R&D News

  Volume 14, Edition 3

FRDC – business as usual

In November 2002 the Prime Minister announced a review of corporate governance of statutory authorities by Mr John Uhrig.  The drivers for the review were to:

• curb the “unnecessary proliferation of Government bodies”

• promote a whole of government approach to improve efficiencies

• evaluate the benefits in centralising programs within government departments

In August 2004, the government accepted all but one of Uhrig’s recommendations.  The Australian Government announced that Ministers were to assess their portfolio agencies against the two governance templates that Uhrig recommended. 

The broad governance models identified by the Uhrig Report were:

• a ‘Governing Board’ model to be used where portfolio agencies have the full power to act.   Typically such agencies will be legally and financially separate from the Commonwealth (usually under the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997 - CAC); and

• an ‘Executive Management’ model to be used where the Minister provides ongoing direction and oversight of the portfolio agency.   Such agencies typically are legally and financially part of the Commonwealth and do not need their own assets (usually under the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997- FMA).

The keys elements for a RDC to remain under the CAC Act are:

• Commercial

• Entrepreneurial

• Freedom to operate

• Breadth of activities

• Industry and state partnerships

• Governance arrangements – 1989 Primary Industries and Energy Research and Development
  (PIERD) Act

The key governance changes proposed would have seen a loss of the FRDC board and a move of the FRDC under direct DAFF management and control.  

 On the 9th June the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, The Hon Peter McGauran wrote to FRDC with the outcome of the review.  In summary, the FRDC and its sister corporations remain in place with their own boards under the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997.   The Australian government remains committed to building on the strong partnership approach currently existing between government and industry.

However, there are to be a number of changes:

1. the government director will be removed once enabling legislation is passed (this could take some time)

2. the Minister will be issuing annually a “Statement of expectation” to the FRDC in which he is expected to outline his expectations of the FRDC over the next year

3. the FRDC will reply to the Minister’s statement of expectation with a “Statement of intent” which will detail how the FRDC expects to address the statement of expectation

The FRDC thanks all those who assisted with the review.

MORE: www.finance.gov.au/governancestructures/

Review model, bring cash

FRDC can’t be expected to fund the increasingly diverse R&D needs of the fishing industry from its current inadequate funding model, says Aquatic Animal Health Subprogram Leader Mark Crane.

Reporting in the subprogram newsletter Health Highlights that only two of six 2006-07 aquatic animal health proposals had been funded, he said this reflected a reduction in FRDC funds, rather than the quality of the applications.

Noting FRDC’s advice that funds next year would tighten further because of fisheries’ lowered gross value of production, he said the current inadequate funding model needed to be reviewed at Commonwealth and State government levels, as well as within research institutions and industry sectors - for aquatic animal health R&D in particular.

Mark Crane said health-related projects tended not to receive high level support from FRABs.

In future, he said, applicants should make sure their industry partners made cash contributions as well as delivering in-kind support and letters of endorsement.

“Cash is a clear demonstration to FRDC that the proposed research is a high priority for the specific industry sector,” he said.

As for aquatic animal health, he said expansion and diversification of aquaculture and environmental concerns associated with aquatic activities such as bait and ornamental fish had resulted in an increased call on health services that needed to be underpinned by quality research.

MORE: Mark Crane, email mark.crane@csiro.au; www.frdc.com.au/subprograms/aah/index.htm

R&D funding suffers

FRDC expects to have just $5.5m to fund new R&D projects in 2007-08, a decline of $1m on the previous year.

Executive Director Patrick Hone said the reduction was caused by a continuing decline in the annual gross value of production in the commercial seafood industry, on which FRDC’s funding formula is based.

Figures in the accompanying table show FRDC’s expected industry revenue and total investment by jurisdiction in new and continuing projects, based on an assumed 2007-08 success rate of 60 per cent for new project applications.

Although significantly higher than the previous year’s 48 per cent success rate, Patrick Hone said he believed 60 per cent was achievable because of continued improvements in the way providers and  Fisheries Research Advisory Bodies (FRABs)  translated end-user needs into R&D applications, using a team approach to ensure only high priority proposals were submitted to FRDC.

