Social and economic evaluation of NSW coastal commercial wild-catch fisheries
Assessment of potential for commercial yabbie farmlng
Final report
The yabbie, Cherax destrucor has been identified as an Australian freshwater crayfish species having a very high potential for aquaculture. Research Into biological aspects of the yabbie (Carrol I 1981, Mills 1983) has demonstrated +ha+ commercial farming of yabbies Is technically feasible. However, there is little information available on the profitability of investing in, and developing, commercial yabbie farms. In 1986, a research project was initiated by the South Australian Department of Fisheries to assess the potential for commercial yabbie farming operations. The project was supported by a grant from the Fishing Industry Research Trust Fund Account. Some key results from the research are summarised In this article, prospective investors requiring further information can obtain a copy of the complete report (Sanford, Kuznecovs and Mills, 1987) from the Department.
SCRC: Reducing inflammation in the elderly with a high seafood diet
SCRC: PDRS - Seafood Molecular Biologist: Mapping Microbial Communities in Seafood Production and Processing Environments to Improve Targeting Intervention Strategies (Dr Shane Powell)
Microbial species negatively impact animal health, product spoilage and safety. The best approach to reduce these unwanted effects is to precisely define the species that reduce product quality, determine the sources of contamination, and then target the best intervention strategy(s) where it is required. The reason this research is needed is that the historical approach to solving these problems has been to isolate and identify bacteria using culture-based methods, based on the assumption that all bacteria that reduce product quality can be isolated on agar media. We now know that culture methods only show a small percentage of the bacteria that are present in food and other environments. Therefore we propose to use a well-tested direct-detection DNA-based method that will provide a more complete profile of microbial contamination, identify the species that cause the problem, and assist in designing strategies to produce a solution.
Final report
Until the 1990s, when it became possible to access and analyse DNA directly from the environment, the study of microbiology was limited to studying microbes that were able to be grown in artificial culture. The advent of DNA-based methods provided a way to access and study the enormous diversity of microbes that actually exist. Some fields of microbiology were quicker to take up this technology than others. Microbiological analyses carried out in industrial settings have, although this is changing, remained culture-based because they are standard methods required by regulators. They tend to be technically straight-forward and inexpensive. The goal of the Seafood Molecular Biologist position was to apply DNA-based techniques to a range of existing problems within the seafood industry. The three projects developed covered shellfish aquaculture, the processing of Atlantic Salmon and supply chains in the wild prawn fishery.