the global financial crisis have battered the local tourism market around.

“Large prawn farms switching over to barramundi farming have also caused a really big increase in supply. We could be seeing prices up around $14/kg to $15/kg otherwise. This corporate style of farming is typical of the rationalization of primary industries in general. I think we are definitely seeing the last days of small family farms of any sort.”

Michael says it’s tough for the smaller producers to make ends meet. “It’s difficult to compete in a market dominated by large corporate farms selling to large wholesalers and on to chain restaurants.

We focus our operation toward producing quality product without the marketing hype.”

By John Mosig

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Michael Anderson can be contacted by phone on (07) 4065 4837, or by email on barramundifarm@bigpond.com Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 23

FA R M P R O F I L E Richard Clark with Tagried Kurwie from Mahurangi Technical Institute in NZ holding a redfin perch broodstock.

Collie Aquafarm takes shape Wesfarmers Premier Coal has mined coal in the Collie Basin in Western Australia’s South West. As with most mining companies employing open pit techniques, it faced the challenge of remediation after closing a site. Following on from research on options for the best use of Collie Basin’s water-filled voids, the Collie Aquafarm has been established. Here’s a report on progress.

Installation of the Fluidized Limestone Reactor (FLR).

24 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

FA R M P R O F I L E A crate of 1 year old marron.

An outside shroud pipe with holes positioned at the base allows the dirty water that will gravitate to the centre of the pad to be pulled from the bottom up and over the 150mm riser and flushed out back into the void.

T

he Collie Aquafarm is only a few weeks off its completion of its first phase of 22 ponds. Since January this year, 22x1000m square ponds have been constructed. The ponds are 40m long, 25m wide with 1 in 4 batter, 1.5m deep at the shallow end, sloping to 1.8m at the deep end. A 3x3 concrete pad 100mm deep with a 1-inch fall has been laid in each pond with a 150mm PVC elbow sitting flush in the centre of each pad. Each pond has a 150mm PVC riser pipe to determine the water level of each pond leaving 200mm of freeboard.

A 4m-wide gravel and limestone rubble road way has been laid entering each pond from the northern corner at the shallow end-running along the base of the pond up and around the 3X3 concrete pad. This will provide a gradual release of calcium for the marron and also to use during harvesting to allow a 4-wheeler motorbike to back down the ramp with a trailer and collect marron, which have congregated on the pad ready for collection.

There is a 400mm fall between each pond to allow for drainage.

Because each pond was constructed in overburden material with poor clay content each pond had 1.5 feet of clay dumped by Wesfarmers premier haul packs from their clay deposits.

Next year we will commence the construction of another 22 ponds and work toward expanding there after till we reach 100 ponds in the year 2013.

Header Dam The header dam holds 27 million liters.

It took approximately 140 of Wesfarmers haul packs carting 9000m3 of clay to provide a 1.5 m compacted clay lining. A hundred tones of limestone rocks were also spread over the internal wall to assist with pH and keep the water in top condition.

A 165mm thick wall poly pipe was installed as a scourer pipe at the base of the dam with a series of holes to allow routine flushing for the release of any build up of decaying plant matter and metals that may have settled over time.

A 280mm poly pipe has been installed that runs down the southern end of the pond as the main delivery pipe.

Water source The pH3 water pumped out of the void by a 25 amp submersible pump, travels 200m up into the Fluidized Limestone Reactor (FLR). This is five times larger than 2L/second FLR positioned at the hatchery. The FLR â&#x20AC;&#x201C; filled with limestone sand and with a flow rate of 10 liters per second â&#x20AC;&#x201C; successfully raises the pH from 3 to 7.5. The water enters the Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 25

FA R M P R O F I L E

Farm manager tending to the smaller 2L/sec FLR at the hatchery facility.

conical flask at the base of the FLR and makes its way up mixing with the limestone until it overflows into a launder basket and enters a purpose built settlement dam.

Richard Clark and Simon Harrington (a DEC trainee ranger) during the construction phase.

In low pH water there are high levels of dissolved metals. Once the pH is lifted from 3 to 7.5 in a matter of seconds the metals begin to drop out of the system very rapidly. The slow moving current of the settlement dam assists this process and allow the metals to flocculate out of the water; the clean pH neutral water is filtered off the top and enters the header dam.

The 22 ponds have been recently stocked with 3000 juvenile marron at a stocking density of 3/m2 (66,000 juveniles in total).

W3 mine lake water source. Colour is due to suspended white clay particles and the aluminium.

This water source is enough to supply 650 Marron ponds

26 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

Tourism Ngalang Boodja Council Aboriginal Corporation (NBC) has submitted a grant

application to the Indigenous Land Corporation for funds to establish a tourism business comprising of cultural tours and fish out experiences at the Aquafarm at Wesfarmers Premier Coal minesite. NBE, the commercial arm of NBC, will manage the tourism business.

Richard Clark, the NBE Farm Manager will oversee the development of the tourist venture and will manage the business until income derived is sufficient to employ a tourist business manager.

Aquaculture tours & fish-out experiences Tourists will be offered either a 1-1.5hr tour of the Aquafarm or the opportunity to catch fish (marron, silver perch, Murry cod, trout or red fin perch) in one of the two fish out ponds, or both tourist products. Tourists will also have the choice of having their catch cooked for them or cleaned and chilled for take away.

FA R M P R O F I L E

Tourists will travel in their own vehicles to the Aquafarm where they will enter a purpose built visitors kiosk housing a display describing the farmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s operations, a stand of Aboriginal arts and items offered for sale and a light refreshment area. We will also be working closely with Collie Coach lines that provide day tours from Collie, Bunbury, Mandurah and Perth. They currently operate mine tours at the adjacent Premier Minesite and will look at offering packages combining the two tourism products.

One of Wesfarmers Premiers haul packs dumping clay in the header dam.

A map will be provided so tourists can make their way around the farm at their leisure. A walking track with signs (arrows, plant species names & Aboriginal name and use, explanation of how the farm works etc) will take tourists to the look out on the high dam then down around Mine Lake and back to visitors centre and fish out ponds.

TAFE students completing the Cert II in Tourism course will be employed part time to act as guides.

Our goal will be to attract enough tourists through the facility to be able to support one full time position, Monday to Sunday 10:30am till 4:30, and part time positions for TAFE students in peak periods/peak hours.

Redfin perch NBE is currently applying for a license for the approval of the culture of Redfin perch.

In April earlier this year two leading New Zealand experts in the culture of this species, Paul Decker and Tagried Kurwie from Mahurangi Technical institute in Auckland, NZ were invited for a three day workshop.

The main aim of this workshop was to look into the feasibility of farming redfin in the same facility as the marron. Perch eggs would be harvested from the local Collie river and hatched/reared on site.

This would bring in an additional income stream for NBE and also help lower the redfin population in the local rivers, which are decimating the wild marron numbers.

Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 27

FA R M P R O F I L E

Completion of the 1st phase. 22 Marron ponds in the foreground.