The figures take account of historical and forecast industry contributions and FRDC’s financial commitment to continuing projects.

2007-08 priorities

During evaluation of the 2006-07 funding round the FRDC Board identified

strategic priorities it believed were not being adequately addressed by R&D:

Resource allocation - No applications were received. FRDC has set up a working group to identify R&D needs and help develop applications. Intending applicants should contact FRDC.

Spatial management - Tools are needed to match spatial management measures to stock structures of target and non-target species, in the light of limited information.

Also needed are monitoring and incorporation of MPA outcomes into stock assessments and risk management strategy evaluation.

Industry profitability – Cost reductions are needed in areas such as energy use and fisheries management, through partnership initiatives.

Profit needs to be created by maintaining and increasing catch value, improving market access and increasing international competitiveness.

Fisheries governance - Acceptable levels of risk and return must be established along with cost-effective management strategies for small fisheries.

Long term economic and environmental sustainability must be developed, evaluated and communicated, together with strategies for co-management.

Patrick Hone said these pointers were not comprehensive and providers should check FRDC’s R&D Plan for context and for guidance on other potential areas of investment.

Pre-proposals for 2007-08 should be made to the appropriate FRABs. Full applications to FRDC close on November 1.

MORE: Patrick Hone, phone 02 6285 0400; email patrick.hone@frdc.com.au

ASIC - replace quickly

FRDC says it supports the commercial fishing industry’s efforts to re-establish a national peak body as soon as possible following the demise of the Australian Seafood Industry Council (ASIC).

ASIC directors placed the council in receivership on June 9 after confirming that voluntary funding from state and territory peak  bodies was not sufficient to maintain viability.

As one of two fishing industry representative organisations recognised under FRDC’s  enabling legislation, the Corporation had regularly sought advice from ASIC and had reported to it annually.

Australian Government Fisheries Minister Eric Abetz added his voice to calls for the seafood industry to quickly establish a replacement.

“Any industry needs a single, coherent voice if it is to effectively advocate its interests and the fishing and seafood industry is no different,” he said.

Lobster larvae benefit all

NEW light has been shed on the mysterious early life of southern rocklobster in a FRDC-funded modelling project (2002/007) undertaken by CSIRO in collaboration with the research agencies of four Australian states and New Zealand.

It reveals a massive gene pool swirling off southern Australia with a high degree of mixing and identifies the spawning locations that are the major contributors to successful recruitment of Jasus edwardsii, the species common to five Australian jurisdictions: Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.

The model shows that spawning stocks in each of Australia’s seven management zones contribute to a larval pool that can be transported hundreds of kilometres offshore.

The vast majority of the larvae are either transported east, where they may contribute to recruitment in other zones, or they find their way back to their zone of origin.

A minority travels in the opposite direction, to recruit west of its zone of origin.

Principal Investigator Barry Bruce said the model showed some zones consistently contributed more recruits than others, but all Australian management zones shared in this mutually-beneficial transfer.

He said the model showed a trans-Tasman exchange also was possible, but likely to be minor.

Key to the reciprocity is a long, free-travelling larval stage.

“Females spawn every 12 months, but the larvae spend up to 24 months riding the ocean currents before settling,” said CSIRO modeller Russ Bradford.

“This means there are two sets of larvae in the water at all times, one about 12 months older than the other. The larvae develop through 11 different stages, called phyllosoma, that depend on currents to reach an ultimate destination. These stages have different behaviours and this alters the way each travels,” he said.

Vertical movers

Larval sampling by CSIRO and NZ’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research confirmed that larvae move up and down in the water column. Sampling east of New Zealand found larvae to a depth of 600m, though most were in the upper 100m. 

Among the bigger specimens, larvae in their middle stages were concentrated in the upper 20m day and night.

Later-stage larvae were concentrated in the upper 20m at night, but during the day were found deeper, mostly between 20m and 100m.

