2 results

Enhancement of populations of abalone in NSW using hatchery-produced seed

Project number: 1998-219
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $484,356.00
Principal Investigator: Mike Heasman
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (NSW)
Project start/end date: 3 May 1999 - 21 Jul 2004
:
TAGS
Resource Enhancement
Reproduction
Mortality
Husbandry
Fisheries Management
SPECIES
Blacklip Abalone

Need

It has become apparent to commercial divers within the NSW abalone fishery that previously productive areas of reef are now supporting high densities of sea urchins, and correspondingly low densities of abalone. This change has contributed, together with pressure from the commercial and recreational fishery, illegal poaching, disease and pollution, to a decline in the sustainable yield from the population. The current development of the sea urchin fishery in NSW provides the opportunity to re-establish populations of abalone on once productive areas of reef over a large spatial scale. Natural recolonisation of areas of reef will be limited because of the restricted dispersal of larvae from their parents.

A variety of techniques are already being used to help re-establish populations of abalone on depleted areas of reef in NSW. These include the clearance of sea urchins to allow natural recovery, together with the transplantation of broodstock to help increase the speed of recovery. All these techniques are very labour-intensive. The deployment of seed produced from wild abalone provides a significantly more powerful technique to rapidly enhance populations of abalone on depleted reefs over a large-scale. Protocols for the conditioning, spawning and rearing of blacklip abalone are already well established and provide the framework for the year-round production of seed. Techniques for the large-scale deployment of seed have been developed in other states, but recent advancements in our knowledge of settlement substrates suggest further improvements can be made. Similarly, deployment techniques will need to be adapted for the unique conditions on reefs in NSW, and particularly the presence of the sea urchin, Centrostephanus.

With the development of techniques to allow the successful, large-scale release of abalone seed to coastal reefs in NSW, there are likely to be significant benefits to the associated fisheries. In particular, the potential exists for increases in the sustainable yield of the fishery of up to several hundred tonnes per year, or several million dollars.

Objectives

1. Produce seed from wild, blacklip abalone at a range of sizes and ages throughout the year.
2. Develop techniques to enable the successful deployment of seed to coastal reefs in NSW.
3. Develop techniques to maximise the settlement, survival and growth of seed on coastal reefs in NSW.
4. Complete large-scale deployment of fluorochrome-marked seed to depleted coastal reefs in NSW.

Final report

Author: Mike Heasman
Final Report • 2004-07-01 • 2.43 MB
1998-219-DLD.pdf

Summary

Several critically important steps to achieving the central long-term aim of this project namely, cost-effective enhancement of abalone fisheries using hatchery produced seed stock, were achieved. The first was year-round controlled temperature conditioning and spawning of captive broodstock. This provided impetus for funding and guidance for practical implementation of a complementary R & D project (FRDC 2000/204) to refine and improve this technology in relation to blacklip and greenlip abalone. This controlled breeding technology is in turn providing a number of important flow-on benefits to the abalone aquaculture industry in southern Australia. Most importantly it is facilitating an industry-wide selective breeding program through facilitated synchronisation of spawning that will enable pair crossing and identification of specific genes for faster growth.

Key Words:  Abalone, Fishery, Aquaculture, Hatchery, Broodstock, Production, Deployment, Rehabilitation, Reseeding, Enhancement

Project products

Manual • 2007-11-01 • 2.06 MB
1998-219 Manual for Intensive Hatchery Production of Abalone.pdf

Summary

This manual was commissioned by the Indigenous Fisheries Initiative of the NSW Government as a practical guide to commercial scale seed production of blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra) in NSW.

Methods and equipment are based on those described by Hone et al. (1997) with more recent refinements developed by Dr Arthur Ritar and Mark Grubert in Tasmania during the course of the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) Project 2000/204 and in NSW during the course of additional projects supported by the FRDC, namely projects 1998/219 and 2001/033.

Enhancement of the NSW blacklip abalone fishery using hatchery produced seed

Project number: 2001-033
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $414,118.22
Principal Investigator: Geoff L. Allan
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (NSW)
Project start/end date: 30 Dec 2001 - 1 Jan 2009
:
TAGS
Wild Catch
Survey
Stock Assessment
Population Dynamics
Modelling
SPECIES
Blacklip Abalone

Need

Benefits of this project could be very substantial. For instance, a doubling of the current total allowable commercial catch of abalone back to levels of around 600 tonnes regularly achieved 10 to 15 years ago would double the current landed catch adding another $15million pa to its value.

