Nomination forms are at www.recfish.com.au.

MORE: email ceo@recfish.com.au

UK’s Fishworks sure does

NO idea is truly original, they say. Well, this may be so for the very successful chain of Fishworks fishmonger-restaurants across the UK.

Fishworks is the brainchild of Mitchell Tonks and his business partner Roy Morris. Mitch opened a specialist fishmonger in Bath in 1995 and in 1997 it was judged best in the United Kingdom by readers of Country Living magazine and the Food from Britain Agency.

The concept is simple. Take one old fishmonger, dress up the front to create an appealing display, spend a bit of money inside and put a very nice restaurant out the back. These establishments are not identical, but each features a combination of the traditional fishmonger, a seafood restaurant/café and a cooking school.

“The original idea behind Fishworks was to have fishmongers with tables and our philosophy has always been to use top quality produce, prepared and cooked simply,” says Mitch.

So what if the basic idea has been around for many, many years? The big difference is that Mitchell Tonks really cares about his seafood. The stuff he places in his shops is good, really good.

“I have built a very good rapport with my suppliers and I’m satisfied I’ll get the best product for each of the restaurants,” he says.

Seems he’s right. Fishworks at Marylebone and Chiswick last year shared ITV’s award for best London fish restaurant and others in the provinces have picked up numerous regional awards during the past five years.

The seafood on display in the fishmonger section not only is the foundation for many meals in the restaurant -  it’s also a drawcard that brings people through the door. And boy, does it work. While I stood there speaking with the fishmonger at its Marylebone High Street store several people stopped at the window display, remarked how good the seafood looked, then came in and sat down for dinner.

Fishworks is also big on linking catchers to customers, using a plasma screen of four fishing boats that send signals back to the restaurants, allowing them to display the boats’ movements. Customers can follow what’s being  caught and where – and when it will reach the restaurant. In many cases this is same day or next morning.

For the Australian seafood industry, especially the post-harvest sector, there are some fundamental lessons in Fishworks, particularly its underlying philosophy of demanding top quality seafood, then preparing and cooking it simply.

MORE: http://www.fishworks.co.uk/

Peter Horvat, FRDC Communications Manager

UK shows gear, cuts chat

THIS is the story of a little show that’s become a big one. For the past 21 years there has been a fishing exhibition somewhere in Scotland. Like Australia’s Seafood Directions, it’s a place to hear the latest news and see the latest products, as well as a meeting place for individuals and organisations to conduct business and catch up. But there are big differences between the two.

This year the three-day Fishing 2006 and Aquaculture International 2006 was held in the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow.

Like many of its kind the show has had a bumpy evolution, ebbing and flowing with the fortunes of the industry.

The biennial Aquaculture International  was added 10 years ago and the expanded exhibition, still under one roof, has become a one-stop shop for the UK seafood industry.

Unlike Seafood Directions, Fishing 2006 and Aquaculture International 2006 is more a product and services exhibition than a conference, although this year the organisers added a seminar program for presentations on key issues and also an innovation zone for exhibitors to present their latest products.

The show attracts more than 5000 visitors from more than 30 countries, including serious buyers after the latest innovation and equipment. This year there were more than 200 trade booths showing everything from boats - big ones - to wire rope, nets, sonars, tanks, aquaculture feed, government stuff; in fact, pretty much anything you can think of that’s associated with fishing.

The structure shows that there are different ways to run successful fishing industry events and, as always, lessons to take home.

MORE: http://www.heighwayevents.com

Peter Horvat, FRDC Communications Manager, email peter.horvat@frdc.com.au, phone 02 6285 0414

Seafish? certainly did…

SO, what is the Sea Fish Industry Authority (Seafish) and why did I visit it? Seafish is headquartered in Edinburgh with a branch in Hull and works across all United Kingdom seafood sectors to promote a profitable and sustainable industry.

It also undertakes R&D aimed at raising standards and improving efficiency and viability.

Unlike FRDC, Seafish is primarily funded by a levy on seafood and is sponsored by the fisheries departments of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Its 120 employees work with fishers, farmers, processors and wholesalers just as FRDC does, but also with fish friers - yes, in the UK fish and chip shops are recognised as a valid source of seafood -  caterers, retailers, importers and exporters.

