Summer 2011 by Tim Walker

Volume 25 No 4 – Summer 2011

Turning a fish hatchery dollar Hawkesbury oyster efficiencies Granite belt fingerlings Variety the key for NT collector Harvest boost for trepang Combining two prawn farms Trout and bush tucker profit Oyster growers’ winning MOU

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Contents

12 Editor-in-chief Dr Tim Walker Regular contributors David O'Sullivan John Mosig

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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 S

Juggling native species to turn a fish hatchery dollar Technology adoptions lead to Hawkesbury oyster farming efficiencies Family expertise key to quality fingerlings in the granite belt Variety provides ‘spice’ for Monsoon Aquatics

F E AT U R E

8 12 16

Culture to increase trepang production in Northern Territory

Trout and bush tucker a popular combination for Phillip Island farm

Two prawn farms no hassle when management the same

Broken Bay Oysters Association producing premium oysters – naturally!

TECHNOLOGY

Aquatic Eco-Systems

Otohime Hirame larval diets

Oxyguard Pacific

Singapore’s Pacific oysters finding a sweet market

Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 1

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FA R M P R O F I L E Andrew inspecting the 16 day old bass fry prior to their stocking in the plankton ponds.

Juggling native species to turn a fish hatchery dollar Like most farming, flexibility and adaptability are the hallmark of many successful aquaculture operations.

ndrew Shaw farms jade perch and spawns a mixture of warmwater species on an existing redclaw farm at Beerburrum on the Sunshine Coast hinterland. His aquaculture strategy uses the existing farm structure to maximise the output from the property.

Andrew did his aquaculture training through Deakin University Warrnambool. It was there that he “fell in love with the artificial propagation side of things” and decided that was the direction he was going to follow. He cut his teeth on David Rose’s Redgate Fish Farm at Murgon. “David asked me to help with the breeding, which gave me my start back in 2001. Three years 4 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

ago we took on this place. We also have 17 ponds out at Murgon that cover around 30 acres. It’s great black soil country and produces a huge amount of food. We rear yellowbelly (Macquaria ambigua) and Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii peelii) out there, as well as saratoga, silver perch and sooty grunter.” The Beerburrum farm falls 6m to an arm of Coochin Creek a tributary of the Bribie Passage, which is one of the sources of the water for the farm. Water is also harvested from the 1,300mm annual rainfall and pond water is recycled as well. The ponds are in three tiers. The first tier consists of seven netted ponds – ranging from 1,600m2 to

Salinity levels play a crucial part in bass rearing.

1,000m2 – dedicated to redclaw. These ponds are aerated by airlift, popular amongst crayfish growers. Andrew can’t say how long the netting had been up. It was well before his time and is still working effectively. But there’s a noticeable difference between the yield from netted redclaw ponds and those that aren’t. “They would have paid for themselves 10 times over.

FA R M P R O F I L E Clockwise from right: An algae culture tank at Australian Native Fish Enterprises. Andrew displaying a tubular hide. A dry plankton pond. Flooding dry, fertilized and limed ponds triggers a plankton bloom and minimizes the presence of aquatic insects when the larvae are introduced. Ready for market – a tray of purged redclaw crayfish. The settlement pond.

You’ve really got to be on site all the time if you haven’t got your ponds netted,” he says. “The dogs love chasing the birds, which is a big help.”

rearing bass or perch larvae to fry – which only ties up the ponds for 2-3 months – the return from the hatchery operation is more financially rewarding.

The next two tiers are un-netted and the bottom tier is not aerated. There are ten ponds in the second tier and nine in the third. The 1ha settlement pond sits last in line. Although the yields are low by intensively-run pond standards, the inputs are commensurately low. Andrew says he can expect 400-500kg of market-size silver perch out of each pond after two growing seasons.

He is looking at a couple of options. The first one is to rear silver perch fry to 100g fingerlings in the ponds before transferring them to floating cages in the aerated redclaw ponds. The aim would be to see if he can get them through to market size after only one season in the growout ponds.

He gets $14/kg for live fish which means he can gross up to $7,000 from a pond. Compared to the short-term return from

The other option is to grow the fish right through to market size in the floating cages. As the buyer likes to collect 200kg of fish at a time, Andrew says the ideal may be to have (say) 200 fish in a cage.

That way one or two cages could be harvested without much trouble to fill the transport tank for a quick turnaround. Bass spawning The property is ideally suited to produce Australian bass (Macquaria novemaculeata). Being only a short distance from the ocean, it’s a simple matter to tank in marine water. Andrew holds a few bass broodstock but has found bass taken from the wild to be more productive. He has a broodstock collection license for all the commercial freshwater species found in Queensland waters. “The bass collected from impoundments are fantastic but I’ve found the yellowbelly from running streams are less Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 5

FA R M P R O F I L E

Mesh hides that are used by moulting juvenile crayfish as shelter while their new shells harden.

fat and lazy than impoundment-caught yellowbelly. “The impoundment fish look to be in good condition, but creek fish seem to be better breeders.” He usually gets the bass season underway in early July and finishes spawning by September. October is his yellowbelly month. “By putting in a big effort in October I don’t have to do any more yellowbelly,” Andrew says. “With silvers, the demand is spread more over the entire season. They’re a good fish to have on hand late in the season. Last year I could have sold another 100,000 on top of what I had on the farm.” The females are injected with 1,000iu per kilo of HCG in full marine water (35ppt) at 20°C. Andrew allows an ovulation period of 30 hours before stripping the eggs into a bowl and mixing in the motile milt of the males.

Top: Looking down from the first tier over tiers two and three. Above: An aerated and bird netted redclaw pond. Note the droppers supporting the mesh hides and the buoys marking the tubular hides.

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Males are not injected. “I haven’t had much success with spontaneous spawning. I’m not sure what it is – whether the males don’t go off or what – but our fertility rate spawning manually is well over 90%,” he says. The bass, possibly betraying their marine origins, are extremely fecund. Andrew estimates he gets 300-500K eggs per kilo, depending on the condition of the fish. Incubation takes 36-38 hours. Andrew can tell within 24 hours if the spawn is going to be any good. “If you can see backbones in the eggs (under the microscope) after 24 hours you know you’re going to get larvae.” Larvae are held in saltwater for 21 days

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after which time they are sufficiently developed to osmoregulate in freshwater. They are fed rotifers and brine shrimp sieved down to 200µm during this stage. Both the artemia and the rotifers are enriched with IS Selco® HUFA fatty acid and amino acid mix before they are fed out. Andrew will also harvest zooplankton from the ponds to keep up a healthy supply of food to the ravenous larvae. He feels that even if the freshwater zooplankton only last for 15 minutes, the larvae get nourishment from them. The tanks receive a daily 40% water exchange and are cleaned out in the process. Any brine shrimp sieved out of the drainage water during the water exchange are collected and enriched again before they’re returned to the larval rearing tanks. Artemia production is straightforward beginning with saltwater is pumped up from the creek on a high tide. “I belt it with chlorine, aerate the chlorine out of it and let it sit for a couple of days,” Andrew says. “I get the algae and rotifer cultures from Bribie Island (DPI Research Station). They’ve been really helpful.” After three weeks the larvae have morphed and are 10-15mm. They are stocked out in ponds that have been fertilized and flooded 3-4 days prior to stocking. Other species Yellowbelly are also injected at the Beerburrum farm. The hatched larvae are taken out to Murgon, – about three hours by road – and stocked in freshly flooded and fertilised ponds. Murray cod are also raised out there. Cod eggs are collected from shade cloth mesh in nesting boxes (made from 44-gallon drums with the ends cut out of them) placed in broodstock ponds. Brought into the hatchery, the adhesive eggs are given a 1% formalin bath daily to keep fungus at bay. The egg screens are hung vertically in the water and the larvae drop off as they hatch – usually 8-10 days. Once they have exhausted their yolk sacks they are fed enriched

Larval reading tanks.

artemia before being stocked in plankton ponds. As the cod are more advanced and have a bigger mouth gape than the perch larvae, the ponds are flooded earlier than for the perch to establish a more mature plankton population that includes daphnia as well as copepods and rotifers. Cod breed earlier in the season than the perch, when the weather is less stable. In these circumstances the larvae are held back in the hatchery until the plankton bloom is fully established. Last year, because of the slow start to the season, the larvae were hand fed for five weeks. Andrew says that restocking groups are his ‘bread and butter’ market. “Now that it’s rained, all the hatcheries have plenty of water. Everyone’s undercutting everyone else to regain market share while they’ve got the water. But it puts everyone at odds with each other. There’s nothing to do but go along with it. It’s better selling fish than having them die in the ponds. “We sell a lot to the farm dam people. We can charge more because there’s a lot more servicing in getting them to airports and transport depots. Small sales make up more than half the farm’s income. One client in South Australia bought

The pump house on Coochin Creek

$300 worth of fish and the airfreight cost another $500. They paid it without batting an eyelid.” The future Andrew only sees the industry getting bigger. “We’re going to have to grow more seafood,” he says. “In our case we need more aeration. Paddlewheel aeration in the ponds out at Murgon has improved our yields massively. Just turning the water over, getting good algal blooms and breaking thermal layers in the ponds – it all makes a huge difference.” By John Mosig

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Ph/Fax: 02 4982 6086 Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 7

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Technology adoptions lead to Hawkesbury oyster farming efficiencies To get the most out of their resurrected oyster industry in the Hawkesbury River, the estuary’s growers are adapting techniques from shellfish farming from all over Australia to suit the specific growing conditions of their leases. Two of these companies are featured here for their innovative methods.

ater quality in Broken Bay – the estuary of the Hawkesbury River located just 40 minutes north of Sydney’s outskirts – is at levels that have not been seen for decades. It’s due reward for the collaborative efforts of the Broken Bay Oyster Association (BBOA), the Hornsbury Shire Council (HSC), the local Catchment Management Authority (CMA) and a number of other government and stakeholder groups. Selectively bred Sydney Rock Oysters (Saccostrea commercialis) and Pacific Oysters (Crassostrea gigas) are regularly stocked in the river. Given stock density management is critical for long term viability of all Hawkesbury River oyster growers, the 12 members of BBOA cooperate with systematic oyster stocking. They also manage the containment of feral or wild oysters and poorly maintained infrastructure.

The eight existing farms started with virtually a clean slate as nearly all legacy infrastructure was removed from the leases following 2004’s devastating QX outbreak (Austasia Aquaculture summer 2008 issue, Vol 22.4). Four new investors have established farms as well. Following site visits and discussions with oyster farmers right across Australia, all these businesses have adopted sitespecific growing technologies in their search for best practice oyster farming. From top: Greg Barrett’s unique design allows these SEAPA baskets to float in the tide and so continually rumble the oysters. All derelict infrastructure was removed after the 2004 QX outbreak. Plump and juicy Pacific oysters from Oystermen’s Pty Ltd, one of the innovative farms on the Hawkesbury River, NSW.

8 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

Hatchery seed John Stubbs is a proud fourth generation farmer with a history of 30 years growing oysters on the Hawkesbury River. He’s absolutely rapt with the resurrection of his beloved industry. “Our family business J&S Stubbs was one of the founding members of the BBOA. I was the Quality

Assurance Manager for seven years and am now the President. It is a very exciting time as production continues to increase. He says that since the QX disaster, the business has swapped to single seed which is held in a sheltered nursery area. “However it’s hard to source many hatchery reared QX-resistant Sydney Rock Oysters (Saccostrea commercialis) as they’re proving difficult to produce at the moment. “So we’re buying selectively-bred Pacific Oysters (Crassostrea gigas) from Tasmania’s Shellfish Culture Normally the 3mm seed would be grown in upwellers of nursery farms to a larger size (6-10mm at least). However, we have to work with the smaller sized seed (to prevent spread of pests between growing areas, translocation protocols only allow seed from closed water systems).” According to John they only buy certified ‘spawnless’ Pacifics. “These are triploids, so they can’t spawn and produce feral populations in the river. These Pacifics can be grown through to market size in 10-12 months. “We put around 4-5,000 of the seed into a 1,000µm mesh sock or bag which, in turn, sits inside a 6mm injection-moulded SEAPA basket hanging from a floating longline. The bags were designed and made for us by Allied Filter Fabrics with zippers for easy opening and closing. There have been a couple of design modifications to make them more user-friendly. The bags give the growing oysters a good shape.” Floating longlines Whilst the longlines vary in length according to the lease size, on average they’d be 100-200m. Aligned along the

FA R M P R O F I L E

flow, the lines are around 10m apart to allow the punts to easily work between them. The 10mm aquaropes are strung between 150mm diameter 6m long poles driven halfway into the seafloor (these poles are covered in plastic coating for protection from marine borers). The lines are tied to car tyres filled with flotation at each end so the lines rise and fall with the tides as the tyres slip up and down the poles. Pieces of high density foam (100mm by 75mm) – attached to the SEAPA baskets spread out along the line – provide buoyancy for the lines. John says that the idea of the floating lines came out of necessity. “When we were cleaning up all the leases back in 2003 and 2004, we still needed time to ‘work’ our surviving or newly stocked oysters. If left on the traditional racks then we’d have to wait for the right tides; however, floating lines meant we could tend the oysters whenever we wanted to.” Now they are a popular method also used for growout by other companies too. Seed is gently graded every two weeks with hand sieves in tubs of water. As the seed grow in size (now called spat) they can be mechanically graded in the traditional shaker graders (barrel rollers or rumbler graders are used for the larger oysters as they grow towards market size). After about two months the oysters are transferred into 6mm SEAPA baskets.

