The Oyster Consortium is in danger of making market investment decisions without agreed strategy or, stalled by indecision, making an insignificant investment to ensure a profitable marketplace on completion of the CRC.

The Consortium needs an agreed document, collating all work undertaken on consumer trends and expectations, that guides its investment within the marketing area. It also needs a strategic direction for the industry.

To begin to address this the Oyster Consortium;
1. will undertake to complete an Australian Oyster Industry Business Plan addressing the production environment, market/supply chain, industry structures before recommending an R & D plan.
2. has commissioned a desktop project that a) defines the current consumer’s expectations, b) summarises previous recommendations, and c) identifies any gaps in previous work.
3. plans to hold a follow up meeting to decide a) if/how the industry can meet those expectations through understanding product produced, b) directions it may take to meet expectations, in particular to consider contribution to relevant CRC projects ahead of Australian Oyster Industry Business Plan completion.

The “Oyster Consortium marketing projects investment meeting” is an essential step to guide the work of the Consortium’s Marketing Working Group and a vital step in achieving the following aims;
• Accepting a documented summary of consumer expectations from which to guide investment
• Forming views on industry needs and strategies that enable the industry to meet those expectations
• Preliminary input into the Business Plan and resolution on financial contribution into relevant CRC projects

Australian edible mollusc production has increased by 22% in the last three years, reaching a total gross value of $70,000,000 in 2000/2001. The growing world-demand for aquaculture products opens export opportunities for Australia’s aquaculture sector (Australian Fisheries Statistics, 2001). However, translocation of live molluscs is often associated with pathogen spread with resulting disease outbreaks having detrimental effects on production, trade and the ability to open new overseas markets (Berthe and Boudry, 1999). A rapid and reliable diagnostic capability (expertise and molecular tools) for the detection and identification of important mollusc pathogens worldwide is not currently available in Australia. Such diagnostic capability is necessary to ascertain the presence or absence of Bonamia spp. a notifiable pathogen in domestically farmed oysters. It is essential to develop both expertise and modern molecular assays (e.g. PCR, gene sequencing (Berthe et al., 1999)) for identification and comparison of the Bonamia sp. present in Australia with overseas Bonamia spp. (Pichot et al., 1980; Campalas et al., 2000; Diggles et al., 2003). Without development of this expertise, including the required reagents and procedures, it will be difficult to establish a health certification and surveillance program for the mollusc aquaculture industry. Moreover, these resources are essential for development of strategies for disease management in Australia.

References
-Australian Fisheries Statistics. 2001. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics. 64 pages.
-Berthe, F. and Boudry, P. 1999. Pister les huitres et leurs pathogens. Biofutur, 195: 38-42.
-Berthe, F., Burreson, E. and Hine, M. 1999. Use of molecular tools for mollusc disease diagnosis. Bull. Eur. Ass. Fish Pathol. 19(6): 277-278.
-Campalans, M., Rojas, P. and Gonzalez, M. 2000. Haemocytic parasitosis in farmed oyster Tiostrea chilensis. Bull. Eur. Ass. Fish Pathol. 20(1): 31-33.
-Diggles, B. K., Cochennec-Laureau, N., Hine, M. 2003. Comparison of diagnostic techniques for Bonamia exitiosus from flat oysters Ostreae chilensis in New Zeland. Aquaculture, 220(1-4):145-156.
-Pichot, Y., Comps, M., Tige, G., Grizel, H. and Rabouin, M. A. 1980. Recherche sur Bonamia ostreae gen. n., parasite nouveau de l’huitre plate Ostrea edulis L.. Rev. Trav. Inst. Scient. Tech. Pech. Marit. 43: 131-140.

Over the past 20 years oyster production in NSW has steadily declined by more than 40%. Two major problems exacerbating the industry's continuing decline are:

1) escalating costs of production associated with slow growth and high mortality rates suffered by Sydney Rock Oysters due especially to QX disease and winter mortality and mud worm infestation .
2) severe overcatch and other biofouling problems generated by both Sydney rock oysters (SRO's) and Pacific oysters(PO’s).

The problem of combating overcatch and fouling is compounded by the protracted 3 to 4 year turn-off times for Sydney rock oysters. These problems are currently being addressed by periodic manual cleaning and hot water dips in conjunction with the use of elevated intertidal growing heights. The latter exposes overcatch oysters and other biofouling organisms and mudworms, to lethal levels of heat stress and desiccation. The hidden costs of elevated growing height is reduced feeding and growth rates.
Direct costs of combating overcatch and other forms of biofouling has been estimated as high as 30% of total operating costs. These have contributed considerably to the progressive decline of many formerly productive leases. This has been of major concern to both government and community based conservation groups. Derelect leases in Port Stephens alone total almost 900ha and will cost an estimated $8million dollars to clean up and rehabilitate.

Development of a cost effective antifoulant coating technique has the potential to significantly arrest the decline of the oyster industry in NSW, and to reduce costs of production inTasmania and South Australia. In a recent postal survey of farming practises and attitudes of NSW oyster farmers to such a development (conducted by the Aquaculture CRC), approximately half of the respondents expressed a high level of enthusiasm and support for this project proposal which has also gained highest priority ranking from ORAC (NSW Oyster Industry Research Advisory Committee) and ACFR(Advisory Council on Fisheries Research) the NSW state FRAB.

This research proposal developed from discussions with NSW and Queensland oyster growers who consider estuarine acidification is a cause of declining oyster health and productivity. A recently completed study of estuarine acidification and its role in fish kills, habitat degradation and outbreaks of EUS in estuarine fish, showed that the occurrence and duration of acidification events may be a potential threat to sessile organisms such as oysters (Sammut et al., 1996; 1996b; Callinan et al., 1996;1996b). The former study indicates that such associations between acidified water and poor oyster health are plausible. The proposed study is needed to test for putative associations between acidified water and oyster health and productivity problems. It will also generate other data that will be used to identify risk factors for QX disease. If an association between QX disease outbreaks and exposure to acidified water is confirmed, or other water quality variables are identified as causative factors, then appropriate water quality management can be developed. At present, attempts to manage acid sulfate soil drainage in NSW fail to recognise the water quality needs of oyster producers. Data from this study can be used to design acid sulfate soil management strategies to avoid secondary impacts on oyster health and maximise productivity.