Practical achievement of cost effective enhancement using hatchery produced seed will however ultimately depend on the following 2 basic prerequisites both of which are addressed by this proposal.
i) Minimising costs of producing and deploying each of the 4 alternative classes of seed to be assessed .
These costs increase at an accelerating rate with increasing size and age of seed, but reduce with increasing scale and efficiency of production and other factors such as opportunistic use of excess abalone farm stock especially surplus larvae (a common occurrence) and slow growing juvenile stock ("stunts and runts") up to a third of which may be culled at 6 to 12 months of age.

ii) Accurate knowledge of rates of survival and growth and a sound knowledge of key factors influencing survival and growth of each of 4 alternative size /age classes of seed. This in turn would facilitate reliable prediction of cumulative mortality and of time required for seed to attain sizes at which net value of harvestable stocks at particular locations are maximised.

NSW Fisheries and the NSW abalone fishing industry (through ABMAC) while recognising potential benefits to be gained from large scale production and use of hatchery produced seed, including farming, fisheries enhancement and ranching, also acknowledge the following constraints to achieving such benefits :

i) The current absence of appropriate policy, legislation and regulations required for future ranching of abalone on natural or artificial reef in NSW.
ii) A previous shortfall of ongoing technical and logistical support required to facilitate establishment of abalone farming in NSW that has to date lagged behind that occurring in Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia. Support to be provided by this project includes training of technical staff and, as already requested by several prospective investors in abalone farming, initial supply of seed to fast-track production and hence earlier cash-flow.

Objectives

1. Further improve hatchery and nursery technology for black lip abalone.
2. Evaluate alternative methods of reducing high post release mortality rates commonly sustained by hatchery produced abalone seed.
3. Produce and assess the utility of sterile triploid black lip and/or hybrid abalone for fisheries enhancement, ranching and farming.
4. Evaluate impacts of abalone seeding on reef communities and competing species.
5. Develop indigenous community capacity to undertake the production of seed abalone and use of that seed for cost effective and sustainable fisheries enhancement, ranching and farming of black lip abalone.
6. Produce economic models of black lip abalone fisheries enhancement and ranching and onshore/offshore farming in NSW.

Final report

Author: M.P. Heasman W. Liu P.J. Goodsell D.A. Hurwood G.L. Allan
Final Report • 2017-09-29 • 6.10 MB
2001-033-DLD.pdf

Summary

This project is a revision of FRDC Project 2001/033 which was originally titled Enhancement of the NSW blacklip abalone fishery using hatchery produced seed. The original project included a significant cash contribution from the NSW Abalone Fishing Industry but unfortunately after FRDC approved the project, the industry decided against providing the cash contribution.

In consideration of this and of the wider potential benefits of the project, an alternative partnership was secured through the NSW Government’s Indigenous Fisheries Strategy. The NSW DPI abalone aquaculture and enhancement project was originally initiated in the early 1990s by NSW south coast indigenous groups to develop abalone aquaculture for their communities so the indigenous community, through the Indigenous Fishing Strategy, were logical partners and key stakeholders in the R&D.

A precursor project (FRDC 98/219) had made good progress towards developing cost-effective fisheries enhancement and ranching technology for blacklip abalone in NSW. More than 20 million larvae were seeded over 12 locations and almost 900,000 “button size” juveniles at 50 locations. Preliminary economic modelling, incorporating seed production and deployment costs and size specific natural survivorship, identified “button size” (7 to 12 mm) 6 to 8 month old juveniles as those likely to be cost-effective for seeding depleted reefs in NSW.

Average survivorship from these releases was however much lower than that reported for equivalent size/age wild juveniles. The most probable cause was identified as high-density related predation following release, possibly exacerbated by distinctive blue-green shell colouration and predator naivety of hatchery produced seed.

As stated above, indigenous groups had been actively seeking to establish hatchery based abalone farming, fisheries enhancement and ranching enterprises in southern NSW since at least 1993. The revised objectives and outcomes of this project supported this goal.

Keywords: Abalone, Fishery, Aquaculture, Hatchery, Broodstock, Production, Deployment, Reseeding, Enhancement

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