Surveys have identified a market absence and yet consumer demand for well-presented, well-priced, top quality fresh and frozen WA seafood products. The market value of WA seafood may be further enhanced by the development of high quality value-added convenience products. These products may be developed using innovative processing technologies that ensure that taste and texture quality equivalent to a fresh product are achieved. Documented attention to food safety and environmental issues should also be addressed as these have been identified in consumer surveys as of importance to the discerning purchaser. Such value-adding, resulting in an extended shelf-life, may also result in export opportunities not currently available to WA suppliers.

To modify current industry practices, and develop new processing protocols to meet these emerging markets, there is a need for species specific, whole of supply chain microbiological and biochemical research, aligned with product quality assessment. Low value seafood with generally short shelf-lives will be chosen as the target sectors to maximize the potential increase in profit by extending shelf-life or by developing new product lines.

There have been no investigations to identify specific spoilage organisms that are found on seafood along the WA coast. Virtually nothing is known about any of the microflora of WA marine species. In terms of finfish in other parts of Australia, cool water fish are generally spoiled by Shewanella putrefaciens and similar pseudomonads, but the situation in warm water species is less clear with Pseudomonas fragi having been reported. The occurrence of these on WA species is unknown, but without this knowledge it will not be possible to design appropriate preservation, storage and packaging strategies to deal with spoilage organisms.

The Northern Territory Fisheries Division and the Fisheries Department of Western Australia are currently formulating management plans for the demersal fisheries off their respective coastlines and are concerned about current levels of exploitation and the potential for over-exploitation. A key issue in the formulation of these plans is whether there is a single shared stock between WA and NT or distinct isolated stocks. Under a single stock assumption, overfishing in any one sector of the fishery could lead to depleted catches in other sectors. There is presently little information on the stock structure of Pristipomoides multidens across northern Australia, nor is there any information on migration patterns within the region (genetic differences are currently being investigated in FRDC Project 96/131). This important issue needs to be resolved before appropriate management plans can be determined.

Furthermore, the resolution of stock structure between WA and NT will allow informed decisions on the likelihood of shared demersal fishery resources with Indonesia across international maritime boundaries (NT Fisheries have collected some samples from Indonesian waters).

See also original Need in FRDC Project 96/131.