A major problem for the culture of marine fish and crustaceans is rearing the early life stages of numerous species.. Live food is considered obligatory for success but is expensive (up to A$400-500 / kg). In recent years global harvests of Artemia cysts, particularly from Great Sale Lake USA, have decreased sharply leading to a worldwide shortage, especially for good quality cysts in terms of hatchability and nutritional content. Compounding the problem of poor supply are new AQIS regulations and biosecurity issues, which may limit future importation. The reliance of Australian hatcheries on imported Artemia is a major constraint to the sustainable development and expansion of this industry. Low cyst quality caused Artemia - related diseases throughout the world. In Australia, an additional concern is the risk of importing unknown, non-endemic pathogens into finfish and prawn hatcheries.

The need to find solutions is even greater now than 3 years ago due to the rapid development of the marine fish industry in Australia e.g. yellowtail kingfish from almost zero production to 2000 mt, and barramundi with predicted production of 4000 mt in 2003-04.

Hut Lagoon (Port Gregory, WA) where Cognis Pty Ltd is currently growing and harvesting microalgae (Dunaliella salina) for beta-carotene (supplying around 80% of global natural beta-carotene), is unique in the world in its capacity to grow high quality algae and Artemia, and for its pristine environment. The company is offering to invest significantly and estimated that the Hut Lagoon have the capacity to supply ALL the Australian needs in terms of both Artemia cysts (currently, around 5-7 mt dry cysts) and live adult Artemia and become a major export commodity capturing part of the world demand for cysts (much more than current production of 7 000 tons p.a.). An estimate of potential annual revenue for cyst production from Hut Lagoon is in the order of $ millions. Moreover, initial results shows that the waste from the algae extraction process can be used as food source for the Artemia, saving the company hundred of thousands of dollars in waste disposal fees. There is a need to properly and independently evaluate the commercial viability of Artemia production at Cognis.

Microdiets can reduce the need for live feed (and therefore costs, labour, diseases, risks) consumption in finfish hatcheries. However, with fish the poor development of digestive enzyme output is a major limitation. The prototype microdiet, developed in the current project, proved to be better than the best commercial available diet. Fish larvae microdiet prices, range between $150 and $250/kg. Commercializing the prototype microdiet together with an international feed company such as Skretting Australia (part of Nutreco – the biggest fish feed manufacture in the world) should bring in significant IP and ease pressure on Artemia supplies.

The major problem for marine fish culture is husbandry of the early life stages in which the control of larval nutrition is a key element. The use of live food for hatchery culture of marine fish larvae is currently considered obligatory for success. Live food is expensive (up to $400-500 / kg), especially during recent years where global harvests of Artemia cysts have decreased sharply leading to a worldwide shortage. Compounding the problem of poor supply are new AQIS regulations and biosecurity issues, which may limit future importation. The reliance of Australian hatcheries on imported Artemia is a major constraint to the sustainable development and expansion of this industry. The FRDC R&D Plan for hatchery feeds put a high priority on R&D projects to find local solutions to reduce this dependency. In particular, the Plan emphasised three specific research needs: (1) to assess the potential of Australian Artemia strains (will investigated in a parallel project involving Cognis Australia Pty Ltd); (2) to determine the effectiveness of currently available artificial diets for fish larvae; and (3) to develop ‘local’ artificial diets and protocols for weaning and co-feeding of live and dry diets. The need to find solutions is even greater now than 3 years ago due to the rapid development of the marine fish industry in Australia e.g. yellowtail kingfish from almost zero production to 2000 mt, and Barramundi with estimated production of 4000 mt. Any shortage of fish larvae feeds, live or dry, due to global shortage, or change in importation regulations will restricted the current production and put at risk further development of this industry