The continual rumbling in the modified SEAPA Baskets not only smooths the shell (A is front, B is back and C is side view), but the oysters also grow faster. The oysters on the left are the same age and batch but were stocked in baskets on floating longlines.

“For growout we use 12mm Tooltech trays which are tied onto our racks with bailing twine. With the trays we need to wash the mud off them every two weeks.” John has two aluminium punts – one is 10m long, the other 8m. Both have a 100HP 4-stroke Yamaha outboard. “These are fantastic on fuel. I reckon we can go twice as far with then as the old 90cc 2-strokes. They are also very quiet and no oil is released into the river. Almost all of our guys in the BBOA are using them now; all of this is important part of our EMS.”

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Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 9

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Management Metrics Key Management Decisions for Oystermen’s and J&S Stubbs include: • Certification: HACCP-based Food Safety Program for the Food Standards Code, certified by the NSW Food Authority and export approved by AQIS, voluntary Environmental Management System • Adaption of different technologies with specific innovations for specific conditions of their leases • Group marketing of oysters with a consistent grading system for year round supply. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Oystermen’s Pacific Oysters include: • Culture or Holding System utilised: rotating SEAPA cylinders on intertidal lines, floating cylinders and intertidal finishing trays • Growth rate (from stocking to market): <12 months (0.1g to 80g) • Survival rate: 95% from first stocking to sale size • Annual harvest: 50,000 dozen Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for J&S Stubbs Pacific Oysters include: • Culture or Holding System utilised: SEAPA cylinders on floating lines and intertidal finishing trays • Growth rate (from stocking to market): <12 months (0.1g to 80g) • Survival rate: 80% from first stocking to sale size • Annual harvest: 55,000 dozen

Like his fellow growers, John has been working hard to minimise the impacts of oyster farming. Top of the list has been the total ban on the use of tar for the oyster culture infrastructure. So there’s a need to protect wooden poles, racks and rails from marine boring worms. “A number of products are now available, including poles made from recycled plastics or pine wood cores covered in a polyethylene outer. We still have a couple of turpentine wooden trays with Tooltech lids as bottoms; however we are purchasing more plastic trays from Tooltech.” As oyster farmers have been on the river so a long time they are accepted as ‘part of the furniture’ by most other users. “We have a good relationship with Fisheries (NSW Department of Primary Industries) and have all our leases properly sign posted and marked. We have little to no problems with accidental damage to the culture systems, certainly no vandalism. And we don’t get any poaching or theft.” 10 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

Rumbled oysters Greg Barrett has been oyster farming for 20 years. He now works for Oystermen’s Pty Ltd, another family owned and operated oyster farm. His boss Reg Richards reckons the Hawkesbury River to be arguably the best oyster farming estuary in Australia. “We are lucky to have eight hectares of the best growing and harvesting leases available for farming Pacific Oysters,” says Reg. “This is due to the estuary’s rich nutrients and water quality so good it’s been approved for direct harvest.” Greg has been the ‘ideas’ man behind the company’s innovative approaches to oyster farming. “I started as a youngster with Wayne Moxham who invented and sold the Stanway Cylinder, a tumbling and rotating system that was designed for Sydney Rock Oysters. “When we started working with Pacifics, I said to Reg that we needed to use this system because it has great benefits in that the oysters dry out with every tide so they don’t need to be washed free of

weed or mud. They (Stanway Cylinders) are simply the best container for spat and juveniles. But they can’t handle the weight of larger oysters.” He says they wanted to hold around 15 dozen (15kg at near market size) oysters in the baskets. “Anything less and you would just have way too many culture units.” So 850mm SEAPA baskets were trialed. “We found these were strong enough to handle a decent amount of buffet-size (60-70mm) oysters with a few standard (70-85mm) oysters in there as well. They started with 12mm mesh baskets wanting to get the oysters into the baskets as early as possible. “We buy post nursery oysters from Geoff Diemar in November that are big enough to go straight into 3mm Stanway Cylinders. By March/April they are big enough to go through a barrel grader and the majority move on to the 12mm SEAPA Baskets. The lease is set up using SEAPA’s Longline System guidelines albeit with just a few slight changes. Twin parallel lines are used with the lines less than 1m apart. Round posts (3.6m long, 150mm) posts made by APR (Advanced Plastic Recycling) are put in every 1.5m so that two of the SEAPA baskets can fit on the lines between each. “To work properly the baskets need to spin or rotate with the water movement. So with a cable tie at each end, I attached two slabs of high density foam to each side of the basket. This added only an extra $2 to the cost of the baskets but it is sufficient to get rotation of the baskets which in turn rumbles the oysters.” To allow each basket to move independently Greg cut the outer wire covering (dripper tubing over the Bayco wire) to have a piece that fits each basket. This means that the clips will not cut into the outer cable. All of the baskets are now free to swing whichever way they like. “It takes a bit of stuffing around cutting the pieces and threading them about twenty at a time along the Bayco wire but we can do about four lines a day,” he says.

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“We also need locking riser clips on the posts so longlines don’t get pulled out of the clips when the tide is high.” The system has been in use now for two years now and works brilliantly. “Once the baskets are filled in March/April the next time we need to touch them is in August when many have reached buffet size. So there’s zero labour – no spraying to get rid of mud and no regular moving or grading. We just need to cruise past occasionally to ensure no baskets have been displaced or to see if any sticks are caught in the mesh. As the baskets move with every tide change the rough edges and ripples in the oyster shells are worn flat. “Many people who see that the shells are so smooth say they look like snails. I reckon they look more like river pebbles. They have a much deeper shell than oysters from other culture systems and the meat to shell ratio is close to 100%. And a big plus is no problems with mudworms, low labour and they are protected from the sun by the baskets and the foam floats. “The whole system is running like clockwork. I took a stab in the dark at the height to hold the cylinders (11 inches or 28mm above tray height) and I got it pretty right first time. I have tried a lower level but this resulted in weed growth and mudworm problems. A few people are watching how we are going and when we put more lines in soon, they will see we are pretty set on the design. We have 600 baskets stocked at present to produce over 100,000 beautiful oysters every 12 months. And that will increase.” Greg and Reg use intertidal trays to finish off the oysters. “We have a big tray lease only five minutes away from the basket line; it’s a simple matter of picking up the baskets, taking them to the trays, flipping the lid and pouring out the oysters. 100 baskets will hold around 1,500 dozen oysters, sufficient to fill 50-65 trays at 25-30 dozen/tray. The baskets are easy to handle and two men can transfer more than 2,000 dozen oysters on one tide; then we are heading back home

with a boat load of empty baskets. “It only takes a few weeks once the oysters are on trays to get to premium quality. We can harvest them straight from the trays into the transport bags and next day they are in Sydney ready for sale.” Consistent grades John says that the growers had all agreed that supplying consistent grades would be very important in differentiating their product from oysters harvested from other estuaries. “At BBOA we have adopted the Pacific grades and specifications that were once used by TASEA (a marketing company set up to expand sales of Tasmanian oysters). This grading system (see box insert) has worked well for us as we are placing a consistent quality product on the market.

Pacific Oyster Grading System Bistro – 50-60mm Buffet – 60-70mm Standard – 70-85mm Large – 85-100mm Jumbo – 100-120mm Other grade categories are made on body and mantle condition as well as minimum shell fullness (meat size)

Leaving in early morning, it is only a 40 minute drive to the Sydney Fish Market at Piermont; other processors around Sydney are also supplied. The Broken Bay Oyster Association logo is on the hessian bags and each business has its own name printed on their bags. “By working together we are able to ensure we have year round harvest (weather permitting), averaging between 15-20,000 dozen per week. There is good demand for our product which is well recognised in the market place.” BBOA oysters have been part of the annual ‘Oysters in the House’; this year it was held at the Opera House with thousands of visitors proving that this tasting competition and wine matching event is growing in popularity. Another show case event was recently held Oysters at The Ivy in Sydney. The famous The Ivy Bar is often likened to an imperial palace and considered ‘the place to be seen’. Again ‘punters’ got to sample the best NSW oysters from up and down the coast and the feedback was excellent. With the continuing oyster technology innovations in the Hawkesbury River, it is likely that BBOA oysters will win even more awards and create quite a name for themselves as the best and freshest oysters around.

From top: As the tide rises and falls, these modified SEAPA baskets roll on the lines which rumbles the oysters inside. Stanway rotating nursery baskets are used for the small spat.

By Dos Osullivan For more information: John Stubbs, J&S Stubbs, 10 Kowan Rd, Mooney Mooney, NSW 2083. Mob: 0404 833-194, Fax: 02 9456-4767, Email: johnstubbs3@bigpond.com Greg Barrett, Oystermen’s Pty Ltd, Lot 218 Kowan Rd, Mooney Mooney, NSW 2229. Mob: 0404 085-218, Email. us4barretts@hotmail.com Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 11

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Family expertise key to quality fingerlings in the granite belt Nick demonstrates how the nesting boxes work

nspired to do so after a chat with industry stalwart Dr Stuart Rowland, the Donges family have been breeding warmwater Australian native fish since 1987. Situated just out of Stanthorpe on the NSW Queensland border in the Granite Belt, the farm has a reputation for producing quality fingerlings – Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii peelii) golden perch (Macquaria ambigua) and silver perch (Bidyanus biyanus) – for the recreational and restocking markets. Geoff and Janette Donges learnt from experience, expanding the business each year. In 2005, they handed it on to their son Nick to take it on. Now in his 7th season he has continued the family’s successful ‘hands on’ tradition.

From top: The transporter tank used on the farm Part of the hatchery at Granite Belt Fish Hatchery The spawning tanks with bio-filter and swirl tank.

The Granite Belt Hatchery, as the name implies, is in the Great Dividing Range that separates the narrow coastal plain from the vast inland plains of our ‘wide brown land’. The region is on the watershed and is predominantly grazing country, making it largely free of the agricultural chemicals that can make aquaculture a hazardous occupation. Water can be pumped up from the

12 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

Severn River or harvested from run off. The average rainfall is 750mm, falling throughout the year although, being in the sub-tropics, the heaviest falls are in the warmer months. The hatchery has an allocation to pump 300ML over three years from the Severn River; the three storage reservoirs hold another 300ML. However, in a wet year, runoff and recycled water is sufficient. The water, with a pH of 8.5, is well buffered. Pond temperatures, even in the shallow plankton production ponds, rarely get above 27oC. Nick says that he needs to monitor just a few key water quality indicators – dissolved oxygen plus phosphate levels to make sure there’s enough nutrient to drive the plankton bloom. There are 16 growout ponds of varying sizes; the largest hold 8ML and the smallest 3ML. All are based on the ponds designed by Dr John Lake at Narrandera’s research station – long and bottomdraining with concrete harvest sumps. During winter Nick keeps water in his growout ponds, partly to kill the grass and as water storage itself. When spring approaches this water is moved to one of the three main storage reservoirs and the ponds allowed to dry out to prepare them for the cod and perch larvae. Drying them out breaks the build-up of any aquatic invertebrates that can prey on the larvae. It also allows the pond to be fertilised and flooded to trigger a healthy plankton bloom. The hatchery has been designed and built by the Donges. Innovation can be seen at every turn such as the tractordriven aerators and the ingenious air pump for the hatchery. Consisting of a series of diaphragms, cams and mechanical arms, it is belt driven off the mains power and despite being 20 years old has never let them down. The tanks, the bio-filters, the plumbing and the drum

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filter were all designed and cobbled together on the farm from stainless steel.

