The Department of Fisheries released a Scoping Paper in 2006 identifying management considerations for the allocation and growout of WRL puerulus for aquaculture. Public comments called for a study into the implications of this new industry on the markets of wild harvest product as significant concerns were raised that aquacultured product could have a significant impact on the wild caught lobster market.

These implications centre on the wild harvest industry having an established position within the global trading environment, which the aquaculture sector wishes to enter and an assessment of the financial effort being delivered to this aquaculture sector around the world is neeeded as there is no data currently available to our knowledge.

This project will endeavour to provide global statistics on the aquaculture lobster market to help quantify if aquacultured lobster may affect the value of product from the wild catch sector in Australia. The broader implications of this new sector may include the effects of product style, size and timing of delivery into the market.