The Mine Lake aquaculture project has a unique set up as where there is zero risk of redfin escaping into local rivers: the closest river system is about 5 kms away and if the fish escape they do so into pH3 water resulting in death. MTI has had years of experience in raising this species leading to the commercial supply of redfin juveniles to a number of new farms in New Zealand.

TAFE This year we have 18 students enrolled in TAFE Aquaculture certificates. The students are taught by ex head professor of Curtin University Dr Louis Evans. Along with theory lessons, these students are getting valuable practical experience in the construction of the ponds – concrete slabs, pipe laying, installation of electrical services, bird netting and completing the full erection of the parameter electric fence plus making 4400 marron hides (@$ 1.40 per hide).

The interior setup of one of the 1000sqm grow out ponds.

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The students will also be given training and paid work in feeding, maintaining water quality, harvesting, restocking and processing of the marron and fish. Over the next year we will be conditioning silver perch broodstock, spawning and teaching techniques in pond and tank based methods for rearing larvae for finfish grow out to the students.

Wesfarmers Premier Coal involvement In November Wesfarmers Premier Coal won the 2009 Environment awards in the Corporate Business ‘Leading by Example’ category.

The award recognised that this groundbreaking environmental initiative linking large-scale mine rehabilitation with Aboriginal education/training was creating a feasible, sustainable and vibrant new centre for marron farming in Collie, Western Australia.

And the company is rightly proud of its lead role in converting the former mining facility into a community asset that’s providing opportunity and direction to the town of Collie and ownership and environmental reward to those workers

involved in its continued growth and success.

Premier Coal’s commitment to date has included: • Pledging $150,000 financial and $150,000 in-kind support over three years (2008 – 2010); • Use of haul trucks to transport 3,000 tonnes of clay during Project construction. Trucks operated for 21 days, hauling over 320 truckloads of clay during a 16km round trip; • Donation of time and expertise of heavy machinery operators (including excavator operators and truck drivers) to assist with project construction works; • Ongoing rehabilitation advice and support from Premier Coal’s environmental superintendant, and • Over 800 hours of volunteer resources.

The project has also received $251,585 through the South-West Regional Grants Scheme, an initiative of Royalties for Regions.

This grant will be directed towards installation of a processing and purging system, bird netting over the ponds and a security fence around the site. It will also be used to construct gravel roads around the poinds and a building to be used in farm operations, trainaing and research.

By Richard Clark, Peter McGinty and Phillip Ugle The authors would like to record their own heartfelt thanks to Dan Machin from the WA Aquaculture Council and Wesfarmers for their enormous support over the last year.

Richard Clark, Farm manager graduated with a diploma in Hotel Management and Tourism from the International College of Management, Sydney in 2005 and later with a BSc in Aquaculture from James Cook University in 2008 Peter McGinty from Aquatic Resources is consultant and project manager for the first phase.

Phillip Ugle is Chairman of the NBE and plays a large role in mentoring the TAFE students.

www.AustasiaAquaculture.com.au

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FA R M P R O F I L E

Growing Murray cod in irrigation water a smart move Col Beasley’s Thurla Farms aquaculture venture at Red Cliffs in Victoria’s rich Sunraysia horticulture district (AA 21-3).

DPI had been encouraging irrigators to “subsidise” the cost of water and irrigation by growing fish in their holding reservoirs. The Peaces thought about it for a bit and the next year took the plunge.

Rob explains some of the finer points of ‘open water’ farming to a group of potential growers.

The winery’s Rob Forster (Maintenance Manager) and Norm Steer (Workshop Superviser) have taken on the running of the fish farm. They now have 20 cages – each one 4m x 4m x 2m deep – in the water with another five waiting to stock. Four 2hp paddle wheel aerators are run for three hours every six to give the fish something to swim against and push fresh water through the cages.

The grapes are irrigated from September through till March with water in the reservoir exchanged once a fortnight during this period. Water temperatures over this time range from 15-30°C. Feed Skrettings Classic floating feed designed for native fish species – a high protein (43%) and low lipid diet (15% - 18.1MJ of digestible energy) – is used. Pellet sizes range from 5mm to 11mm in 2mm increments.

Ready for the table – some of the Murray cod produced on the farm.

These fish are coming up to their third summer in the cages.

A

t a recent meeting hosted by the swan Hill Economic Development Office and held at Piangil Fisheries (a subsidiary of Andrew Peace’s Winery on the middle reaches of the Murray River), prospective Murray cod farmers were shown how it can be grown in holding dams for irrigation.

30 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

The winery has a 1830ML secured water license to micro-irrigate 244Ha of wine grapes. Its 1.8ha holding reservoir stores 70ML and, in order to utilise the expensive water twice, a floating raceway has been installed grow Murray cod.

Andrew and Cathryn became interested in cod farming in 2007 after a visit to

These are distributed three times daily through automatic feeders. During summer the rate is 3-5% of body weight.

“There are days when they go off their feed a bit but, generally speaking, the hotter it gets the more they eat. When the water gets up around 30°C they go spastic”, Rob says.

Once water temperatures drop to 14-15°C and the irrigation water exchange is slowed down for the season, the feeding rate is reduced dramatically and, by mid-winter Rob says, they would be feeding a bare maintenance

FA R M P R O F I L E

ration - less than 0.5% a day.

Three years before the farm went into aquaculture, the reservoir was stocked with 500 cod and 500 yellowbelly (Macquaria ambigua). These hang around the cages and clean up any feed that finds its way out.

Water movement through the cages is essential to fish health and growth.

Water is pumped into the reservoir direct from the Murray River through high volume pumps. It is impossible to screen the water and fish stocks in the reservoir are continually being replenished.

Disease Rob says most of the disease problems are already in the water. “It’s just a matter of keeping your fish healthy and stress-free. You need to monitor your fish constantly.”

The parasite Chilodonella is a particular problem and Trichodina is also present.

When infestation proves troublesome, a tarpaulin is pulled under the cages the water treated with salt at 10 g /L or formalin at the rate of 100-200ppm.

The highest mortalities come during the settling-in period when the over-wintered 100g fingerlings are translocated.

Rob says that once the fish are over 500g – past the juvenile stage – they seem more disease-resistant and their growth really shoots ahead.

Core business- Rob and Norm inspect the micro delivery line in the vineyard.

Production cycle The six-month growing season runs from October to March. Once water temperatures reach 18°C they receive 100g fingerlings from growers or hatcheries who have grown these fish out over winter in recirculation units. The number of farmers specialising in this area is relatively limited and Rob says that, at some stage, they’ll need to move into this phase of production themselves to secure seedstock.

Grading is ongoing, especially when the fish are young. The first grading is at 8-9 weeks after stocking to remove shooters and prevent cannibalism. Towards the end of the first season, with size ranging

The scale of the role irrigation plays in the productivity of the horticulture districts along the Murray River can be judged from the size of the pumps delivering water to the vines.

Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 31

FA R M P R O F I L E

Norm on the central ramp that serves as the backbone to each farm module.

from 200-700g – the largest cohort in the middle range around 500g – the fish are graded again.