Although the final report on the modelling project is still being written, potential benefits for fishery management are apparent already:

• Australian jurisdictions may use the results to predict where recruitment benefits are likely to accrue if they increase the spawning biomass in any part of their fisheries

• The model confirms that Western Australia’s breeding stock should continue to be carefully conserved, given that state’s high degree of self-recruitment. In fact, despite a general west to east transport of larvae across southern Australia, WA’s self-recruitment percentage is the highest of any southern Australian region

• The WA region also contributes recruits to South Australia’s Northern Zone

• The model confirms that South Australia’s Southern Zone and Victoria’s Western Zone are the spawning heart of the species. These areas contribute recruits locally, as well as to the east, south and, to a more limited extent, to the west. Transport west is particularly likely to benefit the southeast region of SA’s Northern Zone

• Some larvae produced off Tasmania’s east and south coasts also contribute to recruitment in SA’s Northern Zone

• For Tasmania, the model predicts that although its fishery receives recruits from South Australia and western Victoria, much of its recruitment comes from its own waters. Tasmania’s south-west stock – including the southern females that start spawning before they reach legal size – is predicted to contribute the majority of recruits

• The model predicts that increasing the spawning biomass in Tasmania’s northern waters, where it is low, would produce benefits, with the best results likely to come from increasing spawning around Flinders Island, because fewer larvae appear to survive the west to east drift through shallow Bass Strait from the King Island region

Paradoxically, though the model provides crucial insights into the relationship between local egg production and larval movement, it cannot predict annual recruitment at any location.

Verified against real data from puerulus collectors, it accurately predicts seasonal settlement peaks, but the big annual fluctuations in southern rocklobster recruitment - and their causes - remain a mystery. This suggests important biological processes contributing to settlement have yet to be discovered and understood.

So solving this puzzle becomes the next challenge, along with developing the ability to model future changes in ocean current behaviour likely to result from global warming and the consequent effects they will have on dispersion and settlement.

MORE: Barry Bruce, email Barry.Bruce@csiro.au; Russell Bradford, email Russ.Bradford@csiro.au; David Griffin,
email David.Griffin@csiro.au
See also Lobster insights in this edition’s Final reports.

Bluelink’s power did it

THE massive grunt of one of the world’s most powerful computers was the factor that allowed the dispersion of Australasia’s southern rocklobster larvae to be accurately modelled at last. Even so, crunching the data took the Melbourne-based super-computer three months – its longest run ever.

The project combined a model of regional egg production, larval behaviour, growth and survival with Bluelink, the best oceanographic circulation model yet produced for Australian waters, to simulate the transport and survival of rocklobster larvae over a 10 year period.

Bluelink is a $15m partnership of CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and the Royal Australian Navy, formed to deliver ocean forecasts for the Australian region that provide information on ocean currents, temperatures and salinity - and eddies, surface and subsurface ocean behaviour -  for military use, commercial shipping, safety at sea, ecological sustainability and for regional and global climate forecasting.

“In practical terms we folded Australasia’s accumulated rocklobster biological data into Bluelink’s oceanographic data,” said Principal Investigator Barry Bruce.

“The results represent a leap in knowledge from the previous CSIRO-led study (FRDC 96/107).”

Practical checks appear to have validated them.

 “We were able to spot-check their accuracy by asking the model to provide retrospective results we could compare to historical field data,” contributing scientist Caleb Gardner of the Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute told the Tasmanian Rock Lobster Fishermen’s Association (TRLFA).

“The matching was good,” he told TRLFA members fascinated by a project video showing pulses of larval production streaming across thousands of square kilometres of ocean.

MORE: Barry Bruce, email Barry.Bruce@csiro.au

Tiger prawn cycle is closed

A QUEENSLAND farm has harvested the world’s first commercial crop of black tiger prawns grown from parent stock bred in captivity.

Previously, all parent stock had to be located and collected in the wild – a practice regarded as a major bottleneck to aquaculture expansion.

Director of Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture, Noel Herbst, says the 50t closed cycle harvest represents about 15 per cent of his farm’s annual production.

“They are the third generation to be bred in our Logan River hatchery and they have survived and grown as well, or better, than the progeny of wild-caught parents,” he said.

He said supplies of wild parent stocks were seasonal and erratic and not having to rely on them entirely meant production would be more consistent.