Following a fundamental review of its services it now has seven work streams:

• Reputation management

• Economics and manufacturing advice

• Market insight

• R&D

• Training and standards

• Legislative compliance

• Marine services

Seafish undertakes some R&D itself, making it a bit like a combination of FRDC, CSIRO, ABARE and BRS. This includes projects on vessel modernisation, waste handling and utilisation and seabed hazard information, as well as data analysis and economic modelling.

Its major recent focus has been promotion and profitability, with less being done at the environmental end of the continuum, although the pendulum now is swinging towards environmental sustainability.

Interestingly, the reverse is happening in Australia. Our focus is increasingly on economic development through marketing and promotion, but this is being done from a platform of environmental and stock sustainability.

Still, at my first meeting - in Brussels - with Seafish’s  Louise Keane, Head of Communications, Howard Thomas, Consumer Marketing Manager and Tom Rossiter, Technology Implementation Manager, it was apparent our two industries could learn from each other.

We could pick up some valuable pointers on marketing and promotion activities. They were interested in our environmental work. I just happened to have a couple of copies of Rick Fletcher’s national ESD framework with me and everyone who looked at it seemed impressed.

Four days after leaving Brussels, I was at the Edinburgh offices of Seafish and over two days I got a good understanding of what this organisation does and how - and where it’s headed.

Its Market Insight team has detailed data on market trends and consumption that would make Nick Ruello, green with envy. The raw data come from a commercial provider and are analysed in-house to identify consumer trends by major individual species and product categories - raw, frozen and canned. Industry can then factor the results into its marketing.

Talking with Consumer Marketing Manager Howard Thomas convinced me their industry and ours have basic similarities. Seventy per cent of seafood eaten in the UK is imported; much of its high-end catch is exported and per capita consumption is almost the
same as ours.

Their promotion is better, with a generic two-serves-a-week campaign as a background to product-specific activity.

Talks with Seafish’s Technology Training Group and, in particular, Tom Rossiter reinforced my belief that there is potential to collaborate on energy efficiency and environmental management and since my return the emails have flowed in on energy efficiency, with New Zealand and other countries clearly interested in collaboratively and cost-effectively exploring a broad range of options on an issue of importance to the fishing industry globally.

MORE: Seafish,
http://www.seafish.org

Peter Horvat, FRDC Communications Manager

Scholarships for three

THREE seafood industry operators have won scholarships worth $10,000 each for an intensive five day course in corporate governance run by the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Peter Dyke, 34, is farm manager of the family-owned aquaculture business Oyster Bay Oysters, at Little Swanport, Tasmania. He is also his region’s representative on the Tasmanian Shellfish Executive Council and a contributor to the Tasmanian Shellfish Quality Assurance Program’s algal monitoring project.

Samara Miller is Executive Officer of the Port Lincoln-based Spencer Gulf and West Coast Prawn Fishermen’s Association and Executive Chair of the Australian Council of Prawn Fisheries.

Kellie Williams, 24, of Hendra, Queensland, is Chief Executive of the Moreton Bay Seafood Industry Association and Vice-president of the Queensland Women’s Industry Network Seafood Community. She manages the Queensland component of a national program trialling  wild-harvest environmental management systems.

They join 12 other rural scholarship winners on the Australian Government-funded course, aimed at equipping them with the skills and confidence needed to boost their presence on industry decision-making bodies, as a precursor to future industry leadership.

MORE: Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, phone 1800 686 175; www.daff.gov.au/industrypartnerships

Supermarkets rule in UK

NO matter where you go in the world, supermarket shopping throws up some stark cultural differences.

Prowling the aisles of the United Kingdom’s big three - Sainsbury, Tesco and Waitrose -  I found the seafood differences downright exciting.

Their fresh chilled displays were much smaller than ours, contained premium seafood and were controlled by people who generally had a fair understanding of what they were selling.

Most seafood was pre-packaged and portion-controlled, be it prawns, salmon steaks, squid or mussels.