During the second growing season the tops and middle range fish have made it to market size of 800-1400g; only a few stragglers are carried over to a third season.

Winter temperatures fall to 9°C and hold there for 10-12 weeks.

DO levels are taken first thing in the morning. Whilst usually 8-9mg/L, Rob and Norm have noticed that since the numbers – and consequently the feeding rates – have built up the range in the cages has slipped to 4.9-5.8mg/L.

A bank of filters removing organic material from the micro irrigation system.

A device in the dam sending out ultrasonic waves to control some types of tenticle algae; twice a year the nets are lifted and pressure washed to ensure a good flow of water through the cages.

Stocking densities are 40kg/m3. Rob feels this gives them a bit of leeway on the 50kg/m3 proposed by more experienced growers. Total biomass per cage is kept under 1,600kg.

One future problem will be the number of cages required to build production to a point where it can underwrite a marketing campaign. “To produce 100,000 cod a year we’ll need 60 cages.”

A side view of the floating ‘open water’ farm.

At this learning stage, these farmers haven’t had sufficiently constant throughput to accurately calculate their cost of production. However, a DPI model estimates it to be around $8/kg.

Currently feeding trials are being undertaken on each batch of fish. Feed going through the automatic feeders is being closely monitored and mortalities recorded. At the end of the trial, the weight of the feed used for each batch will be divided by the weight of the fish produced.

The water from the storage is used to operate their core business – grape growing and wine production. The grapes are drip irrigated and the water is filtered down to 120-130µm through automatic cartridge spin filters before

32 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

FA R M P R O F I L E

being pumped out over the vineyard.

Norm, says there has been a slight increase in filtration discharges. At first they thought this could be caused by the fish but, given other irrigators nearby were having similar problems, have concluded it is the Murray river water itself; with good rains the water is a lot dirtier than normal.

The Markets The markets are strong Rob says. “Some growers are getting up to $23.50/kg going through an agent. We’re getting $17-18/kg for fresh chilled fish. Our buyers are reluctant to pay much more.”

The farm, from its winery experience, has a processing/value added philosophy. From a Prime Safe accredited processing room it is able to distribute fish all over Australia.

The Prime Safe accredited processing facility.

Over the last three years the aquaculture operation has expanded from 5,000 (100g) fingerlings in 2007 to 9,000 in 2008, 17,000 in 2009 and an order of 34,000 in 2010. “We’re not going to grow 100,000 fish straight out,” Rob explains. “The risks are too great.”

AU ST

The future

L RA

M ADE IAN

He’s positive about the future. “What we’ve seen so far is encouraging”, he says. “In a couple of years I can see we’ll have couple of people on the fish full time.

“You can have some big losses though.

And when you lose 1,000 fish you get pretty downhearted about it. But when you tally it all up it’s not so bad. Last year we had a great year; we only lost 10%.

Then this year we lost that in the first three weeks. There seems to be no right and wrong way; you learn as you go.”

DPI Industry Promotion Day Fisheries Victoria, under funding from the DPI’s Future Farming Strategy have instigated the Aquaculture Futures Initiative under Dr. Brett Ingram. The Fisheries role in this respect goes back several years and several funded programs.

They have been working with industry Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 33 TeralbaAd_PP01_21apr09.indd 1

21/04/2009 3:28:08 PM

FA R M P R O F I L E

Predators and poaches – both get equal respect at the farm.

The tarpaulin that is used to bath the fish in the cages in the event of a parasite outbreak.

doing on-site trials – evaluating feeds and genetic improvements – and also funded a consultant to work with the private sector on a network marketing plan for the Murray Gold brand. FRDC funding is also being sought to deliver veterinarian expertise to growers under the scheme and provide husbandry advice.

Leading the private sector growers is Sunraysia irrigator Col Beasley. Col addressed the Open Day gathering at Piangil Fisheries on the huge opportunity he saw in cod production on many irrigation farms. “One of the things that showed out in the Asian markets quite strongly was that Murray cod traditionally have a muddy taste. We were in Japan and they could pick instantly whether they’d been bottom-feeding.

What we’re doing with our ‘open water’ farming methods is keeping them in highly oxygenated water and keeping them out of the mud.

“From what we can make of it, tank culture is costing around $12/kg to grow.

Even though tank cultured fish are very similar, they do taste different and they stay a much darker colour. For the aesthetics of the Asian market there’s about $4.50/kg difference in the price,” he says.

Looking from the fish farm to the ‘shed’. The ‘shed’ houses the irrigation filtering system, the processing and coolroom room, as well as serving as a storage area.

Col’s certainly bullish about the prospects.

He says there’s a large unfilled domestic market and, with Murray cod also accepted overseas, reckons the demand to be twice that of salmon and trout.

With global fish stocks being run down at an alarming rate and the nation’s water resource under threat as never before, the double use of water to produce a high value crop such as Murray cod has a lot to commend it. However, at Piangil Fisheries, as Rob says, “We’re starting off small and learning on the job. Hopefully we’ll get through.”

By John Mosig Rob Forster can be contacted by phone on (03)5030 6136, or by email on rforster@apwines.com

34 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

FA R M P R O F I L E

Trout farm looks to warmwater options H

ume Weir Trout Farm is one of Australia’s best known and certainly the oldest. Established by Norm Douglas, the farm was opened by Jack McQueen and has been an icon of the region since 1964. Things have changed since then.

Water from the weir, once taken for granted, has become a precious resource.

Management has changed to meet those changing circumstances and a farm once farming cold water species exclusively is now looking at warmwater natives and yabbies.

As an example of some of the innovations now necessary, in Easter 2009 gravity-fed water was unavailable from the weir for 10 weeks. Although water could have been pumped water in, manager Matthew Benfield, reasoned he would get better quality water by recycling the water on the farm. And he reduced feeding to a bare maintenance ration. Apart from maximizing on farm water efficiency, Matthew has sought to diversify into native species that are more tolerant of the extremes now being experienced.

The tourist area has several water features. It becomes a refuge for visitors and locals alike during the harsh inland summers.

Yabbies are part of the future planning at Hume Weir Trout.

The farm is completely concreted and their diversion license is to transfer water from Hume Weir to the Murray River. This allows them to take as much water as the farm can handle; the only restriction being the level of the Weir.

Matt says that when the level is at 100% they can take 90ML/day. “The pipe fairly hums, but the levels haven’t been much

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Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 35

FA R M P R O F I L E

any luck after being out all day in their boats call in to have some sport and take home a feed”. Matt says.

“The fish in the ponds are graded to 350g and sell for $6 each. The visitors buy a bag of pellets to feed the fish, which helps recoup some of the outlay.

Once they start feeding the resident birds gather around to clean up any spilt pellets. It all adds to the experience”.

Matt and wife Diane keep a menagerie of peacocks, guinea fowl, pheasants, ducks and geese as well as emus.

Some of the yabbies produced on the farm.

Bait yabbies are always in demand.

