Jungle perch once occurred widely in coastal Queensland rivers, from Cape York to Northern NSW. Central and southern populations have declined or become locally extinct due to dams and weirs blocking migration pathways between saltwater (where they spawn) and freshwater habitats (where they reside as juveniles and adults). Unlike barramundi, mullet and bass; jungle perch cannot persist long-term in saltwater habitats. Barriers lead to rapid local extinction. Construction of fishways on barriers in the past 10 years has created suitable conditions for the reintroduction of jungle perch. There are limited opportunities for natural recolonisation, and remnant adult populations of local strains are too few for translocation to be a practical solution. Restocking from captive bred individuals is the only option to bring back jungle perch fisheries.

Restoring wild jungle perch fisheries is a high priority for recreational fishers in Queensland. Reintroduction of self sustaining populations in rivers in south-eastern Queensland and the Mackay-Whitsunday Region will provide angling opportunities to large populations of anglers. Development of jungle perch fingerling production will also create future opportunities to further enhance Queensland's stocked impoundments and make jungle perch accessible to even more anglers.

Recent research by DEEDI has solved much of the reproductive biology of jungle perch, which can now be spawned regularly in captivity. Jungle perch larvae are much smaller (2.3 mm) than bass and barramundi larvae and establishment of first feeding has been problematic. Strategies to promote larval feeding need to be developed. The transition from larvae to fingerlings is critical for future development of jungle perch fisheries.

The first item on the previous Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, John Anderson’s list of priorities for R&D corporations was "Identify strategic market access and investment opportunities based on improved access to international markets and to develop strategies to take advantage of these opportunities". The recently completed HIASM project is the only FRDC project to address this priority item. The project established a working relationship with the Supermarket to Asia Council and the new proposal will competently address the need identified by the Federal Government. The proposed project also addresses the FRDC program “industry development” and its key areas of “market development”, “value adding”, "quality and information delivery". The project will forge new links with the Supermarket to Asia (STA) program and will be the key link between STA and the seafood industry on a national basis.

The number of enquiries received by the project team on a wide range of species and products highlights the need for this project. The main needs that this project will address are:

* Keeping the Asian seafood market door open at a time when industry attention is temporarily diverted to such markets as USA and Europe.
* Overcoming the lack of industry expertise in marketing and lack of awareness of quality requirements in Asian markets.
* Adding value to under utilised and under valued species.
* Providing marketing information for other seafood projects.
* Generating interest in export markets.
* Providing a national seafood industry catalyst for quality initiatives and a focus point for marketing information for Australian under-utilised species.
* Providing a link with Supermarket to Asia programs and assisting with the uptake of these programs by the seafood industry.
* Providing a link with Asian trade exhibitions in order to increase seafood industry participation in these exhibitions.
* Increasing through-chain quality improvement by increasing the number of seafood companies with SeaQual Quality Food Australia accreditation.
* National co-ordination of marketing quality Australian seafoods.
* Revising awareness of Asian markets and their product and quality requirements.
* Developing a framework for how to do business in Asia included key marketing data on the Asian markets, competitor profiles and impediments to trade in the region.

The project team of the completed HIASM project also provided contacts from their in-market research to a number of companies or individuals that are pursuing markets for Australian seafood species. The knowledge gained from the project has already encouraged marketing efforts on lesser known but sustainable seafood species and will also encourage the harvesting of species that are currently not commercially viable in Australia. The HIASM project is the only marketing project with a national steering committee as a reference group that can assist in the expansion of markets for Australian seafood species.

The “Hooking into Asian Seafood Markets” project will work with SeaQual (Australia) in developing a SeaQual accreditation standards for the Australian seafood industry. The project will provide a conduit between STA and the seafood industry with respect to the project commercial operators and will assist with increasing the awareness of STA programs.

The Royal red prawn fishery is effort-driven with frequent lack of demand and low wholesale prices resulting in a relatively lightly fished stock. Several endorsed fishers have indicated in recent conversations, that it has not been worth while to target Royal reds since 2000. The current low market demand and hence value of Royal red prawns can be attributed to variable quality of product and poor market recognition.

Royal red prawns are reputed to have an excellent sweet flavour and acceptable texture however, being a deep-water species, quality degradation is rapid when the prawns are brought to the surface. Hence, customary post-harvest handling practices for prawns could be insufficient to retain quality of Royal reds.

The Royal red resource is clearly under-utilised currently and has potential for value-addition. To gain further benefit and revenue from harvest of this prawn species, effective on-board handling practices need to be determined that limit the rate of quality deterioration and therefore retain maximum quality of product.

This project is designed to develop handling and post-harvest practices, identify preferred product format and establish domestic and international market opportunities to benefit the NSW deep-water prawn fishery, holders of Royal red prawn quota in the SESSF, and the developmental fishery in Queensland.