Value-adding by pre-packaging has a couple of advantages - it helps maximise shelf life and it lets consumers see what they are buying and how much it will cost, a technique refined in Australia by Paul Catalano’s Seafood Secrets, featured previously in R&D News.

There was also quite a range of products that had been further value-added, from simple crusts applied to fish fillets and a myriad of sauces though to whole meal packages containing rice or pasta with condiments.

And would you like a recipe with that? Waitrose will deliver the recipe of your choice to your mobile phone or email address.

The supermarket seafood revolution is a fact of life in the UK, but some definitely do it better than others.

Australia may be a few years behind, but make no mistake. The revolution is underway here too.

MORE:  www.tesco.com
www.sainsburystoyou.co
www.waitrose.com

Peter Horvat, FRDC Communications Manager, email peter.horvat@frdc.com.au, phone 02 6285 0414

Selecting super salmon

TASMANIA’S Atlantic salmon fishery has begun a big selective breeding project to produce faster-growing, attractive fish with a high omega-3 oil content.

Tens of thousands of salmon will be bred, DNA fingerprinted and measured so growers may select the bloodlines best suited to their farms and the tastes of Australian consumers.

The project is a partnership between the hatchery company Saltas, owned jointly by growers and the Tasmanian Government; and CSIRO, through its Food Futures Flagship.

Flagship Director Bruce Lee says it has the potential to lift the value of Tasmanian production - currently about $170m a year -  and sharpen the sector’s ability to respond to changing market and production needs.

Each chosen fish and its family connections would be documented, he said, allowing genetic tools to be used to improve the precision of the selection process and the returns to industry.

Most of  Tasmania’s Atlantic salmon begin life in the Saltas freshwater hatcheries at Wayatinah in the central highlands.

There, each year, more than 5000 fish representing 140 salmon families will be DNA fingerprinted and electronically tagged so their growth and health can be monitored.

They will then be transferred to seawater at Tassal’s Dover farm in southern Tasmania, with tens of thousands of performance measurements to be made and evaluated each year.

Saltas Chairman John Harry says the high level of genetic variation maintained at Wayatinah should provide an excellent foundation for great selective breeding gains.

“Building on this foundation with a big breeding program that will select a small percentage of elite fish as parents, we expect to achieve up to a 10 per cent improvement in key commercial traits each generation,” he said.

MORE:  Nick Elliott, CSIRO, phone 02 9490 8490

Bulk screen for salmonids

A NEW system that allows big numbers of salmonids to be screened for bacterial infection has been described as a breakthrough for aquaculture.

The screening technology is designed for high volume testing and is suitable for large scale population screening. The diagnostic technique, based on hybrid culture-gene probe technology, can be used for quarantine, disease surveillance and disease management.

It was developed by Principal Investigator Jeremy Carson and Teresa Wilson of the Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute (TAFI) in FRDC project 1999/201, jointly funded by the Aquafin CRC, to improve fish health in Tasmania’s $170m salmonid sector.

Their screening solution uses a process called Selective Enrichment Culture PCR Enzyme Hybridisation Assay (SPE) to identify fish covertly-infected with bacterial pathogens known to cause significant disease outbreaks in Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout, including atypical Aeromonas salmonicida, Lactococcus garvieae, Tenacibaculum maritimum and Yersinia ruckeri.

The laboratory-based test uses skin mucus or faecal samples only and positive results are obtained within
six days.

Its developers say that by providing early detection of covertly-infected fish it allows farmers to restrict fish movement to prevent disease spread, change management practices to avoid stress and to determine the spread of disease in a population at risk of infection.

It also does away with the crude method of identifying carriers by deliberately stressing a cohort of fish to force covertly-infected ones to break down with disease.

Field surveys during the project identified live carriage levels of bacteria in farmed salmonids of zero to 18 per cent for A. salmonicida, two per cent for L. garvieae, one per cent for T. maritimum and four per cent for Y. ruckeri.

MORE: Jeremy Carson, phone 03 6336 5207; email jeremy.carson@dpiw.tas.gov.au

Final reports

FINAL reports on these recently-completed R&D projects are available from FRDC, or the other source named. Principal Investigators’ summaries are free at www.frdc.com.au.