Warmwater Options At this stage they derive most of their income from trout. However Matt’s a climate change realist. With summer water temperatures rising and the water levels in the Weir peaking at 50% of capacity, he is looking at warmwater species. Yabbies, silver perch and eel tailed catfish are part of his research at this stage, with a strong leaning towards the iconic crustacean.

Matt at the controls. Records are everything in a complex operation.

above 50% since we arrived in 2001”, he says. “Even so, at 50% of capacity the head is enough to get 40ML/day through the farm. This is plenty. Even at 25% we have every pond working.”

and spillways that aerates the water as it gravitates through the trout production raceways, the fishout ponds, the yabby and native fish ponds and finally the settlement ponds before it is returned to the Murray River.

Water is exchanged every 40 minutes. Like any farm taking water from a large body, temperatures remain relatively low in the summer and relatively high in the winter.

They rarely fall below 10°C and even in these difficult times of climate extremes, hold below 24°C on average. However, during one four day heat wave in the summer of 2009 they peaked at 26°C

One of the changes Matt has made is to fence off the working part of the farm from the tourism section. “When we arrived the tourists were able to walk where they liked”, he says. “We had no privacy and the insurance bill was huge. We’ve been able to reduce the premium from $30,000 to $6,000. That’s manageable.”

With multiple use of the water in mind, its distribution is through a series of channels, underground pipes

As they say in the real estate business – position, position, position. “Being right on the Weir, fishermen who don’t have

36 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

He has built a yabby hatchery and stocked several ponds. The 50m x 10m ponds are fenced against water rats and covered with netting to keep out the predatory birds. They are oxygenated by 1hp air blower and AGK pontoon aerators.

They are part of the farm’s hydrologic system and water is flowing in to the front ponds at 5lpm.

At this point the main sale for yabbies has come from the bait trade. In somewhat of an understatement, Matt says being situated on Hume Weir was an advantage.

In these changing times, the management at Hume Weir Trout Farm is cutting its cloth to suit its circumstances. The proactive approach will not only help them continue cold water aquaculture but also to move the farm into production of Murray Darling species. Matt and Diane are confident about the future of aquaculture on Australia’s oldest trout farm.

By John Mosig Matt can be contacted by phone on (02) 6026 4334, or by email on humeweirtrout@mynewsat.com.

F E AT U R E

Is environmental sustainability important for Aussie seafood consumers?

Australia has some of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strictest environmental regulations for aquaculture and fishing. Pressure from environmental groups is increasing on supermarkets, food service providers and other outlets to have purchasing policies requiring suppliers to provide information on the sustainability of seafood products they sell. But are Aussie seafood consumers really concerned about the environmental credentials of their seafoods, or are other market forces important? Let us look at the results of research on prawn marketing. It has a good deal of relevance to other aquaculture sectors too.

O

n a world-scale the Australian prawn industry (incorporating both wild fisheries and aquaculture) is considered to be a small boutique industry that supplies high priced, quality products.

Wild caught prawns are one of the top four most valuable seafood products in Australia. Annual production ranges between 20,000 and 25,000 tonnes with little capacity to expand due to fisheries restructuring and increased production costs. There are 15 major prawn fisheries located in Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia, New South Wales and South Australia. The annual value is around $250M. Traditionally around 40-45% of the wild caught production is exported but Aussie dollar has risen the volume of prawn exports has declined. A high reliance on East Asia (Japan, Hong Kong/China) has

been offset by growth in exports to the EU (Clarke 2006). This has been strengthened by the established commercial relationships Australia has for a range of exported products including wine to Europe.

Nevertheless, this export success is dependent on exchange rates and the capacity to favourably differentiate the Australian wild-catch from the less expensive cultured product in these overseas markets.

The majority of Australian farmed production is the Black Tiger Prawn (Penaeus monodon) with at least one major north Queensland producer stocking either Banana (Fennerpenaeus [ex Penaeus] merguiensis) or Brown Tiger (Penaeus esculentus) Prawns. The relative contribution is thought to be around 75% for Tigers and 25% for Banana Prawns.

Despite a number of setbacks, Australian

Norm Grant judging prawns at the Fine Foods competition of the Sydney Royal Agricultural Show.

Photo courtesy of SRAS

farmed prawn production is getting close to 5,000 tonnes a year, worth in excess of $60M (the farm gate prices fluctuates between $12 and $14/kg). Farmers from Queensland and northern NSW are implementing a number of improvements in production and sustainability. For example, Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture (AA 23.4) is stocking domesticated PLs which are proving to have higher growth and survival rates over PLs from wild caught broodstock. The resultant harvests are often in excess of 10 tonnes per hectare, introducing some new problems which need to be overcome (i.e. increasing processing output per shift). A new set of ponds has been commissioned with lined walls which drain into large settlement ponds to reduce impacts on the neighbouring environment.

The majority of Aussie farmed prawns are sold cooked; at least half of these are Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 37

F E AT U R E

Discrete Choice Experiment A discrete choice experiment was

from the other attributes. This

selected as an appropriate research

measure resulted in a price premium

method to test consumers’ acceptance

of AUD $3.28 (U.S. $2.62)/kg for

of the differentiating information on

‘low in fat’ and AUD $0.20 (U.S.

the labels. Such studies not only allow

$0.16)/kg for ‘rich in omega-3’,

quantification of the relative impacts

whereas Australian consumers were

of each attribute on choice, but also

willing to spend a price premium of

identify distinct consumer segments

AUD $2.61 (U.S. $2.08)/kg for

that differ in their preferences toward

prawns from a sustainable fishery.

product attributes.

Only a small segment of the market

A photo presentation (Figure 1)

would actually be willing to pay a

mimicked as closely as possible the

price premium for prawns with

type of product presentation found

health and environmental claims.

in many retail stores in Australia.

Consumer segments can be

Respondents were asked to choose

characterised by their sociodemo-

the alternative they most preferred

graphics and purchase behaviours,

for a meal with family, friends or

which marketers could potentially

relatives.

use to target each segment with the products those consumers prefer.

Fresh prawns were preferred over frozen

For instance, it was found that the small (15%) segment of consumers

prawns

which valued health and

Wild-caught and farmed prawns

environmental claims was younger

were not considered different from a

than the average consumer, more

consumer perspective indicating that

likely to be female and concentrated

Australian seafood producers do not

in the south-eastern states of Victoria

have to discount farmed relative to

and Tasmania.

wild-caught prawns.

For more information on the consumer

Price can be used as a measure to

choice survey contact

directly compare the value derived

Nick.Danenberg@MarketingScience.info

sold frozen which means they are in direct competition with imported product. With country of origin labelling, Aussie product can be differentiated in the market place and even though the price is higher than the imported produce, consumers can now make an informed choice.

Industry commentators suggest that an annual farmed prawn production near 10,000 tonnes is possible within a decade and that this product will service traditional markets as the wild fisheries catch declines plus some replacement of premium imported product.