Some of the farm built aerators designed at GBFH

The original hatchery consisted of 8 x 1,600L tanks connected to a recirculating system. Each tank has 2 x 200L biofilters using Aquasonic bio-balls and the water from two tanks goes into a 400L swirl filter before going through a 100µm drum filter. It is then returned to the tanks via 4 x 120W UV sterilizers. The 8 x 1,600L tank hatchery extension follows the same design. There is an in-line heating tank for each system. Water for the cod is kept at 24°C. Nick spreads the season. The cod are bred from eggs harvested from spawning drums (22 in total – ten, seven and five in the three ponds). How many fertilised eggs they get from the boxes varies with the season. “A couple of years ago we weaned about 200,000. But this can cause more troubles than it’s worth. We normally do around 100,000”, Nick said. Cod boxes are put in the ponds when the temperature approaches 19°C. The spawning trigger is 20°C and the water hits that mark in late September to early

October. Nick says the cod tend to spawn on a full moon. And, one year when cod in a pond hadn’t, he joked during a storm that the lightning would do the trick. “Sure enough when we checked the drums the next morning they had eggs in them!” Cod eggs hatch within five to seven days of collection. Quite large when they hatch (10mm to 12mm), the larvae live

on their yolk sack for up to 13 days. By this time they have spread out and they are looking for food. Once the hatch has been successful, plankton ponds are fertilised and flooded. Juvenile cod have a large gape, and like their parents, will tackle anything that they feel they can swallow. Nick makes sure the plankton bloom has matured and that the zooplankton is

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told by Fisheries not to stock any more cod; they’re well enough established in the rivers. This left him with a few over. These were placed with a local commercial grower who reckoned they were the best cod he’d ever taken delivery of. “I’d put a fair bit of growth and condition on them for the re-stockers and they were a bit ahead of the normal seedstock size he’d been used to getting,” Nick says. “They’d had a good run in the ponds; I hold them for around eight weeks anyway. I’d had these in for a bit and weaned them onto dry food. They were graded and were between 3.5g and 4g.” Once the cod have finished spawning, Nick turns his attention to the golden perch. He’ll do two or three spawns, which will also be ready to harvest early in the New Year. There isn’t a large demand for silver perch, so he leaves them till last – around late February or early March. Whilst a busy schedule for what is basically a one-man operation, a tried and tested routine keeps it manageable.

The farm built air pump designed by Jeff Donges.

advanced before he stocks at fifty larvae per square meter. It is not economical to keep the plankton bloom going beyond eight weeks. The cod are looking for a feed and if the zooplankters have been reduced, sometimes even eaten out all together, the fingerlings start eyeing off their siblings. Under optimum conditions the cod fingerlings have reached 40mm before Christmas. Nick brings them in to the shed, acclimates them and weans them onto a dry feed. This allows him to bring them on to 60mm. Cod grow rapidly at this age and it takes around another three 14 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

to four weeks to reach the size at which they large enough to fend for themselves when restocked in open waters. He has experimented with numerous feeds – Ridleys, Skretting, Growbest and this year is trailing Lucky Star – a Growbest product (protein is 42%, fats 3% and fibre 4%). Once the cod are weaned they are fed at a rate of 3.5% body weight a day in total. A close check is kept emergence of large size variations – in which case they’ll need grading. That’s normally needed every two weeks. Nick’s main market is restocking groups. However, Nick says they’ve now been

He starts checking the golden perch for ova development and spermatozoa motility once the water reaches 21°C – generally around the end of October. After gill-netting or angling from the pond, the broodstock are sedated and ova/spermatozoa checked under the microscope. Once the breeding teams have been selected for their viability– one female to two males – the females are injected with 1,000iu of Chloromon and the males 500iu and placed in 1,600L spawning tanks at 24°C. Spawning commences in 24-27 hours and the semi-pelagic eggs hatch in 24-36 hours. In another three days their mouths are active and the larvae ready to be stocked in the plankton ponds. Females produce approximately 100,000 eggs per kilo of body weight. Plankton ponds are prepared in the same way as for the cod except the timing is more crucial. The fertilised ponds are flooded when the spawn has proven successful and the plankton is not as advanced. Larvae are stocked at 100 per square meter. At a length of 5mm they

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The fry ponds are drained down to concrete raceways for harvesting.

Some of the special purpose nets made to cover specific tasks at GBFH

The farm built drum filter

are far more vulnerable than the cod and the food requirement is much smaller. Nauplii of copepods, claudocerans and rotifers are the first feed zooplankton of preference.

Nick is holding one of the hatching trays used at GBFH

Survival can be unpredictable. An adverse turn in the weather can send plankton blooms crashing but after over 25 years in the job the Donges have a good feel for plankton production. While the water itself is healthy, Nick still has to regularly check for parasites. Both cod and perch are vulnerable to Trichodina and the cod must also be screened for Chilodonella. Fish are sampled every three days; if any infestation appears imminent the pond is treated with formalin. Ponds are dosed at the rate of 25ppm with the tractor’s PTO (power take off) used to drive the mixer; this also helps maintain the dissolve oxygen levels. Harvesting follows the cod in mid to late January. Nick usually produces 350K to 400K golden perch a year. Last year’s 450,000 tails was a record crop. Being nearly 800m above sea level, once the days start to get shorter the nights cool down quickly. Pond temperatures are below 20°C by the end of April and Nick likes to have all the fingerlings out of the ponds by the start of that month. Markets are mainly to Queensland restocking groups for which they receive a dollar-for-dollar incentive funded from

One of the plankton ponds at GBFH

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anglers’ license fees. There are also a few sales to farmers wishing to stock their dams. The market is competitive. The recent prolonged drought left some hatcheries without water and farm dam sales literally dried up. Now that the rains have come back every hatchery has plenty of water; production is at an all-time high as producers try to make up for the times they were out of production. Queensland has a voluntary quality code loosely based on the NSW Hatchery QA program. But, being so close to the border, Nick is seeking accreditation under the NSW program and has an application in. He’s still waiting to hear back.

By John Mosig To contact Nick Donges phone: (07) 4683 5242 email: gbfh@halenet.com.au

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Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 15

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Variety provides ‘spice’ for Monsoon Aquatics Running an aquarium fish supply business out of Darwin is difficult due to the long distances to markets and rising overheads. Despite all that, Monsoon Aquatics supplies a wide range of marine and freshwater fish, crustaceans, invertebrates and live rock.

fish in the Aquaculture Department.

an Kimberly has been around aquariums and fish all his life. “My earliest memories are playing with the fish in my father’s aquarium store on the Northern Beaches of Sydney,” he explains. “Some years later I got my first job working in another local aquarium store. Then I was lucky enough to land a job at Sydney Aquarium, where I stayed for the next four years.

“During this time I completed a Bachelor of Environmental Science and Certificate 4 in Aquaculture at Charles Darwin University. Now Brooke and I have been running Monsoon Aquatics for more than four years.” Dan’s Aquarium Collector’s Licence allows him to catch aquarium specimens for sale from most areas in the NT. This includes freshwater species from public waters, or he can get permission from landowners to fish privately owned billabongs and waterways.

“Looking for an adventure Brooke (wife) and I moved to Darwin where I began work in the aquarium at the Territory Wildlife Park. Next I started work at the Charles Darwin University in the Science Department but ended up back with the

“Around 90% of our catch during the wet season (October to March) is from

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Cherodon cephalotes

freshwater as it is just too rough or the water is too murky to catch marine species during that time. During the dry around 30% of our catch is freshwater species. The main freshwater species are rainbows, catfish, scats, grunters, shrimps and freshwater prawns (both Macrobrachium rosenbergii and M. australensis). “The trick is to offer a little bit of everything as the buyers want variety.” Dan considers himself very lucky to have learned so much from a number of mentors, especially some of the early pioneers in the NT industry. “Bill Boustead is a living legend up here,” Dan says. “He and a couple of other ‘old players’ taught me so much and I now have the knowledge and experience to catch a wide range of animals. “I really enjoy catching those hard to get varieties. Often there are large numbers of them around; however, they are on private land so negotiating with different stakeholders is an important part of the process. Finding his catch Dan works with set nets, cast nets, gill nets, seine nets, traps and even hook and line. “It just depends on the species we are after and the fishing area. The catch is packed in specially designed tanks, and aerated for anything up to 24hrs before reaching Darwin.” For catching marine species Dan has two work boats. The Scubafish, a 9m alloy Tri hull with a Volvo D6 330, allows for catching trips up to a week at sea. A 6m fibreglass longboat Osprey loaded with a 90HP 4-stroke Suzuki is Dan’s ‘day trip’

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boat, enabling his team to catch fish within a 100km radius of Darwin city. He is now thinking of getting a 4-wheel drive so the Osprey can be beach launched in more remote area to allow the targeting of the ‘harder-to-get’ varieties. Dan’s catching team includes a fulltime ‘Apprentice’ – Josh Palmer who is undertaking Certificate 2 in Aquaculture at CDU – and contract diver Anthony Carboni who also assists in packing of larger orders. A surface air compressor provides hookah for two divers; a surface lookout keeps an eagle eye out for crocodiles; sharks are considered less of a problem! The deckie also checks the air pressure on the hookah and ensures the tanks of fish and other collected animals are healthy. “With the Osprey we usually do three catching trips a week,” Dan explains. “On board we have 12V aerators along with a bilge pump for continual flow through of seawater. We got those from Aquasonic along with many of the nets use for catching the fish, as well as the airlines, air stones and other stuff for our holding tanks.” The most popular marine species are angel fish and butterfly fish, neither of which are aggressive in the community tanks; specimens smaller than 8cm are preferred. “We also sell a lot of wrasse, pufferfish and anything else unusual. Every dive comes up with something different; it’s a great feeling when you stumble across a new spot.” There are some species which Dan won’t catch. “There are species that won’t survive in marine aquariums no matter how well the systems are maintained as they have very special nutritional requirements, such as live plankton. We won’t catch Spanish dancers (nudibranchs), sleeper gobies and most sponges.” Interestingly the coral species preferred for the domestic market are different to those exported. “In Australia they

like the golf ball corals, hammer coral, Heliofungia and others varieties with long tentacles. Export customers like to have large polyp stony corals such as the Acans.” There is increasing interest in colourful and idiosyncratic Australian corals and live rock (rocks with growths of invertebrates). An important consideration for purchasers is sustainable harvesting –many previously ‘pristine’ areas overseas have been fished out or destroyed by bad collecting practices such as dynamite or cyanide. Sustainable fishing Members of the NT aquarium fishery have developed a Code of Practice and an Environmental Management Plan to ensure that their activities are sustainable. The fishery has been approved for export under the Commonwealth Government’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 since 2002. The current certification is until November 2012 when another 3-year application will be provided by the NT Department of Resources (DoR).

Micromussa sp Hi Fin Catfish

Margined Coperband Butterfly

“We have to fill in logbooks and provide these to Fisheries monthly so they can obtain an indication of the areas fished and the types and numbers of animals taken,” Dan explains. “There are set trigger points in place regarding the weight of coral and live rock collected each year. If the harvest was to reach or exceed the trigger point in one year, then further research in stock evaluation would be undertaken to check that the harvest was within sustainable limits. “At present there are only three or four of us collecting; I understand our combined average annual harvest doesn’t come close to the triggers in place.”