People subprogram? 2005/309

FRDC has been urged to change its approach to people development in the fishing industry by addressing the urgent need for greater capability at local and regional levels. This could be done through a new FRDC Subprogram that used as guides the capacity-building approach of other  R&D corporations and the  development framework of the New Zealand fishing industry, said Principal Investigator Ivan Johnstone of the Canberra Institute of Technology’s consultancy CIT Solutions. Fostering cooperative ventures and other people development initiatives locally and regionally should be the major objective, he said. Every FRDC R&D project should have a discrete people development component to deliver the human skills industry needed to apply its outcomes. Australian Government funding for vocational education and training should be targeted in collaboration with industry peak bodies. CIT Solutions’ full report is free at www.frdc.com.au.

Lobster insights 2001/070

Southern rocklobster puerulus settlement data can be used to enhance production by predicting sustainable catch rates, this tri-state study shows. The project has also delivered the first survival and growth estimates for newly-settled and juvenile lobsters and has documented the existence of feeder reefs that appear to supply juveniles to adjacent regions and thus have greater importance than their size suggests. The researchers built artificial reefs of expanded concrete and steel to mimic lobster habitat, with three hole sizes for settling puerulus -16mm proved to be the puerulus’ preference - and bigger crevices, which they shunned. In addition to specimens tagged for the study the structures were colonised by big lobsters and other reef predators. Their design, an Australian first, will be useful for further studies of lobsters’ highly vulnerable benthic stages, says Principal Investigator David Hobday of Primary Industries Research Victoria. See also Lobster larvae benefit all elsewhere in this edition.

Tournament accreditation 2005/235

The concept of a national, one-to-five star accreditation system incorporating an ISO environmental standard for recreational fishing tournaments has won support from angler associations, individuals and management agencies, says Principal Investigator Bill Sawynok of Recfish Australia. Recfish now is seeking funding to develop the concept. See Recs move to accredit, R&D News 14.2.

WA finfish 2002/004

Western Australian fishery managers now have evidence that the minimum legal lengths of two heavily-fished species should be increased to ensure their sustainability. Principal Investigator Ian Potter of Murdoch University says female mulloway typically reach first maturity at 930mm and males at 880m, far above the WA legal limit of 500mm. Female silver trevallies’ average length at first maturity is 310mm and the current legal minimum exposes them to one year’s fishing before they are able to spawn. He says allowing mulloway to be fished when they school to spawn should also be reconsidered.

SBT model 2002/015

Better estimates of southern bluefin tuna abundance and mortality in the wild are expected from a new modeling framework developed by CSIRO to analyse retrieved tagging data and integrate the results with catch-at-age and observer information. Principal Investigator Tom Polacheck says the framework has also allowed maximum information to be extracted from the extensive tagging of juvenile SBT during past decades, which previously had been impossible without a suitable estimation framework.

SBT metabolism 2003/228

The routine metabolic rate - internal chemical processes - of caged southern bluefin tuna has been measured using a tent-like mesocosm respirometer, delivering results that Principal Investigator Richard Musgrove of the South Australian Research and Development Institute describes as realistic and repeatable. He says the achievement is a first for any big bony fish species. The 248 cubic metre mesocosm is now being used in a follow-up project, FRDC 2005/200, to produce physiological data for computer models designed to improve husbandry, farm efficiency and environmental outcomes. Final report from the Aquafin CRC, phone 08 8207 5400.

Abalone antibiotics 2000/205

The antibiotic oxytetracycline has potential as a counter to Vibrio harveyi, the major bacterial threat to cultured juvenile abalone. Principal Investigator Judith Handlinger of the Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute trialled five antibiotics and found oxytetracycline alone was adequately absorbed, clinically active and effective against V. harveyi in test abalone after being milled into their feed. But she said a relatively slow clearance of antibiotic residue by abalone could limit its use on stock close to marketing and possibly create a need for residue testing.