In a 2006 report prepared for Australian Council of Prawn Fisheries, AgEconPlus’s Michael Clarke concluded that prawn consumption will continue to trend upwards. Four reasons were given.

1. More consumers enjoy relative prosperity.

2. An increase in the popularity of mid-priced casual restaurant eating.

3. Lower prices.

4. The health benefits of omega-3 rich prawns.

However he warned of the risk that prawns become an everyday low cost/ low value food given huge increases in the availability of cheaper imported prawn products.

Ruello Report Nick Ruello is well known in the seafood industry for his research on consumer preferences, marketing and promotions. A report he completed for the Australian Prawn Farmers Association (APFA) back in 2002 still has currency for understanding what makes a person choose a specific product over another.

Figure 1: The type of product presentation found in many retail stores in Australia

38 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

Nick revealed via statistics on Australia’s prawn production, exports, imports and retail sales that per capita whole prawn consumption had not risen over the

▼

He reported that prawns are arguably the most popular seafood in the world; demand in Australia and overseas is mostly strong and will continue to grow with increasing population and with increasing disposable income around the world.

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F E AT U R E

previous decade. Although demand for raw (green) prawns had increased, that for cooked (boiled) whole prawns had been declining.

He also found that retailers and consumers preferred Australian product over imports and fresh over frozen seafood.

Thus the increased output by the prawn farmers of cooked prawns was hard to defend and warned that the industry’s continued reliance on frozen cooked prawns placed it in direct price competition with cheaper frozen imports.

Several opportunities were identified by Nick that are still relevant today: • a widening of the raw (green) product range (including IQF packs) with the focus on promoting the Australian and fresh features and benefits; • an increase in demand for value added products such as plate-ready and ready-to-eat prawn products for food service and retail, and • niche markets for organic and ecolabelled product.

Nick also suggested the farming of alternate species such as the Eastern King Prawn (Penaeus plebejus).

From top: Australian farmed prawns, such as these at the Sydney Fish Market, are sold cooked.

Photo courtesy of Coral Sea Prawn Farm

Farmed prawn production in Australia is predicted to expand over the next 5 years.

Photo courtesy of Coral Sea Prawn Farm

These ready to cook imported farmed prawns are sold raw, head and peeled on a skewer.

Photo courtesy of Harry Peeters

Nick recommended that the APFA produce and manage an industry market development plan, based on a vision shared by all farmers, to strengthen the market for Australian farmed prawns through a number of integrated initiatives. Work towards this is being undertaken by APFA.

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Call: 0409 727 853 40 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

UniSA Report Picture this scenario – you are at a fish market and you have an array of different prawns are in trays in the counter in front of you. What decision making process results in you selecting a certain prawn to buy?

Personally, I would first choose Australian and then I would look for product with a reasonable size (25-35g) and price. Sometimes I would be happy to pay around $22-25/kg; for high demand periods such as Christmas and Easter I might pay over $30/kg.

Whether the product was wild caught or farmed wouldn’t matter, the quality of the product is more important for me – I like to have a dark colour in the cooked prawns and I don’t like to see any damaged or soft prawns in the batch.

What factors would influence your decision?

For most people it could be any or even all of a number of factors including wild caught vs. cultured, Australian vs. imported (country of origin), size, fresh vs. thawed vs. frozen, and of course price.

For a long time this information was often not available; the differentiations typically related only to the species and size. Now country of origin labelling has been mandatory in Australia since mid2006. Requirements for information on type (fresh, thawed or frozen) have been introduced as have correct species names.

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute (EBI, University of SA) was commissioned by Marine Innovation South Australia to conduct a survey determining what consumers look for on labels when purchasing prawns. The results have caused some excitement with industry as they provide information to help prawn producers better target their marketing resources to aspects that consumers value more highly, thereby increasing profit margins.

An online survey (see page 38) of 1,146 Australian seafood consumers was used to simulate a real life shopping decision for prawns. Those surveyed were asked to purchase prawns by choosing between: • production method (farmed or wild caught);

This promotion for Aussie farmed prawns focuses on the product being fresh and Australian.

Photo courtesy of Seafarm.

• storage type (fresh or frozen); • price ($12.50, $19.00, $25.50 or $32.00/kg); • region of origin (labels had Australia, Spencer Gulf (Australia), Thailand or China); • health message (rich in omega-3, low in fat or no health message); and • sustainability claim (sustainable fishery or no sustainability claim made).

According to EBI’s Dr Nick Dannenberg, the country of origin was the overall key driver accounting for 62% of purchase decisions. Price also played an important role with 35% of decisions being based on cost per kg of product options. Less important were product storage (15%), health messages (4%), production method (2%) and sustainability claims (1%).

A ‘relative willingness to pay’ analysis translated the value that consumers placed on the different attributes into a monetary figure. For example, this indicated consumers were willing to pay significantly more for Australian prawns (either ‘Australian’ or from the Spencer Gulf’) at the expense of prawns from China or Thailand.

Using a special statistical analysis tool, called the latent class approach, the EBI researchers were able to identify segments of consumers with similar choice structures. They identified five distinct segments based on the importance they placed on each attribute.

The largest group (31% of consumers) had a preference for Australian prawns, and to a lesser extent prawns from Spencer Gulf, but also considered affordability. They tended not to buy imported prawns. This group was strongly represented by women over 45 with children, living in South Australia and Tasmania.

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Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 41

F E AT U R E From top: The Australian farmed prawns are sold cooked and frozen.

Photo courtesy of Hamilton Prawn Farm

The cooking and eating experience from eating prawns should be promoted.

Photo courtesy of Harry Peeters

The Australian sea catch of prawns is over 20,000 tonnes.

Photo courtesy of James Lauritz Ecofish

The second group (30% of consumers), had a strong equal preference for prawns from Australian and Spencer Gulf, irrespective of the price. They were very unlikely to buy imported prawns. The majority in this group were slightly older women (55-64) with a high household income (>$150,000). They tended to purchase seafood direct from a fishmonger and live in New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia.

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42 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

What is not shown in the survey is a drill down as to actually why people make those choices. For example, most people in the seafood industry would know from talking to customers and friends that there’s a perception that overseas prawns are “they’re full of antibiotics or chemicals”. This is despite countries, like Thailand the largest producer farming country in the world, having often best practice certification for no residues and other contaminants (see AA 22.3 Spring ’08, pages 46-47 and 48-53).

In addition Australian farmed prawns were not provided as a choice option.

Follow-up work is being undertaken.

By contrast, a third group (15% of consumers), focused on price. Unlike the previous consumers, this group were mainly middle-aged men (35-44) with a low household income (<$30,000). They generally purchased seafood from the supermarket, and lived in New South Wales and Western Australia. For them, prawns priced at $12.50/kg were preferred twice as much as prawns at $19/kg.

The message for industry is that targeted marketing research can assist producers to strategically manage the supply chain for their benefit. This survey clearly demonstrates that by understanding what consumers value and by targeting the right market segment, a product can command a premium price. With our higher costs of compliance and production, this will become a vital tool for industry to compete against imported product.