Platygyra sp. Speckled Carpetshark

An important part of the business is packing the catch well at sea. “The last thing you want when you have been catching some beautiful specimens is to have a rough trip home smash or stress the animals. We ensure we keep Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 17

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Management Metrics Key Management Decisions for Monsoon Aquatics include: • Certification: Fishery has EPBC export accreditation with World Trade Organisation for export • Catches and markets a wide range of freshwater and marine species of fish, corals, crustaceans, molluscs and other invertebrates • Use Facebook for a free way of showing photos of specimens for sale. • Examining options for expansion into temperature controlled facility. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) include: • Culture or Holding System utilised: glass, plastic & fibreglass tanks, all marine tanks are recirculated • Survival rate: >99% for transported specimens • Health management: Use copper treatments for most finfish parasites. Ozone and UV to treat water. Minimum of 2 weeks from capture to sale to ensure health of animals is fine. Don’t over feed animals. Use cleaner species such as crabs, sea cucumbers and snails to help keep tanks clean.

the water flow and oxygen up for the animals as they will purge or excrete massive amounts during transport.” Expanded garage Dan’s garage is filled with thirty 80L glass tanks, each with a sponge filter and air blower for his freshwater specimens. With some other holding and treatment tanks he has over 10,000L of freshwater in his system. These tanks are regularly vacuumed and topped up with treated town water. Any effluent water is used for his luxuriant garden and lawns. Additional roofed areas provide over 60m2 of protected space for his saltwater species. Sixty tanks are used to hold the marine fish and crustaceans. The total capacity of 5,500L is maintained by a number of recirculation systems. There are twenty-five 200L plastic tubs for the corals, each with banks of ATI T5 lights over them. “I have an electrician come in and do the hard wiring for me as it is important to have good supplementary light for the coral to photosynthesise. We keep the lights on for 4-5 hours in the afternoons.” Bioballs are used in the biofilters and there’s also an Aquasonic fluidised bed filter; both are supplemented by DIY PVC protein skimmers. “We exchange the fish tank water three times an hour 18 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

and twice an hour for the corals.” Dan examines the tanks and the stock several times a day, to see if there are any problems. “After capture from the wild the fish can become stressed so I look to see if we need any medication or to quarantine some specimens for treatment. It is important to control ammonia, salinity, pH calcium, phosphate and nitrate levels, depending on what’s in the system.

seem to be looking for a new ‘house’ and we dry out old unused shells and then return them to the place they were originally collected from.” The seawater is partially exchanged at least once a week. “We chlorinate and then dechlorinate the effluent seawater and take it back for disposal in the sea. I think it is good practice to ensure that no bugs are put back into the sea.” Marine and freshwater crustaceans are kept separately given their susceptibility to many of the prophylactic treatments (e.g. copper sulphate) used for fish. “There is a narrow band for the copper to be effective – too high and you can kill the fish; too low and there’s no effect on the parasites. From experience and observation of the fish we can judge how much to add.” Whilst Dan has plans to install a 2,000L saltwater storage tank, for now seawater is regularly carted in an 800L fibreglass tank on the work utility from a nearby boat ramp or other collecting points. He’s also like to move at some point into a facility with insulated rooms – to help water temperatures. “In the dry (season) cold nights can depress tank water to 20°C compared to 25°C in the afternoons. But most species don’t like that sort of daily fluctuation.

“With the freshwater fish, I usually keep the salinity at around 4ppt as this reduces their osmotic stress. Other species like Archerfish, mangrove jacks and scats are often caught in seawater so we hold them in around 20ppt until they recover, then slowly bring the salinity down as the retailers want to get them in water as close to zero as possible.”

“A purpose built temp control facility would be ideal. I am putting most of the profits back into the business and I need to improve the facilities step by step.”

He also stocks giant clams and other bivalves like the decorative oyster. “With other invertebrates these form part of a mini ecosystem in the tanks. We have janitor hermit crabs which help clean up the tanks; they are part of our ‘clean up crew’ which also includes sea cumbers and snails and other marine gastropods which control algal growth. Like with the land hermit crabs, the limiting factor to the growth of the janitor hermit crabs is the size of their shell so we supply extra shells for them. They always

And, if he hasn’t exchanged the water for a few days, ‘vodka dosing’ – a novel method very popular overseas – is called for. “Adding normal vodka increases organic carbon. It’s OK but nothing beats a water change with seawater.”

Control of nitrate and phosphate levels keeps algal growth – which can smother the coral polyps – under control. “We use NP biopellets in the fluidised filter which provides organic carbon for bacterial growth which in turn removes the nitrates.”

Calcium hydroxide (chalk water) is added to the freshwater top up as an alkalinity buffer.

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To feed the fish, harbour shrimp (1-2cm) are collected from intertidal regions with drag nets and then frozen into blocks. “We feed the marine fish a small pinch every few days; they don’t need to grow, we just need to keep them healthy and the system clean from wastes. Of course the fish are purged for two days before transport to reduce deterioration of water quality in the bags. The rainbow fish and other freshwater species are fed goldfish flakes usually daily.” Facebook marketing Apart from a couple of local enthusiasts, Dan sells most of his products ‘down south’ to several wholesalers and over 50 retail shops (of which around 30 purchase at last once a month). His overseas sales are also increasing. Over the past few years a normal week has been around five orders but Dan says Monsoon Aquatics is continually picking up new customers, a trend he puts down to increasing more exposure in the market place.

So, does he use a website? “No, web sites are great in that they hold a lot of information but, if you aren’t constantly updating them, people get tired of them and look elsewhere.” So how does he get his message out? “Facebook,” he says. “We have a Facebook page for Monsoon Aquatics and I have some information about our business and a photo gallery which shows our latest offerings. This is especially useful for all the different varieties of corals we offer as people can see exactly what they are buying. We give the Latin and the common names for each specimen. People can log on as friends or ‘like’ it and they get regular updates from us. It takes time to do this but I think we are getting excellent exposure. “From a business point of view the Facebook page has been great.” Packing Thursday is usually packing and transport day and with most shipments going to Sydney and Melbourne the Monsoon

Aquatics team can be working all day. “Last week we had ten orders to pack and this took over 9 hours including getting the boxes to the airport. We packed over 500 fish and 250 pieces of coral, had no mortalities and our customers were very pleased with them. “We have DOA (dead on arrival) policy and customers can send us photos of the dead animals. Most people are honest and we will resend another fish or specimen as soon as we can.” The fish, molluscs and crustaceans are packed in doubled plastic bags with filtered seawater or treated freshwater. Industrial oxygen is added to the bag at about three times the volume of the water; the bag tops are then twisted close, goose-necked (bent back on itself) and then tied shut before being placed into the 20/25L polystyrene box (CASA approved for airfreight). Around 16-20kg of live rock is packed with damp butchers paper in each poly box for domestic sales. However, the longer transit times (up to 40 hours tank

Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 19

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Moselyea sp.

to tank) for exported product means greater care has to be undertaken. “We are obtaining more big orders (>1,000kg) from overseas for our live rock. “For export we drip dry the live rock for several hours and then pack them dry in the poly boxes. This means less freight costs and when they arrive at their destination, the buyers usually scrape off any dead organisms and then put them into recovery tanks with freshwater and light where the populations of organisms pick up quickly.” The remoteness of Darwin to the markets means that Dan’s livelihood depends on getting his product to the end customer the fastest way possible. This means working closely with transport companies (deomestic) and freight forwarding agencies (export). “We have had boxes sent to the wrong place, cancelled flights leaving boxes marooned, damaged boxes and other problems. These mistakes all cost me money, no one else. However, I just have to keep trying to improve the packing to give the animals the best chance of survival.”

Goniopora sp.

Dan is trialling a number of different products and packaging styles, including

absorbent materials, cool and heat gels/ packs, bags of different thicknesses, goose neck closing techniques and various types of ties. “I have used activated carbon for different shipments and also use Prime which reduces the ammonia in the water.” Dan says the biggest business challenge is setting the sales price. “I have laboured over this for years. I watch the prices of my competitors as well as my customers; obviously if a buyer is taking a lot of product then I can offer a bulk price.” Despite his training in aquaculture, Dan’s not interested in growing corals or breeding fish in his tanks. “We have a well managed fishery here in the NT and I believe that it can be sustainably harvested for many years to come. There is a place in the industry for the culture of high profile or threatened species but I find my customers prefer the wild caught specimens where possible. ” By Dos O’Sullivan. For more information contact Dan Kimberley, Monsoon Aquatics, 29 Moil Cres, Moil NT 0810. Tel: 0427 229-786, Email: daniel@ monsoonaquatics.com.au

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Training locals to pack sacks of market size Sandfish.

Culture to increase trepang production for Northern Territory After more than seven years of R&D Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest fisher of trepang (sea cucumbers) is enjoying success with hatchery, pond growout and ranching trials. A number of indigenous groups are getting involved to expand areas of production in the NT.

acassan fishermen from the island of Celebes, Indonesia, have been fishing for trepang in northern Australian waters since at least the 1700s. Trepang is the term for the dried body wall of sea cucumber, whilst beche-de-mer is the specific term for the cooked body walls. The Macassans sold their dried product to Chinese merchants. Although fishing declined around 1880 the South Australian Government (then in charge of the NT) issued licences to the Macassans in 1907. Low level 22 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

exploitation remained until around 1945 but then there was a hiatus until the early 1980s. In the late 1980s six licences were released to local companies. Now one company, Tasmanian Seafoods has purchased all six licences as well as some in West Australian waters. Another company fishes in Queensland waters. Although six sea cucumber species can be harvested, the higher value Sandfish species (Holothuria scabra) is targeted as it has a thicker body wall. This species is harvested throughout SE Asia and parts of the Pacific.

The largest sea cucumber fishery with a staggering 70,000 tonnes is for Stichopus japonicus, mainly cultured in China. All of the NT fishing operations are vesselbased due to restricted land access. Whilst harvesting can be undertaken by walking at low tides most of the catch comes from by diving (snorkel, SCUBA and hookah) in shallow coastal bays and foreshores. Harvesting generally limited to neap tides and dry season when water visibility improves and cyclone activity is minimal.

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Annual average catch over last ten years is 229 tonnes, a decline since the peak in 2000 of 333t. Over the past few years fishing effort and catch has been low due to Tasmanian Seafoods’ decision to focus on other fishing areas (WA), aquaculture and ranching. Production for 2010 was over 100 tonnes. William Bowman, the Hatchery manager, with some broodstock Sandfish.

Initial processing includes washing, grading, removing the stomach, boiling the body wall then freezing the product on-board 20m motherships. The mothership and dinghies (5m) are all AQIS Approved Arrangement-certified for export. Product is landed at Darwin for further processing in Victoria, mostly mechanical drying. There is a limited domestic market; the majority is exported to Asia. Fishery enhancement “Tasmanian Seafoods is very keen on enhancing our fishery,” explains Will Bowman, Project Manager. “Some people might call it ranching; however, we have a major investment in our fishing and processing operations and we want to keep that expanding. We have been careful with broodstock collection to ensure we maintain the genetic integrity of the restocked populations. To further expand production we are working with local Aboriginal Communities.” Will says that although Sandfish culture is also being undertaken in Vietnam and Philippines, the best hatchery technology is in Australia (there is also a hatchery in Queensland). “In the wild the Sandfish usually spawn around the equinoxes when the highest water movement occurs; it can continue for up to 2 months afterwards.” In rented tanks in the Darwin Aquaculture Centre at Channel Island, Tasmanian Seafoods has been hatching Sandfish for more than seven years. Broodstock (some up to 1kg) are kept in holding ponds; each animal needs more than 1m2 of bottom area in which to feed. Their have long sticky tentacles push into the mud/sand to suck in the sediment. Broodstock are put into a dry spawning tank. Either jet sprays or heated water (3-5°C higher than ambient) are used to

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Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 23

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initiate the spawning. “A female can release over two million eggs and spawn for several nights. However, we can’t identify sexes or when an animal is ready to spawn by external examination and you can’t tag them. “We have a M.Sc. student (Luke Turner) who is working to find the best ways to induce conditioning. Fortunately the males are easier to spawn.” Polyspermy doesn’t seem to be a problem,so the fertilisation is allowed to take place over night in the spawning tank. With a slow flow-through water current, a 63µm net catches the fertilised eggs which are then rinsed before being transferred into a 5,000L conical tank where they hatch into free-swimming larvae. “There are five larval stages, with the third and the last being feeding stages,” says Will. “We use Chaetocerus mulleri cultured in 400L bags using the normal methods to get a clean culture. The larvae are weak swimmers so we only apply gentle aeration. The larval cycle is about 14 days and we add preconditioned plastic settlement plates similar to those used in abalone culture. That is a production bottleneck. If we can find a reliable settlement cue our hatchery production would be significantly increased. Dr Ann Fleming at DAC is leading a team looking into the most effective ways to improve settlement.”

Clockwise from top: Luke Turner a M.Sc. student at Sunshine Coast Uni researching the conditioning of Sandfish broodstock. Cameron Hartley, a DAC technician, feeding Sandfish larval rearing trial. Microscopic photo (x10 magnification) 13 day old H. scabra larvae. Grow-out stock feeding in the shallows of a pond.

