Research has been completed showing that it is possible to harvest commercial quantities of pueruli/post-pueruli, which at this stage, appears to be unique in Australia. The same research has shown that harvesting of post-pueruli would have little impact on the commercial fishery and that there are ways of compensating the commercial catch to make post-pueruli removal biologically neutral. There is commercial interest in ongrowing western rock lobster post-pueruli to a marketable size, but basic data have yet to be obtained on growth and survival rates at different stocking densities. This project will provide the biological information (growth rates, food consumption etc) to assist potential investors in being able to assess the economic potential of this form of aquaculture. It should be noted that this proposed research will be equally relevant should it become possible in the future to produce pueruli by aquaculture, rather than by harvesting wild caught pureuli and post-pureuli.
Project number:
2003-213
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure:
$759,195.00
Principal Investigator:
Roy Melville-Smith
Organisation:
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) WA
Project start/end date:
29 Dec 2003
-
30 Mar 2008
Contact:
FRDC
SPECIES
1. Determine optimal flow rates for pueruli and juvenile western rock lobsters held at high densities in flow through tanks.
2. Evaluation of growth rates and survival of pueruli to market sized lobsters with and without refuges and under two levels of biomass per unit volume of water.
3. Estimation of the expected survival rate and period required to produce a marketable size animal from post-puerulus.
4. Provide biological data to assist in assessing the economic potential for growing out western rock lobsters from post-puerulus to marketable size.
5. To determine the composition of lipids in cultured western rock lobsters compared to those of wild western rock lobsters of similar age and size.
6. To determine the influence of diet on the lipid composition of cultured western rock lobsters.
PROJECT NUMBER
•
2019-159
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT
Developing an independent shallow-water survey for the Western Rock Lobster Fishery: tracking pre-recruitment abundance and habitat change
1. Produce accurate measures of pre-recruit abundance throughout the West Coast Rock Lobster Managed Fishery. Compare with commercial monitoring undersize lobster abundance and puerulus settlement data.
ORGANISATION:
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) Hillarys
PROJECT NUMBER
•
2019-101
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT
Investigation of the direct and indirect role of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) on Western Rock Lobster settlement processes: with consideration of the potential role of contaminants
1. Identify areas of significant submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) nearby established western rock lobster settlement monitoring sites.
ORGANISATION:
University of Western Australia (UWA)
PROJECT NUMBER
•
2019-099
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT
Climate driven shifts in benthic habitat composition as a potential demographic bottleneck for Western Rocklobster: understanding the role of recruitment habitats to better predict the under-size lobster population for fishery sustainability
1. The overall objective is to evaluate the implications of habitat change for the western rock lobster fishery, by determining the relative importance of habitat for the survivorship and growth of critical western rock lobster life stages, to inform the interpretation of existing settlement and...
ORGANISATION:
University of Western Australia (UWA)