The domestication of black tigers, P. monodon, Australia’s most commonly farmed prawn, comes in a FRDC-funded collaboration between industry and scientists.

The industry partners are Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture, Seafarm Pty Ltd and the Australian Prawn Farmers’ Association.

The research organisations are the CSIRO through its Food Futures Flagship, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries.

Principal Investigator Nigel Preston of CSIRO said three generations were grown to maturity in experimental tank, pond and indoor raceway systems before a transfer to commercial ponds in 2004.

“We tried to reproduce the kind of natural conditions and cues prawns experience in the wild, in places such as the Gulf of Carpentaria and off eastern Queensland,” he said.

“Water temperature and diet need
to be just right to achieve the best possible rates of spawning and larval survival.”

He said technology flowing from the project would be invaluable to the
farm sector, but there was more to be done. “The next challenge is to develop selective breeding programs that will further improve the quality and consistency of Australian black tiger prawns.”

MORE: Nigel Preston, CSIRO, phone 07 3826 7221; Martin Breen, Australian Prawn Farmer’s Association, phone 0402 689 565; Brian Murphy, Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture, phone 0407 116 149

Fine-tuning tuna returns

THE metabolic processes used by southern bluefin tuna to swim, feed and grow are being unlocked by South Australian researchers to show commercial growers how to maximise returns from their limited quota of fish.

Further expansion of SBT aquaculture can only come from improving the growth and quality of the limited number of fish, says Principal Investigator Roger Seymour of Adelaide University’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Achieving this growth, he says, requires insights into metabolic physiology - the tuna’s internal organic functions.

So researchers in FRDC project 2005/200 are combining airtight, tent-like mesocosm respirometers prototyped in FRDC project 2003/228 with archival tags and other technology to determine the optimum feed, oxygen and other requirements of free-swimming tuna in commercial cages.

The feed results will be used in computer models to:

• Help formulate feeding strategies

• Improve knowledge of the digestibility efficiencies of differing feed types and feed conversion ratios

As well, metabolic physiology data from the project is expected to throw new light on the way SBT aquaculture affects the marine environment, by predicting cage-scale and regional-scale dissolved oxygen demands and thus carrying capacities.

Conversely, they will reveal the minimum dissolved oxygen levels required by tuna to survive and digest and thus grow at their maximum potential.

A bio-energetics model will match feed types to the SBT growth cycle and allow growers to predict the impact of a particular feed type or feeding strategy on the dissolved oxygen levels inside a pontoon as the tuna eat and digest that food.

Fish metabolism can be broken into three main components:

• A fasting routine rate to maintain minimal functions, examined in FRDC 2003/228

• A second rate due to activity - mainly swimming

• A third attributed to food digestion and assimilation, often referred to as specific dynamic action

The study is using a mesocosm respirometer and temperature loggers implanted in SBT belly cavities to examine the effect of feeding on the fishes’ metabolic rate and is investigating the correlation between the feeding metabolic rate and visceral warming following feeding, during which, in other fish species, the oxygen consumption often reaches three times the resting levels.

Previously, no direct measure had been made for tuna. Now, the metabolic costs of a wide range of feed rations have been recorded and the data for different feed types will be released soon.

The study will also predict the oxygen demands of fish in pontoons to help determine optimum stocking levels.

MORE: Quinn Fitzgibbon,
phone 08 8303 4743; email

quinn.fitzgibbon@adelaide.edu.au

World’s biggest ELF delivers

THE discovery that fishing pressure may be affecting sex change in coral trout P. leopardus is a mere snippet from the vast  body of information compiled during the ELF Experiment, described as the biggest R&D project of its kind in the world.

For the past 11 years the ELF - Effects of Line Fishing - Experiment has investigated the effects of different levels of fishing pressure on fish stocks and related ecosystems along 1500km of the Great Barrier Reef by temporarily opening and closing reefs to fishing to provide an insight into the effectiveness of closures and other measures as management strategies.