24 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

The settled larvae begin their benthic life style and feed on algae and any organic matter. They are held in the settlement tank and fed algal pastes. Will says that the brown algae are the best for Sandfish. After about 2 – 3 weeks, juveniles are harvested – a Potassium Chloride solution causes the small Sandfish to fall off the plates. They are then transferred to fibreglass nursery tanks – 5m long, 2m wide and 40cm deep – located under a roofed area. The Sandfish quickly recover and begin feeding. “We are looking to add some laser light panels to the roof to allow more natural light and algal production,” Will continues. “Raw seawater is run (200% changeover

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Members of the Umbakumba Community on the north east coast of Groote Eylandt during a release day for sea-ranching trials. From left Archi Jaragba, Jordon Jaragba, Kyzac Mamarika, Jessie Anna Mamarika, Annette Jaragba, Candice Jaragba, Josetta Jaragba, Judas Mamarika with Tas Seafoods’ Will Bowman and Luke Turner. Photograph by Brooke Rankmore.

per day) through the tank which allows sediments to drop out and some pond sediment is also used to supply plenty of food for the fast growing juveniles. We also add more algal pastes. They are very mobile feeders, especially at night and need a lot of space to move around and find their food.” Ex prawn farm On Channel Island, some 40 minutes drive NW from Darwin, an old prawn farm has been converted for the growout of the Sandfish. “There are eight 1ha ponds and six 0.1ha ponds, all bottom drainable with concrete monks. We use only about 3ha of the 1-2m deep ponds at present – we are recovering after the whole farm was washed out during Cyclone Carlos in February so we can expand to use all 8.6ha of ponds.” Seawater from Darwin Harbour is pumped by a large China-pump into a 200m channel which fills a 2ha reservoir from which the water reaches the ponds by gravity flow. “We pump about ten hours a week and have a flow-through the ponds with an exchange of about 5% per day.”

hose to keep the water circulating. It is important to break down any stratifications which could cause oxygen depletion on the bottom where the Sandfish live.

to kill mangrove crabs and other predators or competitors before adding filtered water (150um screen). “We use a mix of organic and inorganic fertilisers to get a good bloom in the water column as we don’t want any algal matting on the bottom. After about two weeks we add the 2-3g juveniles (these are about 20mm long and about 3 months old).

According to Will the salinity should be kept above 20ppt. Other than that the Sandfish are pretty hardy. “You can find them moving around in small puddles in the intertidal area at low tide where the temperatures can be very high. However, they don’t do that well if the temperature drops below 25°C.”

“We are researching the most effective size/age for stocking, likewise with the stock we use for ranching.”

Will says that they lime the pond bottoms

Fertilisation continues every 2-3 months

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Air is pumped through grids of leaky Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 25

FA R M P R O F I L E

then into the freezer. They have funding to build a processing shed with a freezer and storage for this primary processing.”

Training locals to remove the guts of the harvested Sandfish. Community members are (from left Lucas Cooper (TSF skipper, trepang fisherman), Archie Jaragba and Judas Mamarika.

According to Will there’s a ‘bit of an art’ with respect to water temperatures and times for the boiling. “Our skippers are pretty experienced as they are paid on weight so they know not to overcook them.” They will be passing on their skills to the JVs. Will says the most cost effective size for stocking is still being finalised. “At present we’ve been stocking 5g animals (about 4-5 months old). They’re handpicked or netted from the nursery raceway, graded and packed in clean water in bags filled with oxygen. After a seven hour trip to the release area, they’re then released into protective cages on seagrass beds at low tide.

Management Metrics Key Management Decisions for Tasmanian Seafoods include: • Certification: AQIS (Export) Approved Arrangements. • Hatchery production for pond culture as well as fishery enhancement. • R&D into genetics / stock identification, as well as conditioning, spawning and settlement phases of hatchery. • Joint ventures with Traditional Owners to expand fishing areas. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the pond culture include: • Culture or Holding System utilised: earthen ponds and fibreglass tanks. • Growth rate (from stocking to market): 12-16 months (1g to 350g). • Av. stocking density: 200-300g/m2.

or as required. The inlet water is screened until the Sandfish are about 3-6 months old; after that they aren’t predated on by the small mangrove crabs. The Sandfish feed on organic matter and micro-infauna by burrowing or pushing through the sand, digesting the organic matter and excreting pellets of sand and wastes. “We monitor their growth and survival and keep a close watch on the algal blooms. Bird predation isn’t a problem.” Stocking rates are still being trialled and there can be a wide range in growth rates. It takes the Sandfish about 12 months to reach the marketable size of 350g. At this time the ponds are drained, the Sandfish collected and graded before processing in the same way as for the wild catch. “In Vietnam, crop rotation of sandfish with 26 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

vannemii prawns is undertaken to help break the disease cycles of the prawns. Polyculture doesn’t work as the sandfish get stressed by the prawns crawling over them. We might look at such different culture species, such as Barramundi.” Joint ventures Fishery enhancement is a big part of Tas Seafoods’ business plan. “We have been working on some joint ventures with TO (Traditional Owner) groups,” he explains. “One, the Umbakuma Community on Groote Eylandt is progressing well. We are working closely with the Numayanga Aboriginal Corporation who will be harvesting more than 10,000 animals around mid June next year. “We’re training them to harvest the animals by hand, gut them before boiling and

The most suitable stocking area is the Sandfish’s natural nurseries, seagrasses beds bordering sheltered mud banks. The sea grass beds offer plenty of feed and also some protection. As the animals grow they move out onto the mud banks. Will and his team will keep monitoring the Sandfish to record growth rates and survival rates. “We are using a precautionary approach and use a large number of local broodstock. We undertook an extensive genetic survey of all NT stocks with Seafood CRC funding. From the 15 sample sites we have animals that are being DNA tested by scientists at Flinders Uni. The results of this work will be out soon. “We are confident that by a combination of pond culture, fishery enhancement and rotation fishing of wild stocks we’ll continue to build our production. Our product is very well accepted in our main market in China, getting good prices.” By Dos O’Sullivan. For more information contact Will Bowman, Tasmanian Seafoods Mobile: 0408 135-795 Fax: 08 89244277 email: williamb@tasmanianseafoods.com.au

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Trout and bush tucker a popular combination for Phillip Island farm Described as ‘a terrible place to grow trout’ a family-based tourist venture is proving to be increasingly popular. Combining trout indoor and outdoor fishout with an enthralling bush tucker trail and a range of speciality products makes for a great attraction. Old-fashioned friendly service ensure all visitors have a memorable time to ensure repeat and referral business.

aul Mannix has fond memories of fun summers at his family’s holiday house on Phillip Island, some 1.5 hours drive south-east of Melbourne. Much time was spent playing on – and swimming and diving off – the beach ensuring a long time interest in all things fishy. “When I completed a Bachelor of Science at Melbourne Uni, I moved on to a Masters in Aquaculture at Deakin Uni,” he recalls. “I then joined the finfish team at Port Stephens (NSW Fisheries Research station) for two years, breeding snapper, Australian bass and mulloway.

Grand Prix winner Casey Stoner with a 1.2 kilo trout he caught in the lake.

“And after that I was fortunate enough to work for 18 months as assistant manager at Yarra Valley Salmon in Rubicon.” During this time Paul’s thoughts often returned to Phillip Island. So plans for a family business venture were hatched. “The Island is a Mecca for tourists and my parents – Peter and Lynn – and I reckoned there’d be an excellent market for an aquaculture business featuring angling for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Complementing this we added bush tucker plants which are becoming increasingly popular with foodies. “The result is our Rhyll Trout and Bush Tucker Farm.” In December 2001 the Mannix family purchased 6ha of grazing land on the outskirts of Rhyll in the island’s northeast corner. The land was gently sloping – perfect for building ponds – had main road frontage and a number of beautiful mature Swamp Gums (Eucalyptus regnans) dotted across it.

people visiting our place had a memorable natural experience and plenty of good old-fashioned hospitality.” The farm has been open for almost six years, getting more and more visitors (now around 40,000 per year).

“We spent five years building our business plan – our vision was to ensure

A picturesque tree-lined 5ML lake – up to 5m deep and measuring 40 x 30

Lemon myrtle tempura fillets and oven baked trout

Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 27

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driven by two Onga 3 phase/2hp pumps operating 24 hours a day. “Our Rainforest Pool is great as it means people can fish there in all-weather. The deepest part is 3m and we have used lazer light and Colorbond on the trussroof for natural light control. There are screens of shade cloth and cyclomesh on the walls to allow air flow and to keep direct sunlight off the water (mornings and afternoons).

Owner Paul Mannix watches Casey Stoner get ready to dive into his tasty cooked trout.

Management Metrics Key Management Decisions for Rhyll Trout & Bush Tucker Farm include: • Focus on an alternative type of tourism with a mixture of fishing, bush tucker, natural surrounds and licensed café. • These also provide different income sources. • Stocking of yearlings ensure good survival and growth to catch size. • Indoor creek and pools allows all-weather fishing, even at night. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) include: • Culture or Holding System utilised: earthen ponds & lake, concrete recirc indoor system. • Growth rate (from stocking to market): none, fish stocked ready to catch. • Survival rate: close to 100% (no predation). • Av. stocking density in Rainforest Pool recirc system: 2.5kg/m3. • Annual harvest: 9.1tonnes caught in 2010 (forecast 11.5 tonnes for 2011 – 9 tonnes already caught at November 1st 2011).

metres – was built, surrounded by gum trees and a grassed wetland system at the shallow catchment end. “The deeper water is necessary for fish survival in the summer months as water temperatures rise above 20°C. The appetite of the fish drops off mid-January to the end of February but we still can get a few them taking the bait (worms or corn).”

Part of the Busk Tucker walk, the Wattle Seed Orchard.

28 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

To allow successful year-round fishing, an indoor recirculating in-ground pool was added, surrounded by extensive plantings of native vegetation. The specially landscaped pool holds 220,000L of water, which is recirculated over cascading rock walls and ponds and down a running creek filled with pebbles. It is

“If hot weather means the fish aren’t biting outside then we can be assured that they will be fine indoors. There can be up to 30 people fishing comfortably in there at any one time while it can also hold another hundred spectators.” The pool also hosts night-time ‘Fish for Your Dish’ packages for tourist and corporate groups. “Each visitor gets to catch one trout each, with our staff providing help for the novices. The catch is immediately processed and later served as a whole baked trout or a couple of fillets in lemon myrtle tempura.” Three small (350m2 and 1.2-1.5m deep) ponds were originally built for yabby (Cherax destructor) fishing. However, concerns over fisher safety combined with the slow growth of yabbies in these cooler waters stymied that. So they’re now used to grow edible aquatic bushtucker plants, particularly the edible tuber from the water ribbons plant (Triglochin procera). A 200m deep, 10cm bore produces 15L/ min of brackish (8ppt) water which is mixed with the rainwater runoff collected by the lake. “We end up with a pond salinity around 5ppt which is perfect for controlling microparasites. We never see any flashing (fish scraping their bodies on the pond floor to knock off parasites) and fish growth and survival is good. “However, we can’t use the water to irrigate any traditional crops, so the bush tucker is a nice fit. We chose some species – dry loving coastal wattle (Acacia sophorae) and native mint (Prostanthera rotundifolia) – that would be

FA R M P R O F I L E

Happy families fishing and picnicing around the lake

self-sufficient with the normal rainfall we have here. In the lower-lying area of the property are species preferring wetter conditions including lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora), prickly currants (Coprosma quadrifida), mountain pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata), lilly-pilly (Acmena smithii) and Cape Barren tea (Correa alba).” A Bush Tucker Trail winds through three hectares of native food crops; maps and signage at each crop teach visitors how the Boonwerrung people harvested and used the numerous edible fruits, berries, seeds, leaves and flowers. All water overflowing the lake and ponds is caught in a bottom dam; a natural filter of wetland grasses screens the 1hp Grundfos pump that pushes water back up to the ponds. The indoor pool’s sand filters are back flushed every day and this water goes into the lake. Hire rods A maximum of 70 rods are for hire at any one time. “We set that level so that we can ensure people have the room to fish safely. In summer it is common that we run out of rods by lunchtime and have to turn people away.

Paul says that the most important thing is to keep the fish with healthy appetites so all of the fishers can be assured of catching one reasonably quickly. “We use corn as bait for people who don’t like the more authentic earthworms. We have three huge worm producing compost heaps so they are very fresh and active.”

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Predation is not really a problem as people activity keeps birds away during the daytime. “We have occasional scratches on fish which shows there have been some birds around but I have only ever seen one bird actually catch a fish. With the fish being a minimum of 350g I guess they’re big enough to look after

– Rhyll Trout & Bush Tucker Farm

Phillip Island’s other natural attraction and the 2011 RACV Tourism Award Winner • 13.5 acres on Phillip Island, which attracts 3.5 million visitors a year • Indoor and outdoor rainbow trout fishout operation – recirculation system and six earthen ponds • Horticulture of 22 bush food plant species, incorporating a ‘Bush Tucker Trail’ • Licenced Farmhouse Café and Foodstore • Registered ‘Rhyll Good Tucker’ product label

Rhyll Trout & Bush Tucker Farm 30 Rhyll-Newhaven Road Rhyll Phillip Island 3923 View the virtual tour www.youtube.com/ watch?v=MrQ8Qlvby6Q Find us on Facebook Search ‘Absolut Real Estate’

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“Most people spend around three hours here so we let those we turn away when it is best to return.” Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 29

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20kg bags of feed off Buxton Trout Farm which is also where we get our trout yearlings (minimum 350g). In winter we stock 450kg every month and more often over the summer; in the busy holiday period of December and January we can stock 450kg every 4 days! It doesn’t get much better – eating the catch in the café.

