Media Release

For immediate use - 13th August 2002

VICTORIA TO RECEIVE $1.9M FOR FISHERIES R&D

The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) has announced funding of $1.9 million for new research and development projects in Victoria.

FRDC Chairman, Mr Denis Byrne announced details of the FRDC's 2002-2003 funding round today.

"Victoria's fishing industry and other stakeholders will benefit from funding to five new research projects to be conducted over the next few years by state government fisheries research institutes, industry groups and other research providers.

"Projects funded this year reflect the industry and governments' commitment to ensuring the sustainability of Australia's fisheries resources, developing leadership within industry and building on previous success to deliver benefits to Victoria.

"Fisheries need good data to be managed effectively, but collecting this data is often quite expensive. In an attempt to curb the growing cost of collecting data in small fisheries the FRDC has funded a project to develop cost-effective collection techniques," he said.

"The project aims to ensure that fisheries in the South East region continue to provide a diversity of fresh local seafood for Australian communities.

"Victoria is also set to implement an environmental management system (EMS) for its bay and inlet fisheries under another FRDC-funded project.

"Seafood Industry Victoria will work with industry to document fishing practices and improve EMS skills. This will enable the right EMS to be developed for each fishery - it may be simple, with an informal plan such as a code of practice, or more complex such as a formal system using a standard such as ISO 14001.

"In either case FRDC believes demonstrating publicly that industry is managing its environmental impacts accountably is an important step towards community acceptance for all fishing sectors," he said.

"Another innovative project involves the use of marker assisted genetic breeding to improve farming of abalone and the development of abalone products. The high husbandry costs to grow abalone stock to market size is a significant impediment to the commercial production of abalone in southern Australia."

"Genetic improvement programs have the potential to significantly shorten the production cycle and at the same time produce stock with traits that will enhance marketability. Selective breeding programs can potentially increase abalone growth rates by a third over three generations which would substantially reduce farm operating costs and increase industry profitability," he said.

"Flow-on work from this project will help fulfill other needs in the wild and cultured abalone sectors. The additional microsatellite markers derived from this project can also be used to examine genetic diversity within and between domestic and wild abalone stocks," Mr Byrne said.

The FRDC is responsible for planning, investing in and overseeing fisheries R&D and facilitating the dissemination, adoption and commercialisation of the results. The FRDC is a statutory authority of the Commonwealth Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Australia.

ENDS
Contact: Kylie Paulsen, Communications Manager - Extension, Ph 0438 630 491

Data Collection Techniques: Dave Smith, MAFRI, ph 03 5258 0272
EMS initiative: Ross McGowan, Seafood Industry Victoria Inc., ph 03 9824 0744
Genetic breeding of abalone: Nick Robinson, DNRE, ph 03 9217 4200