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People
PROJECT NUMBER • 2006-303
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Second national prawn fisheries workshop - Adelaide, February 2007

Australia comprises fifteen different prawn fisheries across Australia with a combined value at close to $1billion in gross revenue. A look at several other Australian fisheries showed that those that had been successful at addressing issues at a national level had national representative...
ORGANISATION:
Spencer Gulf and West Coast Prawn Association (SGWCPA)
SPECIES
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2011-749
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: funding options for the Australian wild-catch prawn industry

This project provided input into the National Prawn Market Development Strategy. It has established a process to collect voluntary contributions on a national basis for the prawn industry across all license holders in the wild-catch and aquaculture sectors. The value proposition for prawn license...
ORGANISATION:
Ridge Partners
SPECIES
Environment
People

Evaluation of novel polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) producing micro-heterotrophs for incorporation into aquaculture feeds

Project number: 1997-329
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $205,077.00
Principal Investigator: Tom Lewis
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 22 Jun 1997 - 31 May 2002
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are essential components in aquaculture diets, where an artificial food chain must be established (Bottino 1974; Rimmer et al. 1994). For many larval, or fingerling aquaculture species, the provision of PUFA (especially the omega-3 fatty acids EPA, DHA, and the omega-6 fatty acid AA is critical, and must be provided from either a "live" diet, usually via rotifers (eg. Brachionus plicatilis) or brine shrimp (Artemia sp.) as intermediates (Ostrowski & Divakaran 1990, Mourene and Tocher 1993a,b; Bell et al 1995; Southgate & Lou 1995) or an artificial diet. As adults, many species of finfish are reared on artificial (pelletised) foods that must also contain PUFA.

Commercial sources of PUFA for use within the mariculture industry are currently restricted to certain fish oils and microalgal species which are, respectively, under threat of over-exploitation and expensive to produce (New and Csavas 1995, Tacon 1995). The recent discoveries of bacteria and fungi that synthesise PUFA provide a novel and timely opportunity to develop biotechnological processes for sustainable and relatively cheap PUFA production.

Particular opportunities arise from the recent isolation of the following organisms:

1) Antarctic bacteria that produce the n-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, and the n-6 fatty acid AA. (Antarctic CRC and University of Tasmania)

2) Marine fungi that produce high levels of both DHA and EPA. (CSIRO Division of Marine Research)

Research combining skills and expertise in microbiology, cell culturing and manipulation, marine oils and lipid chemistry, biotechnology and aquaculture nutrition are required to take advantage of the industrial opportunity presented. Scientific advances can be made in each of these areas.

In microbiology there is a need to develop targeted, intelligent screening protocols to optimise recovery of bacteria with biotechnologically useful traits such as PUFA production. There is also a need to integrate current knowledge of factors which affect microheterotroph growth and metabolic processes into the development of techniques to optimise production of desired compounds. Research integration is expected to lead to the development of technology with which high productivity can be achieved while using cheap culture media.

The application of state-of-the-art techniques in lipid chemistry will be applied to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate PUFA production by microheterotrophs. The biotechnological challenge will involve devising stable formulations of whole cells and/or their extracts, and to transfer this technology from laboratory-scale trials through pilot-scale to commercial production systems.

As discussed above, the potential Australian Bacterial Single Cell (BSC) product(s) in this application should be able to meet some or all of the requirement for n-3 and n-6 fatty acids of larval and adult aquaculture species. In addition, the BSC products should be also able to provide a good protein source, and may have the potential to improve the fatty acid profile of product flesh. Thus, the proposed Australian product may have the potential to replace a significant proportion of the fish meal and fish oil currently used.

Industrial advantage will be gained from the application of the scientific knowledge developed during this project, in the incorporation of PUFA-producing bacteria or products derived therefrom into aquaculture food-chains.

Objectives

1. To develop targeted screening programs for the isolation and characterisation of PUFA-producing bacteria and other microheterotrophs
2. To maximise PUFA production by manipulation of specific microheterotroph culture conditions
3. To develop product formulations, including PUFA enrichment of live feeds, as a basis for commercial production of suitable strains.
4. To conduct feeding trials, using formulations to be developed during this project, using Atlantic salmon larvae (finfish, artificial feed), Flounder larvae (finfish, live feed) and Prawns (crustacea, artificial feed) as test species
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-065
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Disseminating existing bycatch reduction and fuel efficiency technologies throughout Australia's prawn fisheries

Prawn trawling is among the world's least selective fishing methods, the unintended consequence being large quantities of bycatch. It is also a method that can disturb benthic habitats and use large quantities of fuel—a significant running cost for many fisheries. Issues of bycatch and fuel...
ORGANISATION:
IC Independent Consulting Pty Ltd
People
PROJECT NUMBER • 2013-748.20
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: addressing roadblocks to the adoption of economics in fisheries policy (2013/748.20 Communal)

This project has led to the development of three journal articles examining how the use of economic analyses and stock enhancement can lead to improved economic outcomes in Australian wild-capture commercial fisheries. The Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (Seafood CRC) Future Harvest (FH)...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2008-793
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: prawn Industry black spot management: problem size and appropriate research

Summary: The wild prawn capture industry is under increasing competition from imported and domestic aquaculture product. One problem facing the industry is the frequent occurrence of black pigment on the head and tail surfaces. This condition is known as black spot and can be prevented by treating...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Primary Industries (QLD)
SPECIES
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