Presenting the latest findings to commercial, indigenous and recreational fishers and fishery managers in Townsville, Principal Investigator Bruce Mapstone of the CRC Reef Research Centre said this had been made possible by the cooperation of such stakeholders.

“It’s been most pleasing to see that the information we collected has already proved of value in the development of two important management plans for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and the reef line fishery.

“I am sure this will continue as we can now look at the effectiveness of management strategies for Great Barrier Reef fisheries into the future,” he said.

“We’ve found that reefs closed to fishing can have more and larger coral trout and redthroat emperor than those where fishing is allowed, at least in those areas where fishing pressure is greatest,” said Annabel Jones of James Cook University.

She said coral trout stocks on reefs that had been fished for long periods took longer to recover after closures than did fish on reefs that had been closed, opened for one year, then closed again.

“It’s clear that recovery from fishing over many years will take significantly longer than recovery from the short-term pulse impacts we imposed,” she said.

As for sex-changing coral trout, the implication, she said, was that increased fishing pressure could be causing these fish to change sex from female to male earlier and at a smaller size, thus reducing overall reproductive output with possible consequences for sustainability across the entire fishery.

“When we started back in 1995 we could not have predicted the challenges that the experiment would face, including political debate, cyclones, international reviews, the live fish trade and rezoning of the Great Barrier Reef,” Bruce Mapstone said.

He said his team had enjoyed ‘wonderful support’ from fishers, managers, conservationists and the public and the investment by FRDC, the CRC and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority had been money well spent, allowing management of the reef line fishery to be based on sound information.

FRDC funded the ELF experiment from 1997 to 2000 as well as related projects, including a current study of quota fishing.

MORE: Annabel Jones, phone 07 4781 6365; email Annabel.jones@jcu.edu.au; http://www.reef.crc.org.au/research/fishing_fisheries/elf.html

EMS nets Qld’s top award

QUEENSLAND’S Moreton Bay Seafood Industry Association (MBSIA) has won two state awards for a multiple-species environmental management system, developed with the help of Seafood Services Australia in FRDC project 2003/062.

The EMS, which took three years to develop, has won Queensland’s 2006 Sustainable Primary Production Award and Most Outstanding Contribution to Primary Industries Award.

It  covers Moreton Bay’s otter trawl, beam trawl and inshore net fisheries, with crab to come. MBSIA Chief Executive Officer Kellie Williams says it is one of the first to cover multiple species, multiple fisheries and hundreds of fishermen.

She said Moreton Bay fishers were committed to conserving and protecting their marine environment because their livelihood depended on it.

MBSIA Environment representative John Page agreed. “Many of our families have been fishing the bay for four or five generations and we want this resource to be here for our children’s children,” he said.

Thanking Seafood Services Australia for its help, MBSIA Chairman Warwick Newnham said the EMS had provided commercial fishers with the methodology to identify and minimise the impact of fishing on the marine environment, with the added benefit of establishing what he called a culture of continuous improvement and industry cohesion.

Moreton Bay fishers were now a strong, united group, he said, dedicated to the environmentally-sustainable harvest of seafood.

MORE: Warwick Newnham, email, wjpnewnham@optusnet.com.au; Kellie Williams, phone 07 3633 6729; www.seafood.net.au/files/mbsia.pdf

Aqua-EMS covers Tasmania

BY any standards, Judi Marshall’s R&D brief was daunting: Deliver Environmental Management System (EMS) frameworks to cover 80 oyster growers, six salmonid producers and five abalone aquaculturists. The result is three EMS frameworks - one for the Tasmanian oyster industry, one for the salmonid sector and one for the state’s land-based abalone producers, allowing each to demonstrate compliance with the principles of ecologically sustainable development (ESD).

Each document is the result of extensive research into environmental impacts and regulatory management controls. Judi Marshall used industry-based risk assessments, working through the issues with a representative group from each sector. 

“This ensured that the resulting document represents industry’s assessment of its environmental impacts, taking into account the current research and regulatory controls.

“It has also given industry an awareness of its potential environmental impacts as well as the potential impacts upon it from causes such as climate change,”  she said.