Salmon safeguards 2001/097

Models developed in this CSIRO project  have allowed Tasmania’s Atlantic salmon aquaculture sector to assess the environmental consequences of alternative developments in the connected waterways of the Huon estuary and D’Entrecasteux Channel. Principal Investigator John Volkman said the Channel’s environmental health was high compared to the Huon and lower River Derwent, although monitoring suggested that voluntary caps in the Huon had prevented unacceptable environmental consequences on a system scale. But a new management strategy and associated monitoring were necessary and were now being developed in FRDC project 2004/074.

Crab certainties 2001/068

Western Australia can predict the coming season’s commercial catch of blue swimmer crabs, a development that will improve crab marketing and management of the joint commercial and recreational fisheries. Principal Investigator Lynda Bellchambers of the Department of Fisheries WA says her prediction index based on monitoring the abundance of juvenile blue swimmer crabs is an important tool for proactive management. She says the predictive model reduces uncertainty about future total commercial catches, helping both fisheries management and marketing - a boon in fisheries such as Cockburn Sound, where annual commercial landings have fluctuated between 92t and 362t. Here, she has predicted a 2005-06 commercial catch of 101t. For the developing fisheries of the Pilbara and Shark Bay she urges fishery-independent assessments to ensure sustainable management.

Decontamination manual 2002/653

Aquaculture and wild fisheries now have a manual  that describes decontamination procedures suited to an aquatic animal disease outbreak. Part A explains the basic principles involved in planning, cleaning and disinfecting. Part B makes recommendations for specific types of enterprise, with sections that double as individual technical advice sheets for use in an emergency. Principal Investigator Kevin Ellard of Livestock & Aquaculture Veterinary Consulting Services, Tasmania, says copies have been sent to all government agencies involved in animal disease preparedness and response.

NPF monitoring 2004/009

A recruitment index survey should be made annually in the Northern Prawn Fishery, says Principal Investigator Yimin Ye of CSIRO, because its value declines significantly if there is a break in the series or a change in the annual timing. He said evidence from spawning index surveys had been combined with commercial data to develop a technique to estimate annual recruitment, availability and catchability that is promising, but needs refining for multiple species. Future recruitment and spawning surveys should be made in consistent months and moon phases, he advised.

Trawl impacts 2002/102

A single pass of a trawl in the Northern Prawn Fishery on average removes 12 per cent of seabed biota. Principal Investigator Mick Haywood of CSIRO says this means six passes – significantly fewer than the rate of intensive commercial trawling – would remove about half the biota. However benthic analyses indicated that most changes in species composition and abundance were related to seasonal factors rather than trawling and that attached or slow moving species damaged by trawls regenerated within a year. The project has developed a model to predict the effects of changes in trawling intensity on seabed species, plus a catalogue of invertebrate fauna on the trawl grounds of the southern Gulf of Carpentaria.

Aquaculture nutrition 2001/251

In this report Principal Investigator Robert van Barneveld  outlines the objectives so far achieved through FRDC’s Aquaculture Nutrition Subprogram and its strategic directions through to the end of next year. The subprogram, he says, is now recognised nationally as the single point of contact for advice on aquaculture nutrition R&D.

Pacific solution in 5 steps

Pacific island and Micronesian nations can increase fishery benefits through five policy steps, according to an assessment prepared for AusAID, the Australian Agency for International Development.

Principal author Les Clark of Ray Research says the steps are to:

More transparency

He says the setting of fees and granting of licences, particularly for foreign vessels, should be made transparent.

This would require legal and administrative reforms to codify and formalise licensing processes and to ensure that responsibilities do not lie with a single minister or senior official. Licensing details should be disclosed for public scrutiny.

Pacific island countries would also be better served by sharing information, not concealing it from each other, so that all could be better informed in dealing with foreign fishing partners and there could be open dialogue about access arrangements as a basis for more cooperative and collective action.

Consultative management

Consultative fishery management processes were inadequate in most countries and, in some, virtually non-existent.

Improved arrangements, Les Clark said, might take the form of industry groups within national chambers of commerce, or separate associations.

Better arrangements for consultation between government and non-government stakeholders, particularly the private sector, would improve the investment climate, improve  national management of inshore and coastal fisheries and increase the effectiveness of national delegations in regional and international forums, as initiatives by Papua New Guinea had shown.