So what could this mean for the Australian prawn industry?

By Dos O’Sullivan.

The EBI team made a number of recommendations based on their analysis which backs what Nick Ruello reported:

Murray Darling Fisheries

although this is not likely to be a key driver at this stage.

• Marketing prawns as Australian should be the focus as this is a key driver for retail consumers, with less attention paid to regions within Australia.

• Producers should also look to supply fresh prawns as they were the preferred option, at least for one market segment, although this is not likely to be an obstacle to prawn consumption.

• Marketing should continue to promote the health benefits of seafood; however, this should not be relied upon as a reason for people to purchase one type of seafood over another. Most consumers were aware of the health benefits of seafood but generally this didn’t translate into purchases made on that basis.

• Finally there is space in the market place for ‘ecofriendly’ prawns

References: “Understanding consumers returns premium price for Australian prawns”, MISA Snapshot Issue 11, 2009, also “SA chefs reveal their thoughts on local seafood”, MISA Snapshot Issue 4, 2009, www.misa.net.au “Australian Market Survey: Are Health Or Environmental Claims Important To Prawn Consumers?”, Global Aquaculture Advocate, September/October 2009, www.gaalliance.org Ruello & Associates, 2002, “Draft Report on an Australian Prawn Market Analysis for the Australian Prawn Farmers Association”, 56p. (http://www.apfa.com.au/research/ papers-of-interest/) Clarke, M., 2006, “Taking Stock and Setting Directions - Wild-Catch Prawn Industry of Australia, Situation Assessment Challenges and Opportunities, A Strategic Path Forward.”

Prepared for Australian Council of Prawn Fisheries, Executive Summary, AgEconPlus 13p (http://www.prawncouncil.com.au/executivesummary.pdf)

N AT I O N A L A Q U A C U L T U R E C O U N C I L

Australia’s peak industry body From the National Aquaculture Council, Chief Executive Officer, Justin Fromm

Tinny 2 Tanker – and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority

T

he National Aquaculture Council (NAC), along with our friends in the fishing industry, has been lobbying the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) to rethink and stop the roll out of their Tinny to Tanker plan. Firstly some background...

On 2 July 2009, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to implement national regulation for maritime safety with the AMSA becoming the national safety regulator for all commercial shipping in Australian waters. COAG’s decision reflects recommendations put forward to it by the Australian Transport Council (ATC) on 22 May 2009. This process is part of the broader reform process to move to a single national maritime regulator.

The problem here is that AMSA is currently Australia’s blue water shipping regulator and has not had experience in near shore and coastal shipping regulation. And as you will read this has caused problems. The regulation of this part of the industry is currently the responsibility of the states. The NAC has become involved to ensure the implementation of the national regulator does not have significant adverse and costly affects on the aquaculture industry. It is particularly important to the salmon, tuna, YTK, oyster, mussel and pearl sectors.

One of the first things AMSA is doing under this COAG directive is rewriting Marine Order Part 3 to include what has become known as AMSA’s Tinny to

Tanker plan (T2T). The most significant change proposed is to extend the AMSA suite of STCW certificates into the nearcoastal area. As background, the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) sets qualification standards for masters, officers and watch personnel on seagoing merchant ships. A subset of the STCW is the STCW-Fishing (STCW-F) which sets out qualification standards for fishing vessels.

However, the unique operating environment and the implications of T2T to the near shore and coastal (NSAC) operators, which includes aquaculture, appears to have been overlooked by AMSA. In a nut shell, AMSA failed to recognise the widespread use of state regulated marine qualifications below coxswains in the Australian fishing and aquaculture industries.

There are a number of issues to consider.

Firstly the NAC supports a consistent system of certification for NSAC marine industries that allows for transferability between jurisdictions and marine industry sectors. In the past this has restricted the mobility of qualified personnel between states.

Secondly, Australia is not yet a signatory STCW-F. The fishing industry has been lobbying for many years that the STCW-F does not reflect Australian operations and therefore Australia should not sign the convention. Thus AMSA adopting the standards before Australia is a signatory is an unacceptable outcome.

Thirdly, as mentioned before, NSAC marine safety qualifications are currently

regulated by the states. Almost all states have introduced marine qualifications at a lower level than coxswains for use by NSAC commercial vessels. This reflects the relatively low risks associated with these industries. If AMSA had been allowed to continue, the aquaculture industry would have incurred significant costs in order to train and/or retrain staff to meet the new higher standards.

The NAC and the fishing industry have proposed to AMSA that lower certification levels than coxswains (and variations of higher qualifications) can be justified on a risk-basis. AMSA failed to undertake any profiling or a risk assessment of the near shore and costal industries before the roll-out of the T2T program. If they had they would have realised the problem that now confronts them.

To address the issue the NAC and the fishing industry have proposed to AMSA that they immediately halt the roll-out of the proposed T2T. Instead AMSA have been directed by the NSAC industries to establish a near shore and coastal advisory committee to advise them on the unique nature of our industries. In addition the committee would ensure that the fishing and aquaculture industries are well represented and consulted as AMSA progresses to becoming the single national regulator.

In the long-term, this improved consultative process will ensure that the aquaculture industry has not only appropriate safety regulations based on risk, but also that it will not bear unnecessary regulatory costs as other marine issues come under AMSA’s control.

Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 43

RESEARCH

Expanding pet and aquaculture markets for Aussie minicrustaceans Around the world a number of weird looking and intriguing crustaceans have been used as novelty pets or for classroom projects for many years. These are sold under a host of fabulous marketing names - Sea Monkeys®, Billabong Bugs™, Aquasaurs, Itsy Bitsy Sea Dragons™ and Pond Critters. Some species also have significant uses as live feeds in fish hatcheries. Interest is now increasing in a range of hardy crustacean species found in Australia which have adapted to the changing conditions of temporary freshwater ponds or saline lakes. The expansion of aquaculture combined with the worldwide trend for bizarre but easy to care for pets, means it is certain that more of these invertebrates will be available commercially.

T

he Brine Shrimp (Artemia spp) has been used as a live feed for aquaculture for decades. However its commercial use goes way back to Roman times when handfuls of salt were taken from working salt fields and used to ‘bless’ a new salt field – obviously Brine Shrimp cysts were introduced with the salt crystals and these hatched out in the brine to assist in removing nutrients improving the salt production in the new salt field.

Brine Shrimp have also enjoyed notoriety as Sea Monkeys® in the pet industry as ‘Instant Pets’; often appearing in advertisement on the back of Phantom and other comics for sale in North America, Europe and the UK. Now there is an official website for them (www.sea-monkeys.com/) and even a reference in Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaMonkeys). Quarantine regulations would not allow Brine Shrimp to be exported live into Australia; however, tonnes of cysts from certified sources are imported yearly for aquaculture and for the pet industry.

A supplier from Queensland is marketing locally grown Itsy Bitsy Sea Dragons™ (most likely a fairy shrimp) complete with starter kits containing eggs, water conditioner, food, feeding scoop, thermometer and care manual.