Oyster analysis

After scrutinising Tasmanian oyster-growing against relevant aspects of the subprogram’s ESD Framework for Aquaculture, she found that:

• Environmental risks are mostly low for operational aspects of oyster farming, except for the potential translocation of invasive marine species between catchments. National and state protocols are being developed to reduce this risk

• Risks to economic sustainability are moderate and should be countered by strategic business planning, the continued use of sustainable farming practices and risk management initiatives

• Governance by Commonwealth, state, industry and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) all generate moderate risk to long-term sustainability. Counter-strategies include ongoing consultation, participation in the political process, coordinated industry representation and leadership development

• Climate change, human activity and biological change present moderate to extreme risks. The extreme ones flow from sea level rise, water quality degradation, land use changes, environmental flows and exotic species introduction

• The lack of an appropriate disease field diagnosis service produces an extreme biological risk

• Strategies to reduce these extreme risks include monitoring, R&D and inclusion in government legislative and policy reviews

“By examining the environmental, social and economic aspects of its operations against ESD guidelines the industry has been able to rank the risks,” Judi Marshall said.

The oyster industry is now looking to employ a facilitator to help growers use the framework to develop their own EMS plans in regional groups, as individuals, or in collaboration with local communities.

Abalone assessment

Environmental risks from Tasmanian abalone aquaculture were rated low. The sector identified its moderate risks as:

• Maintenance of genetic diversity in cultured stock - through a selective breeding program

• Imported disease - mitigated through a controlled ban on the import of live abalone

• Access to a sustainable source of quality food

• Environmental nutrient reduction strategies - which have been identified through recent R&D. Recommendations will be delivered to industry

As with the oyster sector, risks from government and industry self-governance were considered moderate, most risks from climate change and human-induced change were assessed as moderate to high and the biological risk from a lack of disease surveillance was rated extreme. Mitigation strategies were detailed for each.

International market access was identified as a high economic risk.

The salmon industry also has completed its risk assessment, but the outcome was not available when this edition of R&D News went to press.

“Environmental sustainability is about finding a balance between the social requirements of the community and the economic objectives of industry, while having a minimal effect on the environmental assets that underpin all these enterprises,” Judi Marshall said.

“These three Tasmanian sectors are doing this. They now have a transparent and documented means of showing consumers, the wider community and government that their practices are environmentally sustainable and that they are good stewards of the marine environment.”

The project was awarded to the Tasmanian Fishing Industry Council and supervised by a steering committee including industry representatives, regulators and scientists. Judi Marshall worked as an independent consultant, using the principles developed in FRDC’s ESD Reporting and Assessment Subprogram.

MORE: Judi Marshall, Phycotec Environmental Management, phone 0438 58 9955; email Phycotec@trump.net.au

60 years of co-op success

ANNUAL landings worth $8.7m and a post-tax profit of $81,000 after paying members fuel, ice and mooring subsidies would be music to the ears of most fishermen’s cooperatives.

But not to those in the Newcastle headquarters of the Commercial Fishermen’s Co-operative Limited, now in its 61st year.

“Worst result in 20 years,” said General Manager Bill Pearce of the co-op’s 2004-05 returns, which were hit by import substitution, gear and size restrictions and loss of access and members following area closures and the creation of recreational fishing havens by the New South Wales Government.

Despite these setbacks this 20-year co-op veteran believes the immediate future will be hard but successful, because the Commercial Fishermen’s Co-op has advantages most others can only dream of:

• 150 shareholder members whose fishing covers estuaries, lakes and blue water, providing a diverse supply of seafood and significant weather protection

• Seven receiving depots along 200km of coast, from Tuggerah north to Seal Rocks

• Almost 150 species landed, from lobsters, prawns and Balmain bugs to mullet, bream, flathead, dories, morwong, silver trevally, school whiting, cuttlefish, octopus and shellfish

• Average annual landings during the past 20 years 2.6 million kg; average value $9.7m

• Filleting and value-adding centralised at Newcastle

• Half the catch sold locally, the rest auctioned daily at the Sydney Fish Market

• Local sales through four co-op retail shops, plus two other shops and three seafood restaurants owned by the co-op and leased to private operators

• A board of eight members, representing the individual operational areas, that meets monthly

“Our 200km range gives us the critical mass that underpins the business, in membership, product variety and volume,” Bill Pearce said.