“Mitch McRae has two fibreglass transport tanks supplied with bottled oxygen to keep the fish in good nick during the 3-hour drive by truck from the Yarra Valley. “We fatten them over winter as we want our catch fish to average around 450g, with a usual range from 350g up to 600g. A few evade capture and each year we have a $500 prize for the biggest fish caught each calendar year. “ As of November 2011, the leaderboard has Isabel on top – a six year old from Doncaster – with a trout of 2.42kg! Multicultural family market Like other trout farms recently featured in Austasia Aquaculture, Paul’s clientele is becoming more multicultural. “Thousands of people come from all over the world to Phillip Island to see the fairy penguins. They do this year round. We know that this is a terrible place to grow trout but it is a great place for tourism!

The best way to have fun with a stick and line – rainforest pool fishing.

themselves. I also have two Border Collies called Macca and Molly who love their early morning chase around the ponds to scare away any birds. The earthen-based ponds and lake don’t need any water quality management and the indoor pool only needs to be vacuumed once every three months. “We have designed it so that there is steep slope over the 40m length of the creek and pools ending in a 3m-deep pool where wastes collect before being sucked out into the sand filters. “Algae grow on the rocks, pebbles and concrete walls and there’s sand on the bottom so we have some natural ‘treatment’ of the water.” 30 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

Paul says that pH of the indoor water is very stable at 8.4 to 8.6. “Our dissolved oxygen levels are around 8ppm and we can supply aeration through a floating water spray at night. The temperature can range from 11°C in winter up to 20°C in summer. We take daily nitrate measurements and if it gets over 10ppm, we drop feeding or undertake a water exchange. “The biggest job is every 4 weeks or so. I have to don a wetsuit and dive in to clear the screen of lines and hooks.” Around 10kgs of commercial pellets (7mm) are fed a week in winter and none in summer to optimise water quality. “We don’t need to feed anywhere near what the commercial farms do. We buy

“We have made it our mission to take the experience of our visitors to the highest level. Families are our target market and we want to make sure everything is set up right to keep the kids busy and active and the parents happy. “We have lots on offer with the different fishing areas, the bush-tucker trail, the BBQ and picnic area and pathways for just walking around.” Depending on the season there are 2-6 friendly fishing instructors on hand, trained to tell stories, help people bait the lines and work out any troubles with tangles. Anglers must purchase whatever they catch; staff discretely and humanely ‘dispatch’ the fish and then take a photo before taking the fish off the hook. When the fishing’s done, anglers take

FA R M P R O F I L E

their catch to the Farmhouse Café for weighing. They then face a choice – about 50% take it away whole or gilledgutted (packed in foam transport boxes with frozen gel-packs); the remainder ask the chef to transform their catch into a magnificent meal.

Young local bloke Gavin cleaning a visitor’s catch in the hygienic cleaning room.

“Of those eating in the cafe, two-thirds have them filleted and cooked in a light lemon myrtle tempura. The other third have a whole oven-baked fish flavoured with one of three home-made marinades. Plum, soy, coriander and ginger is my favourite. We also have five BBQs on site which get well used by those after the Aussie barbie experience.” The Farmhouse Café is licensed and also offers Devonshire tea, home-style meals and a huge variety of home-made bush tucker products. “This gives us around 50% of our income; the entry fees (adults $8.50, children $6.50) and rod hire ($3 for rod, bait and bucket) accounts for 15% whilst the fish make up the remaining 35%.”

Wattleseed Scones with Bush Blueberry and Blood Plum Jam.

Top: Isabel with her dad and the fish that will probably win her $500 at the end of the year. This was the first fish she had caught in her life!!!

At $18/kg for whole fish and $10 to serve the fish as tempura trout fillets and chips, it’s a great business model

Above: Homemade Rhyll Good Tucker products, sure to put a smile on everyone’s face.

“We work hard to ensure that our visitors have an experience which is natural, clean and fun. Repeat and referral business is what makes us busy.” Riding the accolades During the recent motorbike Grand Prix at Phillip Island the winner Casey Stoner and two other riders came for a fish. “You can image the media ‘circus’ we had. The GP coverage was by Channel Ten and they featured Casey’s visit. It gave us awesome coverage.” Dermott Brereton did a ‘Post Cards’ show onsite and numerous local and international media chefs have dropped in. But the biggest endorsements have come from the RACV Victorian Tourism Awards. After coming second in 2010, the farm has just been named the top tourism attraction in Victoria for 2011. “It just shows what a family business starting from scratch can do,” says Paul. “This is absolutely huge and we are very proud.”

Now that the whole show is running so smoothly, Paul is looking for a change. “We have just put the farm on the market – business and freehold. I’m a newlymarried man and my wife (who works full-time outside the business) and I wish to start a family. We want to have more time to ourselves. “It’s now time to pass the baton to someone ready to take this place to the next level.” By Dos O’Sullivan. For more information contact Paul Mannix, Rhyll Trout & Bush Tucker Farm, 30 Rhyll-Newhaven Road, Rhyll Phillip Island, Vic 3923. Tel: 03 5956-9255, Email: info@rhylltroutandbushtucker.com.au Web: www.rhylltroutandbushtucker.com.au/

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Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 31

FA R M P R O F I L E

Fast prawns Queensland University of Technology (QUT) scientists have helped develop a prawn that grows 25 per cent faster than other cultured strains to feed people depending on one of Asia’s great rivers. Researchers from QUT’s Faculty of Science and Technology have been working with scientists from national aquaculture research agencies to support development in the Mekong River Basin, which crosses six countries in south-east Asia. PhD researcher Dinh Hung – supervised by Professor Peter Mather, the Biogeosciences discipline leader at QUT – conducted the Vietnamgovernment funded research into improving growth rates of the giant freshwater prawn with the Research Institute for Aquaculture No2 (RIA2) in South Vietnam. “They developed an improved culture strain of the giant freshwater prawn that grows 25 per cent faster after a three-year selective breeding program,” Professor Mather said.

“It is a significant breakthrough. If you can shorten the production cycle, there will be more money for the farmer.” To develop the new prawn, three giant freshwater prawn strains from Vietnam and Thailand were combined into a single breeding stock. Researchers then took the synthetic line and picked the best families for growth rate and the best individuals within those high-performing families. After three years, researchers developed a prawn that grew 25 per cent faster than the strain they started with. QUT PhD researchers Hyungtaek Jung from South Korea and Norainy Husin from Malaysia are now using this strain to identify key genes that affected the growth rate of giant freshwater prawns. “These genes can be used as markers to identify fast-growing individuals while they are still of small size,” he said.

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32 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

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FA R M P R O F I L E

Two prawn farms no hassle when management the same A Mackay-based prawn farmer, his wife and occasional part time workers are operating two farms with a total of 16.5ha of ponds. With crop harvests consistently over 8t/ha, they’re shipping top quality cooked and chilled prawns to Sydney 4-5 days a week. The secret has been to minimise workloads by keeping the pond and stock management the same at both farms.

Linda Symons lifting cooked chilled prawns. The ice has been removed and the prawns are ready for packing into styrofoam boxes

ave “Bulldog” Symons has been prawn farming with his wife Jean for well over 20 years. Proud of his simple, repeatable and successful methods, he is more than happy to share his secrets for getting the highest prices for farmed prawns. Bulldog believes that many farmers spoil their prawns’ beautiful flavour post-harvest. “At Symons Prawn Farms we consistently get the best prices for farmed prawn on the Sydney Fish Market’s auction floor because we have built of our reputation. Our premium price is often $5/kg above what other farmed prawns are getting.” “What’s his secret?” you say. Well it’s no secret Bulldog reckons. Anyone can do it. “The first rule is not to overcook them; the best tastes are with properly-cooked prawns,” he explains. “Secondly, it is important not to let freshwater ice melt over the prawns. It leaches out that salty flavour that makes fresh prawns taste so good. “A lot of farms harvest, cook and freight them the same day – that is a real no-no. You can’t get a consistent salt content that way. We hold our freshly cooked prawns

in a salt brine overnight, usually at least 12-14 hours. This enhances the salty flavour which we maintain by shipping the prawns in foam boxes with sealed bags of ice so the water doesn’t melt through the prawns.” He says his farm has repeat buyers who

have been purchasing our prawns for many years. “They know our consistent quality and salty flavour; they also know we pack 18.5kg in each box to allow for wet weight. We put a lot of effort into supplying consistent quality and so we get the better prices.” Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 33

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Management Metrics Key Management Decisions for Symons Prawn Farm include: • Certification: Environment and Food Safety. • Use of two farms run identically to provide some economies of scale. • Use of the salt brine for the overnight enhancement of the salty flavour. • Shipping small amounts (1.5-2.0 tonnes/day) regularly into Sydney. • Creating market demand with higher prices due to a long time of consistent supply. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) include: • Culture or Holding System utilised: 16ha of production ponds • Growth rate (from stocking to market): <6 months (0.01g to 18+g) • Survival rate: 70-80% from first stocking to sale size • Av. stocking density: 400-450,0000/ha PL14 • Annual harvest: 120tonnes • Production rate: average 8t/ha/yr, single crop • Water use: limited water exchange per week • FCR: 2.0-2.2 • Productivity: 2.2 FTE

Bulldog acknowledges that once the

Eimeo Aquaculture

prawns go from wholesaler to the retailer,

Bulldog and Jean started their prawn farm 23 years ago at Eimeo, ten minutes north of Mackay. Back then the surrounding area was mostly used for cane farming.

some holding practices may adversely affect the quality of the prawns. “But I do see that more retailers are using flake ice which doesn’t seem to melt as much freshwater as the tube ice does.”

Now there are 140 houses in their immediate neighbourhood. But rather

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34 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

than that being a problem, the Symons have developed pond management systems that allow them to have minimal water exchange in the ponds. “For about the past 15 years we have been exchanging very little every week. We have freshwater bores which we use to keep the salinity at around 25ppt although it can be difficult when there are seasons with low rainfalls. We have modified our pond and water setup four times to get this system which works very well. “Now that we have limited water available from Eimeo Creek we still can operate our prawn ponds successfully for the summer crop. And our neighbours are happy for us to stay there.” Three earthen ponds covering 3ha are used for production, whilst the fourth (1.5ha) is used as a water reservoir. This water is pumped through 8” pipes into the production ponds; the water splashes through a 400um filter bag to keep fish out which could cause massive predation on the prawns. Up to five feeds a day are provided, depending on how the prawns are feeding. Usually this is monitored with feed trays of which there are four per pond. “We use feeds from all three (feed manufacturing) companies and have relatively high FCRs – usually around 2.0-2.2 (kgs of feed to produce 1kg of prawns). I guess that is due to the lack of time; we have to feed efficiently given that we do everything ourselves on the two farms.” Five part-timers help with harvesting and packing. Daily additions of molasses assist in keeping the water pH around 8.4 to 8.8 whilst Bulldog keeps his aeration going 24 hours a day. “We use 28HP/pond (14 aerators) – usually an equal number of Aero2s and paddlewheels. This means that we do have high power bills and we are negotiating at present to get an agreement with a supplier for a better rate. “However, our control over the pH, salinity and oxygen levels means that we have good prawn growth and survival (usually 70-80% per crop). We have

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Houses close by the prawn farm at Eimeo.

Jean Symons checking pH and oxygen. Note the feeding tray at the end of the jetty.

only lost one crop and that was back in 1996 due to a power outage for a couple of days. We now have a 100 KVA as well as a 300 KVA generator.” Bulldog remembers well that crop loss back in 1996. “It was a terrible time as the bank foreclosed on us and gave us 14 days to vacate the property. We stood our ground and reached an out of court settlement. And here we are 15 years later still operating and getting what we believe are the best prices for Aussie farmed prawns.” Bulldog says his best harvest was around 13t/ha; he averages around 8t/ha. “We used to do two crops a year but now we focus on one, stocking early (September) so we can start harvesting for the busy Christmas market. “The PL14s are sourced from a number of hatcheries. We like to stock around 400-450,000/ha. While the water temperatures may be a little low in the first month and we don’t get much growth, we can be sure of getting medium (18g+) by Christmas. Sometimes we might not finish harvesting until June, and by then the crop contains lots of large (35g+) and extra-large (45g+) prawns which can be harder to sell due to their large size.”

