Project number: 2001-033
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $414,118.22
Principal Investigator: Geoff L. Allan
Organisation: NSW Department of Primary Industries
Project start/end date: 30 Dec 2001 - 1 Jan 2009
Contact:
FRDC

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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