“Compare this to the next 200km north, where six individual co-ops are operating under difficult circumstances, with reduced supply and members.

“We maximise our advantage by retailing locally. Newcastle’s fast-growing population, now about 150,000, plus the adjacent Hunter region, gives us a solid market base.”

A major investment in its Newcastle retail outlet, made nearly a decade ago, is paying increasing dividends. The shop’s annual turnover has grown from $1.5m to $5m during the past nine years. Retailing also delivers other benefits to members.

“We’ve just frozen 10t of king prawns that we’ll retail ourselves. We paid our catchers $16 a kilo when the Sydney market price was $9.

But we’ll get that back when it’s time to sell,” Bill Pearce said.

Not that all prawn news is good.

“Our members used to catch four or five tonnes of royal red prawns a week. Now they leave them all in the water because of import competition. They need at least $3/kg. We can’t offer them more than $1/kg to compete against the Vietnamese product.”

But Bill Pearce sees a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel. NSW people, he believes, are beginning to buy local fish again, influenced by publicity about the adverse effects of cheap imports. And, in any case, the co-op’s aim of maximising benefits for members doesn’t mean posting big before-tax profits.

It works like this: On joining, members must each buy a minimum of 3,500 $2 shares in the co-op, which they may increase to 12,500. Then each must consign at least $10,000 worth of seafood a year.

In return, they get top prices for their fish and services below cost – ice subsidies alone cost the co-op about  $100,000 a year. Annual dividends are paid in both cash and bonus shares and even bigger dividends in cash and shares are paid based on members’ individual landings during the year.

Despite this, Bill Pearce is bracing for a loss of members and reduced landings because, he says, the NSW Government’s plans for marine protected areas include a proposal to reduce the number of commercial fishers in the co-op’s area of operation by 20 per cent – which would put 80 members and non-members out of  business.

“Commercial fishing has been hit from all sides in recent years and now we’ve got another rough patch to negotiate. I’m confident we’ll do so and remain profitable.

“But we definitely don’t need any more big surprises.”

MORE: Bill Pearce, phone 02 4965 4221; email wpearce@commfish.com.au

Found: Future food stars

IN 2006 FRDC has again co-sponsored the Lexus Young Chef of the Year Awards.

Why? Because industry benefits if FRDC invests through the whole supply chain, not just in fisheries sustainability and seafood production.

And the benefits can be great, because what’s on the plate dictates what people think about seafood and what they are willing to pay for it.

The Lexus Young Chef of the Year Award was established in February 2005 by Luke Mangan, Executive Chef, Glass, Hilton Sydney; and business partner Lucy Allon to identify, recognise and nurture the finest emerging young talent within the Australian food industry.

“It’s crucial that we as an industry inspire young people and give them confidence. It’s also important that we continually look for ways to improve our industry, raise standards and strengthen Australia’s food reputation,” he explained.

This year the number of entries increased by about 35 per cent. From all who applied, a panel of some of the best chefs in the country selected a single finalist from each state and the Northern Territory:

Queensland - Benjamin Devlin, Restaurant 2

NSW/ACT - Beau Vincent, Assiette

Victoria - Adam D’Sylva, Longrain Melbourne

Tasmania - Iain Todd, The Henry Jones Art Hotel

South Australia - Melanie Gowers, Adelaide Convention Centre

Western Australia - Joe Ditri, King’s Park Function Centre, by Fraser’s

Northern Territory - Anelle Bosch, Oscar’s Restaurant, Alice Springs

Once selected, the chefs had to participate in a cook-off. This was not your ordinary, prepare me a roast kind of event. No… the finalists each had three hours to prepare an entrée, main and dessert.

Sounds simple, but there’s a catch! They did not know what they had to cook, or what ingredients they had, until they reached the kitchen. This style of torture is referred to as a black box competition.

If preparing a meal blind is not difficult enough they also had to do it in front of a panel of eminent judges, a la SBS’s Iron Chef.