Jackson Symons with a pallet of large prawns ready to be sent to SFM

undertaken using set nets placed around the edges of the ponds. These are emptied every 30 minutes or so into 1-tonne plastic bins before quick transport to the on-farm processing shed. Towards the end of the harvest the ponds are drained and nets are placed over the monk outlets to catch the prawns. At the processing shed the prawns are immediately hand-graded for size and quality, cooked (boiling water for 2.5-3 minutes depending on size) and then placed in ice brines for overnight soaking. “Other larger farms don’t have the space to

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The majority of the harvest is Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 35

FA R M P R O F I L E

hold all their prawn harvests and have to get their big harvests processed quickly – this usually means cooking then freezing, or at least chilling, them. Thus their product can lose a lot of flavour. On the other hand, they produce very large quantities of prawns at a lower production price than mine. “I ship 1-1.8 tonnes daily; usually no shipments are made Thursdays and Sundays.” After the overnight soak the prawns are weighed to add 18.5kg to the 20kg polyfoam boxes lined by twin plastic bags. A 1-1.5kg sealed pack of ice is added, the liner bags are twisted and sealed and then the boxes are taped closed ready for pickup by refrigerated transport. Within two days of harvest the prawns are on the action floor in Sydney. Bulldog says that they don’t produce many seconds. Any that they do are only sold to workers on the farm. Serina Farm The 13.5ha prawn farm at Serina, around 30 minutes south of Mackay was owned by the late Clem Jones.

Having managed the farm for about eight years, Bulldog bought it three years ago from the estate. The plan was to build up the amount of prawns he could harvest and ship to Sydney. “The farms are only 45 minutes apart so it is easy to work both of them in the same day. We have organised the farms so everything is almost identical in them. The advantage with the Serina site is the very pure water that can be pumped out of a small tidal creek. “There is no pollution in it. We have 16” and 32” pumps to put water directly into the nine ponds which range in size from1ha to 2ha. If we get the usual rainfall we don’t need to exchange any water. However, if there has been no rainfall and the salinities are increasing then we will exchange some.” Bulldog says he needs around 4.4 million PL14s to stock these ponds; the earlier the better although he has to shop around the hatcheries to get stock as there’s a lot of demand for PLs for early stocking. “Everyone wants to get prawns into the Christmas market as it is important to get your cash flow coming in early.”

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36 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

For the past few years Bulldog has been selling around 120 tonnes a year and is happy at this level. “We can’t go much larger without affecting the quality of our prawns. We have high cost levels for power and feed but our labour costs are low and we use the same reefer truck to get our product to Sydney. Our consistent quality means we get the higher prices so overall we have a better profit margin.” Bulldog has been attending the annual Australian Prawn Farmers Conferences and is happy to show his sales figures to other farmers. “I even show them my tax returns. Even though we are a small farm, we are paying over $100,000 a year in income tax so from that you know we are making a good profit.” By Dos O’Sullivan. For more information contact Dave Symons, Symons Prawn Farm, MS352 Eimeo Rd, Mackay Qld 4740. Tel: 0403 040-588, Fax: 07 4954-9100.

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Broken Bay Oysters Association producing premium oysters – naturally! A historic agreement has been negotiated between a group of 12 oyster businesses and the Hornsby Shire Council for the protection of the Hawkesbury River, including the oyster industry. The oyster growers have an Environmental Management System in place which also assists them collaborate with other stakeholders such as catchment management authorities and government agencies to maintain exceptional water quality and good river stewardship.

As reported in Austasia Aquaculture (summer 2008 issue, Vol 22.4), this huge

New Oyster Association In 2005, the oyster growers committed to rebuilding a new oyster industry in the Hawkesbury River and the Broken Bay estuary founded the Broken Bay Oysters Association Inc (BBOA). They

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One grower, Rob Moxham received a Commended Award in the 2008 NSW Oyster Industry Environmental Champion Award for organising the Hawkesbury River clean-up.

clean-up resulted in reduced environmental risks, aesthetic improvements and a significant reduction of boating hazards. Also, importantly, it gave the growers impetus to work together and oversee revitalisation of their industry.

Qu rd a ab li le ty

The ‘Phoenix’ that rose out of the ashes was a smaller, but certainly stronger and more knowledgeable, industry. The remaining eight growers and some new investors embarked on a major cleanup. With support of a NSW Government restructure package, between 2005 and 2008 the growers removed dead oyster stocks and derelict infrastructure (over 8,000 tonnes of tarred sticks, trays, poles and racks) from the Hawkesbury River.

BBOA members (from left) Robbie Moxham, Katrina Hodgkinson and John Stubbs receiving the Seafood Excellence Award. Photo courtesy of Sydney Fish Market.

Af fo

he growing of Sydney Rock Oysters (Saccostrea commercialis) has been underway since the 1870s on the beautiful Hawkesbury River estuary, less than an hour’s drive north of Sydney. For years it was NSW’s second largest oyster producing estuary; in 2003, 28 growers harvested oysters worth $5m. However, in 2004 a disastrous outbreak of the QX parasite saw the industry totally destroyed; four seasons of stock died on the racks and trays on the leases. Almost overnight more than 100 years of development was wiped out.

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Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 37

F E AT U R E

boring worms. Growers have also invested in capital equipment such as forklifts, cranes, automatic grading machines, oyster rumblers (graders) and fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly four stroke outboard motors.

Management Metrics Key Management Decisions for all members of the Broken Bay Oysters Association include: • Certification: HACCP-based Food Safety Program for the Food Standards Code, certified by the NSW Food Authority and export approved by AQIS, voluntary Environmental Management System (EMS). • Cooperative approach to river stewardship. • Focus on better grading, packaging, storage and promotions for sales. • Two species, Sydney Rock Oyster (SRO) and Pacific Oyster (PO), both selectively bred (PO is spawnless). • Their EMS provides a great platform for collaborations with shire councils, catchment management authorities (CMAs) and government agencies (such as National Parks and Maritime).

Rob Moxham removing old oyster farm infrastructure. Over 8,000 tonnes was removed in 2005 and 2006!

all made a formal commitment to achieving environmental sustainability and high levels of river stewardship. This united entity provided the economies of scale for year-round production of premium oysters. Now the BBOA has expanded to 12 member businesses. All of these have updated their production methods including the use of hatchery rather than wild caught spat and trialing both disease-resistant Sydney Rock Oysters

Given customer feeback and deep interaction with interstate Pacific oyster growers, BBOA members quickly realised that the NSW industry as a whole used a totally inconsistent grading system. To differentiate themselves from the rest of the industry, they adopted a unified consistent product grading system for larger oyster size and premium meat condition.

Trays of near ready to harvest Pacific Oysters on John Stubbs’ tray lease.

and selectively-bred Pacific Oysters (Crassostrea gigas). Consequently they’re leveraging the benefits of the nutrient-rich conditions of the Hawkesbury River leading to faster oyster growth and fattening. State-of-the-art plastic trays, baskets and nursery cylinders plus recycled plastic products for farm infrastructure have eliminated the use of coal tar coating – traditionally used to protect wooden poles, racks and trays from marine

“We adopted the grading and quality specifications developed by TASEA (a marketing group established by the Tasmanians in the late 1990s and early 2000s),” explains John Stubbs, a fourth generation oyster farmer who has worked the river for 30 years. “This allowed us to provide consistent products to the market place which has given us great response from buyers.” John, the Quality Assurance Coordinator for seven years and the current BBOA President, is rightly proud of what has been achieved. “The growers have worked hard on improved packaging; we now use more hygienic transport bags to ship our oysters to Sydney where the majority of our product is sold. And many of us have invested in refrigeration units to comply with NSW Food Authority regulations for oyster storage. The end result is a fresh premium quality product that is being consistently delivered to the end consumer.”

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F E AT U R E Getting the water quality message across includes pamphlets like this one.

Awards and Medals In its short history, the BBOA has garnered accolades for environment and river stewardship, business innovation and marketing to product quality. Some of these include:

2011 • Sydney Fish Market Environmental Best Practice Award

BBOA’ BOA’s involvement in ongoing research into QX has not yet solved the mystery of the parasite that almost killed its industry; however, the group remains undaunted and committed with many voluntary hours spreading the word to all about the value of a cleaner, healthier estuary. The harvest, building from nil in 2004 to close to pre-QX production, has boosted recruitment of workers into the industry. Further efficiencies (eg. by using floating infrastructure that allows oysters to be farmed in all tides), installation of the latest grading technology and continued commitment to BBOA’s high quality market standards should underpin further production gains. “Due to our diligence, all of our harvest areas are now classified by the NSW Food Authority for Direct Harvest (harvesting without a purging phase in treated water) and AQIS approved for Export,” John continues. “We are not exporting as yet as the Sydney market takes all the oysters we can produce. We are stocking more spat this year and this will further expand our production. Hopefully we will have many extra oysters to be able to fill some of the overseas enquiries.” ‘Eyes on the river’ By adopting the NSW Oyster Industry Sustainable Aquaculture Strategy standards for estuarine stewardship, BBOA members are ‘eyes on the river’, improving the the river’s environmental management by monitoring – and reporting on – estuarine health and raising community awareness about good river stewardship. Furthermore a BBOA-developed Environmental Management System

(EMS) reduces any im impacts through continuous improvement in the industry’s environmental performance. It also addresses food safety, quality, and occupational health and safety. Already growers enjoy ‘bottom line’ benefits of reduced operating costs (eg. fuel efficient outboards, faster grading, longer lasting environmentally friendly infrastructure). The EMS has also provided an excellent consultative platform for lobbying the local community and authorities (such as Fisheries, National Parks and Maritime) to reduce their impact on water quality through better land management practices. Since 2008 BBOA has given numerous volunteer presentations to community and Landcare groups for University and TAFE classes, Council and catchment management authority (CMA) Field Days. For all this innovative work the BBOA members have received a wide number of awards for their outstanding leadership (box insert). In partnership with the Australian Government, NSW Department of Primary Industry, Hawkesbury Nepean CMA, NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service, OceanWatch Australia and Tide to Table Hawkesbury Nepean & Hunter Central Rivers the BBOA initiated the installation of three new composting toilets – for boaters and other river users – in their harvest areas. Educational signage about not polluting the waters is also erected in all of the oyster harvest areas. Similar information is included in brochures handed out by Hornsby Shire Council to all owners of onsite sewerage system kits.

• Bronze Medal Sydney Royal Fine Food Show • Winner Most Beautiful Unopened Oyster Port Macquarie Field Day

2010 • Inducted into the Sydney Magazine’s annual Food Hall of Fame in October • Selected by Sydney Magazine (Sydney Morning Herald) for furthering excellence in food (Issue#90, October). • Bronze Medal Sydney Fine Food Show

2009 • Winner of the Hawkesbury Nepean Landcare Primary Producer Award. • Finalist NAB Agribusiness Awards for Excellence. • Finalist Australian Government Innovation in Sustainable Farm Practices Award. • Silver Medal Sydney Royal Fine Food Show. • Primary Producer of the Year Award.

2008 • Commended Award 2008 NSW Oyster Industry Environmental Champion for Clean up awarded to member Rob Moxham. • Runner-up NSW Landcare Award.

2006 • Silver Medal Sydney Royal Fine Food Show.

Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 39

F E AT U R E

direct harvest in the harvest areas. Recognising this hard work for a general public good, the Hornsby Shire Council has leveraged the good working relationship they already had with the oyster farmers to develop a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to support an environmentally sustainable oyster industry within the Hawkesbury River.

From top: Hornsby Shire Council installing number 5 water quality monitoring buoy. Five have been installed to keep track of the changing conditions in the Hawkesbury River and the oyster leases it flows through. One of the three composting toilets the BBOA helped to obtain grant funding.

Importance of Water Quality To guarantee safe oysters to consumers, the BBOA strictly adheres to the NSW Shellfish Quality Assurance Program and spends over $42,000 annually in meat and water quality testing for algal bloom biotoxins, E. coli and other indicators of water pollution. A considerable amount of volunteer time is also involved in maintaining the NSW Food Authority classification of

According to Peter Coad, the Hornsby Shire Council Team Leader Estuary Management, since 2004 the Council has had an Estuary Management Plan. “We have a number of ‘levers’ which we can push and pull to maintain or improve water quality in the Hawkesbury River. These include capital works, education, research, compliance and planning. Our jurisdictional area extends from Wiseman’s Ferry to Broken Bay. “The MOU came about because of the good working relationship between the Hornsby Shire Council and the oyster growers. A healthy working river is great for all – the oyster farmers, fishers, house boat operators and other river users. “To my knowledge this is the first such MOU between a council and an oyster grower group in Australia.” Whilst the MOU is prescriptive in certain sections, it does have some built-in flexibility. “For example we could have set a specified number of inspections for each year,” Peter explains. “However, it may be found that more frequent inspections are

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required in high risk areas and conversely less frequent inspections in low risk areas.” A feature is the focus on what actions Hornsby Shire Council will undertake when difficulties arise for the oyster farmers – such as higher water turbidity or acid sulphate soil exposure from land use decisions, changes in frequency and amounts of pollution or even an oyster disease event. The BBOA have worked with Hornsby Shire Council, particularly Peter Coad since the QX days. “The Council are right behind us with our EMS, and they have helped with water quality surveillance since then. Hornsby Shire Council also established a pump out facility for commercial and recreational boaters at Kangaroo Point, Brooklyn. “The MOU cements our partnership into the future even if key people leave the Council or our industry and shows the outside world that we are working together to protect the river.” John says that the signs of recovery are already evident. “Water quality has dramatically improved, pods of dolphins can be seen 15-20km up river and sea grass beds are expanding. The river is in pretty good shape. That is a huge asset for our business. If you don’t have a clean estuary you won’t have healthy oysters.” John says it shows the importance of establishing good partnerships. “The old ways seemed to just result in clashes of heads and no progress. Now the approach is different and it is working very well.” By Dos O’Sullivan. For more information refer to the excellent Broken Bay Oysters Association website www.brokenbayoysters.com.au/ John Stubbs, J&S Stubbs oysters – Mob: 0404 833-194 Email: johnstubbs3@bigpond.com Peter Coad, Hornsby Shire Council Estuary Manager – Tel: 02 9847-6666 Email pcoad@hornsby.nsw.gov.au www.estuary.hornsby.nsw.gov.au

40 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

TECHNOLOGY

Aquatic Eco-Systems At Aquatic Eco-Systems, the staff is focused on offering three key elements: selection, service and solutions. Selection is shown in their unmatched inventory of more than 13,000 products, including a variety of equipment that is designed and manufactured by the AES team. Service is demonstrated through their consulting and outreach efforts that aim to present clients with new, applicable information and techniques. Solutions are offered by a team of customer service technicians, all of whom have tremendous industry expertise and are more than happy to offer the AES standard of free expert advice â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an unparalleled quality in the industry. Aquatic Eco-Systems has a range of equipment for both large and small farms. This includes everything from water quality monitoring systems to custom aeration systems for hatcheries and the entire farm. Basically, AES can provide the solution by tailoring the equipment to the specific needs of the project, farm or client. It has equipment to move and pump water, biological and mechanical filtration equipment and complete aquaponics systems. In addition, the research and development department at AES is actively researching and applying alternative energy solutions, both solar and wind power, to a variety of equipment. World-renowned technical support offered by AES comes from its team of

aquaculture experts and biologists. The staff has an unparalleled amount of actual hands-on experience in aquaculture. This experience and knowledge has been gained while working all over the world with a wide variety of species. AES is committed to working with customers to guide them in selecting the best equipment for their applications, as well as offering the precise solutions for their needs. With the recent acquisition of Green Sky Growers, a rooftop hydroponic and aquaponic facility, AES expanding into new territory and is now able to offer new design ideas, support with troubleshooting existing gardens, education,

workshops and installation assistance. By combining cutting-edge technology with conventional and innovative growing techniques, Green Sky Growers practices and promotes sustainable agriculture. Aquatic Eco-Systems is proud to be a onestop shop for aquaculturists worldwide. They offer more than just equipment; AES provides advice and complete solutions to satisfy all their clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs. For more information contact Aquatic Eco-Systems at 2395 Apopka Blvd. Suite 100 Apopka, Florida 32703 USA Tel: + 1 407 886 3939 E: aes@aquaticeco.com www.aquaticeco.com

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Selection. Service. Solutions. Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 41

TECHNOLOGY

Otohime Hirame larval diets This premium larval fin fish diet – manufactured in Japan by Marubeni Niishin Feed Co Ltd and distributed exclusively in this region by Aquasonic Pty Ltd – has already proven its worth in Australian aquaculture.

Much of this can be attributed to trials and comparisons that Darwin Aquaculture Centre chose to undertake a few years ago in their barramundi hatchery. With the positive word spreading, many of the leading

hatcheries in Australia now incorporate it into their feeding regime with great success. Currently recognised as one of the world leading larval fin fish diets, this diet is suitable for a wide range of species

Growth over 50 days

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across Australia and used by many facilities overseas – from some of the most finicky ornamental marine and freshwater fish, to commercial production of barramundi, Murray cod, kingfish and barramundi cod, to name just a few. It is scientifically formulated, using the highest quality ingredients and advanced manufacturing technology to obtain a balanced diet that has surprised many hatchery managers with how early fish are attracted to and consume it (thus replacing live feeds sooner). This is largely due largely to the inclusion of

Krill meal in the diet. The high protein and unique balance of EPA & DHA results in improved fish growth performance. This reduces the time your fish is in the hatchery, by many days in some cases, with the flow-on benefits in time to market and costs of overall production proving to be a significant advantage. Hatchery managers are also impressed with the cleanliness of the systems where this diet is used. The Otohime diets size begins with grade A, which is <250um and is the ideal place to start with species such as barramundi. There are six other sizes in the larval range (see table) with options for crumble and or extruded pellets. Packed in convenient small packet sizes for easy storage and for freshness. Otohime is also available in larger sizes (EP1 & EP2) 1.5mm & 2.3mm pellets for fingerling ongrowing. Give the Otohime diet a try in your hatchery; it could well be one of the best decisions you have made all year.

For more details and pricing contact Aquasonic 14 Commerce St (PO Box 311) Wauchope NSW, Australia 2446 Tel: 02 6586 4933 • Fax: 02 6586 4944 Email: aquaculture@aquasonic.com.au Web: www.aquasonic.com.au 42 Austasia Aquaculture | Summer 2011

TECHNOLOGY

Oxyguard Pacific OxyGuard International, represented by Technolab Marketing Pty Ltd in Australia and New Zealand, has replaced its world renowned Oxy 6 and 8 multi-channel analyser with the cutting edge designed OxyGuard Pacific. After extensive testing in Scotland’s offshore farms, over the past 2 years, the Pacific will be available in January 2012 here in the Asia Pacific Region. The OxyGuard Pacific is a measuring, monitoring and control system designed for use in fish farms. It is both multichannel and multi-parameter, and forms a modular small-size complete system. A member of the Commander series of equipment, it can be used either as a stand-alone system or as part of a larger Commander system. An important feature of Pacific is its extensive connection capabilities. It has P-NET data bus for connection to other Commander components, IP connection for LAN or internet, Profibus for use with other field bus systems and two USB ports that can be used for a number of purposes. It also has an SD card socket for data interchange.

Features • Up to 20 probes. • Wired, Wireless or Field Bus Connection probes • Probe types: DO & °C, pH, redox, CO2, salinity*, TGP*(*field bus) • 6 relay contact outputs • Data bus – P-NET, Profibus, Wired IP connection, Wireless IP, USB, Memory Card You can wire 4 probes directly to the Main Unit. Input boxes and output boxes are used for further wired connections. On/off inputs can be 2-state from, for example, level switches or pulsed from flow meters

Applications Sea cages: With the use of the wireless sensors a feed barge or farm boat can see each individual DO and Temperature reading in each pen as the fish are being fed. The Pacific will also log the readings and provide an alarm output if prescribed set points are reached. Hatcheries: The main feature when the Pacific is used in hatcheries is that can be used as a building block to the full controlled Commander System. Another feature is the PID dosing outputs for the control of dissolved oxygen in each tank. Transport: The Pacific can be mounted on the trailer of each truck and the DO probes can be hardwired back to the Pacific. DO levels can be controlled by the PID dosing outputs and alarms lights activated so the driver is aware of a problem. The Driver also can use the web interface on a laptop to monitor the measurements via the wireless IP access point.

An additional feature is the option that enables Pacific to connect to an OxyGuard Wireless Probe system, where the various probes and other measuring, monitoring and control devices interconnect using wireless signals. Pacific brings the complete functionality of Commander to small systems and to installations where few measurements and points of control are situated at large distances from each other.

To discuss your application, contact Scott Powell on 0419 118 137 or sales@technolab.com.au

Summer 2011 | Austasia Aquaculture 43

TECHNOLOGY

Singapore’s Pacific oysters finding a sweet market With its many great hotels and restaurants , Singapore expansive cuisine is hard to beat with a spectacular array of Asian dishes to tempt even the fussiest diner.

Hai Loong Mariculture oyster farm

Aquapurse baskets are suspended under large pontoons

owever, locally farmed Pacific oysters – from the Selat Johor Strait or Nanas Channel that separates Singapore and Malaysia – are beginning to muscle onto this crowded menu. These ‘sweets of the sea’ in constant demand by the restaurants as an increasingly affluent and well-travelled population, new immigrants and 13 million tourists (in 2010) make for a ready and hungry market. Oyster grower Fanny Su, owner of Hai Loong Mariculture oyster farm since 2009, produces large perfectly shaped oysters in just twelve months (from 7-10mm sized spat) using the Australian-made Aquapurse plastic mesh baskets, suspended under large pontoons. The farm currently imports spat from hatcheries in Australia and Chile.

The farm’s large oysters are in high demand

Oyster farm owner Fanny Su (left) and farm manager Jamal (right)

The floating farm – anchored off 100 m of the shores of Pulau Ubin, just round the bend of the coastal nature reserve Chek Java – was designed to accommodate full board for its workers and constructed to suit its unique farming method. The suspension of the several thousand baskets in its farming method provides for easy and economical servicing, and simulation of coastal tidal conditions. The Aquapurse baskets’ unique configuration allow them to be nested and stacked in limited space on the

pontoons when not in use. Understanding the ebb and flow of tides, the tropical monsoon seasons and the changing environment in the Nanas Channel is critical. Manager Jamal and his crew are constantly adjusting processes to grow healthy oysters; it helps tremendously that the Aquapurses allows for easy man-handling, repairs and modification of their processes to manage fouling, predatory crabs and mudworms. The Agricultural Authorities regularly take samples of the surrounding seawater and sample oyster batches to test for heavy metals, Vibrio and viruses. Whilst the Channel’s seawater does deliver some barnacle infestation on the baskets, they are easily cleaned and do not hinder oyster growth. As Jamal says: “I have tried a number of different farming units and methods, but the Aquapurse suits us best”. It does seem there is satisfaction all around; owner Fanny has expansion plans, mechanization and greater use of green energy in mind for her farm. Oyster farming after all is a challenge and not for the faint of heart. For further information contact Reg Breakwell on +61 0408 740 883 Email : rbreakwell@ttpplastics.com.au A/H email: bbreakwell@bigpond.com

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SRO & TPO at various ages and are renowned growers & processors of Sydney Rock & Triploid Pacific Oysters. Enquiries to Julian on 0407 470 642 or (08) 9534 2378, Fax: (08) 9534 6609 • Email: aussnap@bigpond.com

For more info call: Rob 0413 480 972 or Lyn 0405 339 913 or E: desotos@shoalhaven.net.au

Land base of 1350m², lined besser shed inc.amenities, 20 Bag dep. tank, S/S processing room & digitally controlled cool room and wharf built 2003.

basket clips, either from new or as replacements. Aussnap clips can be fitted direct to the basket or to your existing lanyard. Aussnap will continue to make clips for all other baskets and mainlines, single or double.

10.1ha oyster leases (7), All poly plastic infrastructure, 4m Punt & 2 x Outboard Motors, Shaker Grading machine, 2500 PVC catching slats & jig.

Zapco basket users now have access to our long life

Providing high quality equipment to the

aquaculture industry

The Fresh By Design Group is an Australian company providing the Australasian aquaculture industry with high quality equipment, expertise, experience together with an extensive product range and reliable ongoing backup service. We cover commercial and hobby aquaculture, waste ZDWHU WUHDWPHQW Ă&#x20AC;VK SURFHVVLQJ DQG WKH needs of educational facilities.

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Ben Pope and Peter Koller 3 Old Oak Place, PO Box 1020 Moss Vale NSW 2577 Ph: 02 4868 1762 Fax: 02 4868 2206 Mobile: 0419 288 712 fresh@bigpond.net.au

The only equipment supplier to be allied with Future Fisheries Veterinary Service Dr Matt Landos Mobile: 0437 492 863 matty.landos@gmail.com

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