This innovative supplier also offers a range of other interesting species including snails (‘Teeny Weeny Winkles’ and ‘Coco Snails’), Ostracods or Seed Shrimps/Clam Shrimps (“Sea Bubbles”) 44 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

and another type of invertebrate called ‘Sea Puggles’).

This business is also marketing Triops australiensis as the intriguing ‘Billabong Bugs™’ (www.billabongbugs.com/littleaussie/billabongbugs/). Using the term “Instant living dinosaurs” the website has a heap of interesting information about the species. Having hatched some cysts myself several years ago, I can say their claim “they are the most amazing pet ever!” is deserved.

In the lucrative North American toy market there is a vigorous debate between two products – Sea Monkeys and Triops (mainly American or European species); Google ‘triops sea monkeys’ for some interesting blogs on ‘Sea-Monkeygate’ and the ‘Underwater Wars’.

Many Aussie species with potential Brine shrimp are members of Anostracans (Fairy Shrimp) and whilst Triops is a representative of the Notostracans (Tadpole or Shield Shrimp). The majority of Anostracans are filter feeders (one species is a known predator), whilst most of the Notostracans are omnivores (see box insert). Their occurrence can be sporadic and they typically inhabit marginal waters, such as hypersaline lakes or temporary freshwaters from arid/dry areas; this means that they are quite hardy species able to tolerate wide changes in water quality.

The interest in these animals is now giving considerable commercial value to the knowledge of the ‘creature collectors’ or other amateur biologists who search water bodies for interesting species to catch, grow and breed. Now markets are opening up for suppliers and it is likely that the range of products will expand over the next few years.

Crustacean enthusiast Phil Littlejohn has been interested in aquatic organisms since a young boy. “I’ve had the good fortune to work for largest ornamental fish wholesaler in southern hemisphere – Aquarium Industries – for the last 30 years. This has allowed me to combine my hobby with my career. I undertake regular day trips and weekenders collecting or photographing organisms; I specialise in all things that live in Victoria. I spend a lot of time reading books and reports and if there is something I haven’t seen yet I will do homework on that species and then go and see if I can find it. If it is not protected I will collect a sample and take them back for photographing (by a professional photographer Neil Armstrong) and then I can tick them off my list. With any protected species I will take my own photos in the wild.”

Phil’s home has several tanks and some small outdoor ponds. “This gives me the opportunity to hold some interesting animals to study or try to breed them.”

Phil believes that a range of species of

RESEARCH

Anostracans and Notostracans, most of them endemic to Australia, have potential for use as live feeds for fish, as well as being interesting pets and even being used as ‘lab’ animals for science or biology classes at school.

“Due to the extreme areas where many of these crustaceans live, the species are able to tolerate high turbidities, and wide ranges in water temperature and dissolved oxygen; this hardiness gives them good suitability for use as live feeds. Their fast growth rates – some have a life cycle time of 3-4 months – and their ability to take in a range of particulate feeds also adds to their benefits for feeding fish. Some of these traits also make them attractive as pets, and their weird body shapes and continual swimming (fairy shrimp) or crawling (shield shrimp) behaviour.”

In addition, they also taste good for some predators. “That fact that these primitive crustaceans don’t occur with fish in nature is testimony to their desirability as food for almost anything that can catch and eat them.

“My interest in looking at their potential as live feeds started when I heard some time ago about some fish farmers in northern NSW or Queensland who were having explosions of fairy shrimp in their native fish fry ponds. Because these shrimp were eating a lot of the natural foods that the fry need, the farmers were trying to find ways to eradicate them. This got me thinking these so called pests could be used in a way possibly even more valuable than the fish fry; it just takes a change of thought patterns. It is worthwhile looking at both Aussie fairy and shield shrimp for species of interest.”

Fairy Shrimp Fairy shrimp lack a carapace and have stalked eyes. They swim belly up, using their many pairs of leaf-like appendages, and can grow to approximately 5cm.

Males have enlarged second antennae called claspers which are used for holding the female during mating; these are important for identifying the different

species. Females have an obvious brood pouch approximately half way along the body.

Artemia was introduced to Australia.

Another genus is Parartemia which has 15 species (to date, more are being discovered as research continues), all endemic to Australia. All live in temporary saline or hypersaline waters with the majority coming from Western Australia and the Northern Territory, although all other states have at least one species.

“Artemia in its different life stages has been used for feeding fish for many years and its benefits are well known,” Phil explains.

“However, being a hypersaline species it will die soon after being placed in freshwater, limiting its use as a live food for a wide range of tropical and temperate freshwater ornamentals. Freshwater fairy shrimp (such as Branchinella species), which will stay alive until eaten, could be used instead.”

The saline species can be found in very high densities. They can be a pink colour – due to high levels of haemoglobin used to transport oxygen throughout the body – or green or blue from the food they’re eating. If consuming salt tolerant species of algae (e.g. Dunaliella salina) they can become a rich source of carotenoids. The freshwater species are much larger and can vary in body colour – for example white, red, pink or cream.

“The Genus Branchinella is found world wide from the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa with nine families recognised.

They are found across all states and territories of Australia with five families with 30 species (to date), all endemic. Found in temporary waters such as lakes, swamps, rock pools or clay pans in the drier areas of Australia, Branchinella are filter feeders of algae, protozoa, bacteria and organic material. One species is known to be predatory on other smaller fairy shrimp or larger zooplankton.

Shield or Tadpole Shrimp Shield shrimp have numerous segments and leaf-like appendages too but feature a large shield-shaped carapace and two sessile eyes. Behind these is a small

Branchinella in typical swimming motion (upside down) showing the claspers of the male.

I collected them in a small water body Ouyen north west Victoria.

Photo by Neil Armstrong.

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RESEARCH

The shape of these cysts can be used for identifying species.”

The technical term for this is ‘Cryptobiosis’ and some cysts have been known to be in a type of suspended animation (all metabolic processes are stopped) or diapause for over 20 years for Triops and over 50 years for Artemia.

“This allows the species to survive the long droughts and very hot conditions found in much of Australia. In addition to the water, the cysts may need light and warm temperatures (20-30°C).”

This beautiful red variant of Paratya australiensis shrimp was found in the Dandenongs, Victoria. In culture they will hold their colour and Phil and some friends are trying to find out if they offspring are also red.

Potential for selective breeding for oddities and colour variations is immense. Photo by Neil Armstrong The shield shrimp Lepidurus apus viridus collected at Nagambie, Victoria. Photo by Neil Armstrong

lump called the nuchal organ which is the equivalent of a nostril for these burrowing animals.

There are two species endemic to Australia with both living for up to 3-4 months in soft sediments eating a range of detritus.

They mate and lay their microscopic eggs as cysts. If the pool of water remains for a period of time, the shield shrimp tend to disappear through predation or death but will return when the cysts hatch following rains after a dry period.