The national judges, some of the best in the business, include Luke Mangan, Tetsuya Wakuda, Guy Grossi, Phillip Johnson, Anthony Mussara and the Women’s Weekly’s own Lyndey Milan.

So who won? Check out the R&D News front cover!

Hook to cook info is here

HOOK to cook traceability on a commercial scale is being introduced by Britain’s biggest seafood company, Young’s Bluecrest, which has teamed with chef Mitchell Tonks to give consumers information about when and where its fish was caught - down to the boat and the skipper’s name.

Onboard equipment records and transmits catch data by satellite to Young’s ashore, where it will be matched with and accompany the catch.

Already in use in the Scottish langoustine fishery, the technology was pioneered by Young’s and Glasgow University with input from Mitchell Tonks, who said a more rudimentary way of letting the customer know the story behind each piece of fish had been the key to the success of his Fishworks restaurant and fishmonger group.

Young’s says it already is generating significant environmental, quality and economic benefits.

However Britain’s biggest fisheries operator may merely be following the lead of one of its smallest: Every bass landed by the 50 members of Cornwall’s South West Handline Fishermen’s Association carries a tag with a boat number. The association’s website www.linecaught.org.uk/index.html invites consumers to match the tag to the boat and fisherman who provided last night’s dinner.

The handliners say: “We are passionate about the fish we catch and how we catch it and have developed this website and tagging scheme to provide guaranteed ‘hook to plate’ traceability”.

MORE: www.fishupdate.com
See also UK’s Fishworks sure does elsewhere in this edition.

Straight from the source

HOW does an industry such as seafood ensure that the professionals buying, cooking and selling their product know it’s great? You show them first hand! And that is just what FRDC has done in sponsoring the Lexus Young Chef of the Year Award.

There are many reasons why we sponsored. One is that Australia’s young chefs are the face of our produce, the true opinion leaders when it comes to seafood. What a chef does with our fish has real impact with a consumer. Another, that it provided an opportunity to educate up-and-coming chefs about the industry and the R&D that underpins the supply of quality seafood.

To make sure this year’s seven finalists had an appreciation of what goes on in the fishing industry, FRDC put together an industry tour.

We didn’t tackle this alone. FRDC structured the tour collaboratively with four other R&D corporations to cover most aspects of Australian food production. This not only meant the chefs got a better understanding of Australian food-based agriculture, it meant the cost for each RDC was significantly less.

Our first challenge was to find a touring location with a diversity of food producers within easy reach of each other and northern Tasmania was selected.

From bases in Launceston and Devonport the chefs went north through the Tamar valley to Beaconsfield, south to Cressy and west through Tasmania’s north-west food bowl to Smithton and Stanley.

Over five days the finalists visited the Bolduan Bay oyster farm, Petuna/Sevrup salmon hatchery, Redrock and Stanley Fish lobster holding facilities, as well as winemakers, cattle producers, potato and onion farmers and a vegetable distribution business.

On the final night Richard Colbeck, Tasmanian senator and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance, co-hosted with FRDC an industry stakeholder dinner at The Deck in Devonport. The goal was to have industry people meet the young guns, try some of the produce they had seen during the five days and say thank you to those who supported the initiative. This support included seafood from Ian Heathorn and Southern Rocklobster Ltd, Petuna and Richey Fishing.

Many fishing industry representatives attended, including Ian Heathorn, a crowd from Petuna (Peter and Una Rockliff, Paul Lupo and Tim Hess), Alan Hansen, Bob Cox, Stuart Richey and son John Richey.

Also there at Richard Colbeck’s invitation were a number of Tasmanian politicians. The response from each indicated a high level of regard for the success of the tour and the people who made it happen – namely the chefs and industry representatives.

Interestingly, the young fisher-young chef interaction was strong, with John Richey clearly articulating where the seafood industry is and what it offers to the chefs.

This is another reason to support events like this. They provide a rare opportunity for younger members of the seafood industry to speak with food professionals their own age.

The industry tour was co-funded by the Australian Egg Corporation, Meat and Livestock Australia, Horticulture Australia and the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation.