Temperate marine fish farmers in Australia seek to have the option to choose between several species of fish based on market price, availability and cost of fingerlings and health and feeding costs. This need was identified at the Aquafin CRC workshop held in 2002 (Allan, 2003). Most research on temperate marine finfish has been conducted on snapper (Pagrus auratus) but farmers are now concentrating more on yellowtail (Seriola lalandi) and mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus) with significant interest in yellowfin bream (Acanthopagrus australis). Applied research is needed, particularly on the major cost areas of diets and feeding (for both fingerlings and grow-out fish) to help ensure profitability and to give farmers and feed manufacturers information so they can make informed business decisions.

Costs of feeds and feeding are usually the largest budget expense for marine fish farms and also significantly affect costs of producing fingerlings in hatcheries. In hatcheries, the global shortage of Artemia and the huge cost of weaning diets has led to a increased priority for better and cheaper live feeds, formulated weaning diets and feeding strategies. For grow-out, most farmers want high-performance, low-cost feeds. Given a choice, most farmers will pay more for diets to achieve better performance but have no real way to make decisions to achieve the most cost effective feeding strategy. There is a clear lack of information for most temperate marine species about the nutritional specifications needed for high performance diets and what physical characteristics are most desirable in the pellets (e.g. should pellets be floating or sinking, how important is pellet hardness, etc). This prevents feed manufacturers providing data-based recommendations about the best diets for farmers and prevents them from formulating and manufacturing specific diets for temperate marine finfish farmed in Australia. Unfortunately, the same lack of information is restricting choices about the ingredients being used in diets. Almost no information exists about digestibility or utilization of most of the ingredients available for use in Australia aquafeeds. Most farmers are aware of “problems” with the use of terrestrial animal protein meals in animal feeds and that use of such ingredients might negatively affect the export market for their fish. However, apart from research with snapper (Aquafin CRC; WA Fisheries) and barramundi (FRDC ADD Subprogram; WA Fisheries) there is no information about digestibility or utilization of Australian ingredients for temperate marine finfish being farmed in Australia. The immediate result of this lack of information is an increase in the proportion of expensive, imported fishmeal being used in diets.

This project will extend the successful research approach adopted for snapper in Aquafin CRC Project 1B.3-2001/208 (Increasing the profitability of snapper farming by improving hatchery practices and diets). In that project, fingerling costs were reduced by approximately 30% through systematic research to develop more cost-effective hatchery procedures including the demonstration of the feasibility of replacing live feeds including artemia with alternative live feeds (copepods) and/or commercially available, inert pellet diets for advanced snapper larvae. Previous work with snapper also demonstrated a major improvement in growth of juvenile snapper when the optimal feeding frequency and day-length were identified. This project seeks to reduce feed costs, to optimise feeding efficiency and to improve fingerling survival and growth of mulloway and yellowtail. Sub-optimal performance of marine fish larvae is often a result of inadequate nutrition or sub-optimal physio-chemical variables during larval rearing. A high percentage of slow-growing or stunted fish in larval rearing runs can seriously reduce economic viability of hatcheries and increase farming costs. The performance of larvae has not been addressed in a systematic manner and although the commercial hatcheries in SA report that fingerling production is not a barrier, there are no published methods of how to optimize production of fingerlings (i.e. to to increase cost-effectiveness of fingerling production). This lack of information will reduce the chance of expanding marine fish farming in NSW and other states in Australia.

Existing grow-out diets used for marine fish such as yellowtail, mulloway and bream are based on generic formulations for “marine fish” (including salmon and barramundi). These diets produce results but it is unknown if current diets are nutritionally adequate, especially for rapidly growing fish. Even basic requirements, like the best protein to energy ratio, are unknown for yellowtail and mulloway. Both low and high energy diets are available for salmon and barramundi but even simple comparisons to find the best of these two “options” have not yet been carried out. There is no reliable information on ingredient digestibility making it impossible for feed manufacturers to confidently formulate diets with alternative protein sources to fishmeal when fishmeal is hard to obtain and when prices are high (and, of course, fish meal prices continue to rise). Research to provide this information is urgently needed.

There are obvious problems with a "one-species at a time" approach to diet development research. This is expensive and takes a long time. This application seeks to conduct specific research with mulloway and kingfish and to build comprehensive models of nutritional requirements for these two species that can be directly compared with other similar models now available for other marine and freshwater aquaculture species (e.g. snapper, sea bream and barramundi).