Resistant cysts In both groups the sexes are separate (bisexual), although some species are 46 Austasia Aquaculture | Winter 2010

also hermaphroditic which makes for some interesting life cycles. The larvae are usually free swimming. Some species mature very quickly (4 days) and most grow quickly; in good conditions they can double in size every few days.

They grow by moulting and losing their own shell which is replaced by a newer larger one. Artemia nauplii undergo up to 17 moults to reach adult size.

“Both the fairy and the shield shrimp have adapted to producing resistant eggs called cysts,” Phil says. “These cysts allow the egg to resist drying out (dessication) until new water (usually rainfall) arrives and they hatch into larval stages.

It is thought that most species require a period of desiccation before the eggs undergo development within the hard protective cysts. Since they are very small, cysts can be transported by the wind, water birds and other dispersal agents to colonise other environments.

“A percentage of the cysts hatch 12-48hr after hydration (exposure to water). The recently hatched embryo and nauplius larvae (usually less than 24 hours old) are both a rich source of carotenoid pigments. More mature animals can also be highly nutritious depending on what food they have been filter feeding or grazing.”

The resistant cysts also provide an easy way to produce them in large numbers – “just add water”. As they are buoyant, Artemia cysts float to the surface of the water and are blown to the shore for easy collection – although commercial harvesters drive specially-designed boats around the saline ponds to collect them.

Most of the other species have cysts which sink into the mud, making collection of large numbers more difficult.

Consequently Artemia cysts can be easily purchased in bulk from aquaculture and aquarium suppliers. It’s possible that Triops is the only other species commercially available here.

Hatching instructions provided with the bought cysts are easy to follow. It is important not to use chlorinated tap water; spring or bottled water is best.

The Artemia will need a salinity of at least 20ppt to hatch whilst Triops requires freshwater; special water conditioners can be purchased to increase hatching rates of both species. Both

RESEARCH

hatch into free swimming nauplii larvae; Triops will be seen around 24 hours after adding the cysts to the water whilst Artemia may take 4-5 days before they are seen. After a few days the Triops moult into crawling juvenile with an adult body shape.

A range of ‘enrichment diets’ (these can be expensive) can be purchased for the fairy shrimp or Triops. For the predatory Triops some people provide live foods including small earthworms, aquatic worms (e.g. blackworms Lumbriculus), insect larvae such as bloodworms (Family Chironomidae or midges) or small crumbles of fish pellets. The filter feeding fairy shrimp can be fed microalgae such as Spirulina, brewers yeast, ‘green water’ or other particulate organic matter.

With these animals it is important to prevent overfeeding which can cause bacteria build-up which can quickly kill them.

Collecting your own Anyone can collect their own organisms.

Small mesh nets can be purchased from scientific suppliers or well stocked pet shops, or fine mesh cloth can be used to make your own nets. Commercial harvesters overseas use pumps to suck the water through specially designed filters to collect large numbers from fertilised ponds, including sewage works.

Phil believes that as people examine more of the wide range of species found in Australia’s inland waters (fresh, brackish, saltwater and hypersaline), many more valuable species of useful invertebrates will be found.

However, he warns that some care needs to be taken. “Some species have quite isolated populations or are very rare and can be endangered through a variety of natural (drought) or man\-made impacts. Scientists from organisations such as the Co-operative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology (CRCFE) are active in this area. There are also some non-government environmental or catchment management groups that are working to identify and protect some populations. It is important that collec-

tors are responsible in their activities.

“There are a number of excellent identification and ecology guides produced by the CRCFE (see reference). Most Museums have experts who can identify species but it is often difficult to know if a natural population is rare or unique.

Probably it is safe to say that if you find a species which grows to a good size in prolific numbers in a man-made water body then it should be fine to harvest. I would encourage people not to go around harvesting animals and moving them into other natural waters as this can adversely affect the biodiversity of that water body.”

A range of plastic or glass tanks can be used for holding these animals as pets or for study. It’s best to hold them as monocultures as fish and other larger animals will eat them. Gentle aeration should be provided, excess food should be removed regularly and, if they are held in moderate to high stocking densities, some sort of filtration system will be beneficial. With the Shield Shrimp, bottom surface area is more important than depth, whilst the Fairy Shrimp can form swarms in the water column of deeper tanks.

Hobbyists have often reported seeing their Triops mating and laying eggs in the sediment. If the tank is dried out for a period of time (possibly 6-8 months), then a second crop can hatch once water has been added again.

Artemia in nature can also produce eggs that develop directly into free swimming nauplii larvae which are released by the females - this is called ovoviviparous reproduction or live-birth. A female can produce about 300 offspring every 4 days. A further reproductive mode is parthenogenesis (females only) takes place, when there are no or very few males around. Since the female parthenogenesis results only in female nauplii, the eventual result is an all female brine shrimp population in that area.

However, getting either species to reproduce regularly in controlled culture or holding situations can be difficult. The commercial suppliers have undertaken a great deal of R&D to ensure they have

Paratemia expelling an egg, a species collected from pool of water in a dry creek bed Mildura; the salinity was least 35ppt.

Photo by Neil Armstrong

effective production, marketing and distribution techniques, so don’t think commercialisation of your ‘new species’ will be easy.

Despite these problems, Phil is still confident that there will be some break throughs. “We have a huge range of species, some distributed across large areas and they posses a wide range of benefits for uses in aquaculture, ornamentals or pets and for classroom projects.”

By Dos O’Sullivan.

For more information contact Phil Littlejohn email: phil_littlejohn@hotmail.com Reference: Hawking and Smith (1997). Colour guide to invertebrates of Australian Inland waters.

Co-operative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology Identification Guide No. 8, Albury, NSW. A range of excellent Id Guides are available from the CRCFE on 02 6058-2300.

Winter 2010 | Austasia Aquaculture 47

TECHNOLOGY

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Providing high quality equipment to the

aquaculture industry

Fresh By Design and AGK Technology formed alliances to provide the Australasian and JUHDWHU $VLDQ 3DFLÃ&#x20AC;F DTXDFXOWXUH LQGXVWU\ ZLWK KLJK TXDOLW\ HTXLSPHQW H[SHUWLVH H[SHULHQFH WRJHWKHU ZLWK DQ H[WHQVLYH SURGXFW UDQJH DQG reliable ongoing backup service. We cover FRPPHUFLDO DQG KREE\ DTXDFXOWXUH ZDVWH ZDWHU WUHDWPHQW Ã&#x20AC;VK SURFHVVLQJ DQG WKH needs of educational facilities.

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CONTACT US

Your Australian agent of Faivre products

Fresh By Design - Ben Pope 3 Old Oak Place 32 %R[ 0RVV 9DOH 16: 3K )D[ 0RELOH fresh@bigpond.net.au ZZZ IUHVKE\GHVLJQ FRP DX

AGK Technology - Peter Koller &RUNV 5RDG 32 %R[ 0DFHGRQ 9,& 3K )D[ 0RELOH agktech@netcon.net.au ZZZ DJNWHFKQRORJ\ FRP DX

Aquaculture Heater-Chiller Aquaculture Heater - Chiller

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