Fingerling costs for mulloway and kingfish are currently estimated at $0.60->$2.00/fingerling. These represent well in excess of 10% of operating costs. We aim to reduce these costs by as much as 50%. Growout feeds can cost in excess of $2,000/t and with the costs of feeding are usually in excess of 30% of total operating costs (>50% for some operations). Food conversion ratios of in excess of 1.5:1 are regularly reported. We aim to produce diets with FCRs of 1.2:1 with approximately 25% lower ingredient costs. Together these represent the major areas where improvements in production technology can improve the profitability of marine fish farming.

Available evidence suggests that most fish species harvested by the NSW demersal trap and recreational fisheries are taken at sizes that are too small to optimise yield and/or economic return. This is because most species taken in both of these fisheries either have MLL’s that are too small or do not have MLL's at all. There have only been stock assessments done on snapper (FRDC project No. 93/074) and silver trevally (FRDC project No. 97/125) in the trap fishery. Both studies showed that they were growth overfished and the results have been used to increase the MLL for snapper and to impose a MLL for silver trevally across all fisheries. Many other species taken by fish traps are in decline and it is highly likely that they are also growth overfished. Unfortunately, very little is known about the biology or life-history of these other species. Recreational fishers are significant harvesters of all species taken in the NSW demersal trap fishery and it is important that any MLL’s designed to reduce overfishing are applied across all fisheries.

NSW Fisheries does not currently have a policy for setting MLL's at particular sizes and the process developed during this study may form the basis for such a policy. It is important to consider several issues when setting appropriate harvest sizes and these include: (i) the size at sexual maturity; (ii) the size that will optimise yield; (iii) market requirements; (iv) an economic assessment, and (iv) public perception.

The information on biology, stock-assessment and protocols for setting appropriate harvest sizes developed during this project will directly address several key areas of importance recognized by the FRDC. The planned outcomes will lead to fisheries management being based more on the precautionary principle, will maximise the economic and social returns from harvesting these species while also providing for effective management of recreational fishing. These areas are considered to be high priorities by the NSW FRAB and by Recfish Australia in their National Research and Development plan for the recreational sector.

A systematic program of research and development is needed to enable reliable cost-effective hatchery production of Sydney rock oyster (SRO) seed to allow demonstrated benefits of triploid oysters and advances in SRO selection for growth and disease resistance. This R&D program incorporates relevant recommendations of the recent “Review of Hatchery Production Technology and Breeding Program for Sydney Rock Oysters (“Benzie et al., FRDC 2001/213). This review acknowledged that the potential benefits of solving SRO hatchery production problems far outweigh the likely costs. The R&D program also incorporates and integrates recommendations the of the NSW Fisheries – FRDC “Sydney Rock Oyster Hatchery and Nursery Health Workshop” held on the 8 th and 9th of August 2002 at Nelson Bay. Central among these recommendations were:
1 The need for a revision of hatchery procedures and the assessment/adoption of alternate algal, larval and spat rearing technology.
2 The need to elucidate the fundamental autecological (temperature and salinity) and nutritional requirements of SRO during early ontogeny, that have not yet been addressed and will be central to the production of the species.
3 The need for systematic and appropriate sampling procedures for the diagnosis of potential disease occurrences.

Independent of the species involved, there is a need to document the processes involved in developing techniques and strategies to culture otherwise intransigent species. This research will provide a unique opportunity to document the history of problems with SRO, the consultation undertaken, the strategies developed for SRO and the techniques for their implementation. This document, the FRDC final report for this research, would provide a reference for dealing systematically with hatchery based problems and will provide an array of monitoring and assessment protocols for other molluscs.

There is a need to synthesize all existing information and to obtain new basic biological and fisheries-related information on mulloway to be able to make informed management decisions concerning the continued sustainable harvesting of the species in NSW waters and elsewhere and to arrest the apparent decline in populations. Most importantly, the growth and age and reproductive biology of mulloway needs to be accurately described and data on the length, sex and age compositions of catches and how these vary between different fishing sectors and gear types needs to be collected and analyzed to provide us with even the most basic understanding of the potential effects of fishing on this very important species. Yield-per-recruit analyses need to be done to aid discussions on appropriate legal lengths.