Inshore needs

Improving coastal fisheries management through community involvement was necessary to maintain the ability of inshore fisheries to feed dependent coastal populations and to increase their ability to sell  fish domestically and to specialist export markets.

Les Clark  said it was now accepted that real gains could be made at a local level by strengthening traditional management, including customary systems of marine tenure where these still existed; and creating or strengthening alternative community-based management systems elsewhere.

But for community-based management to be successful, he said, it needed to be part of a comprehensive national strategy.

Maximise benefits

With recent positive changes in relations between some island countries and fishing states, the timing appeared right for bold, innovative approaches by Pacific nations to secure more benefits from granting access to fishery resources. Here, two features stood out:

For some countries, Les Clark said, this provided an opportunity to use access to lever greater investment in processing, marketing, or vessel servicing. For others, it provided opportunities for higher fees.

In both cases there would be opportunities for longer-term, more secure, more valuable access rights. Countries could further increase returns by:

• Collaborating to harmonise fees

• Providing access to a wider area on a single licence

• Working together to process and market regional seafood for world markets

• Tying access to trade opportunities

People power

Lack of private sector capacity was a key constraint that required bottom-up as well as top-down processes to strengthen entrepreneurial capacity and build business management and technical skills.

Such processes should ensure that Pacific islanders were able to participate more fully in the full range of fishing, marketing and processing businesses, from micro-scale to industrial level.

These bottom-up measures, Les Clark said, should target in particular women, small-scale fishers, current fishery business owners; and managers and indigenous entrepreneurs in other sectors who were potential investors in fisheries.

Building their capacities  would mean abandoning the public sector-focused approaches that had dominated past training programs in favour of mentoring or partnerships aimed at developing entrepreneurs and building fishery management and technical skills.

The paper, written as a background document for AusAID’s Pacific 2020 project, was based on discussion at a 2005 meeting of regional practitioners and experts.

MORE: www.ausaid.gov.au

Tracking SA’s kingfish

A WILD yellowtail kingfish tagged and released last year in South Australia’s Spencer Gulf has been re-captured 130km away.

It was one of 205 kingfish tagged to help gauge the potential for an exchange of parasites between migratory wild stocks and those farmed in the gulf.

The exercise was carried out by an Adelaide University team with the help of volunteers from SA Fish Tagging and charter operators, as part of Innovative Solutions for Aquaculture Planning and Management, an R&D collaboration between Primary Industries and Resources SA and FRDC.

One year later 15 kingfish had been recaptured, the first three months after release and most near their release point - including the biggest, a 32kg specimen tagged last September. Two were caught 100km or more away.

Researcher Kate Hutson says little is known about SA’s wild population, but there is thought to be an annual spawning migration to the northern Spencer Gulf. Adults are thought to leave the gulf in summer, congregate briefly in locations such as Coffin Bay off the west Eyre Peninsula, then disperse. A clear picture of migratory behaviour is a prerequisite, she says, to understanding the potential for a transfer of parasites to farmed stock.

Kate Hutson will speak about the project at this month’s Australasian Aquaculture Conference in Adelaide.

MORE: www.innovativeaquaculture.com

Steve seeks US formula

THE winner of the second Peter Dundas-Smith Scholarship to develop fishing industry leadership will use the $10,000 prize to study the organisation of America’s million dollar catch-and-release fishing tournaments and their ability to attract sponsors.

Steve Morgan of Brisbane is Director of Australian Bass Tournaments P/L, controls the publishing group Fishing Monthly which produces Fishing Monthly and associated magazines; and the Network Ten television show  AFC Outdoor.

He says this puts him in a unique position to ensure that Australian tournament fishing benefits from the knowledge he expects to gain in the United States, where tournament companies receive major sponsorship from out-of-industry sources.

“I believe that, in Australia, out-of-industry funding is the key to promoting fishing to the wider audience, thus addressing declining participation nationally,” he said.

In the United States he will study management of the biggest tournament of the year, the $US1.5m FLW Tour Championship, including the methods used to value the event, the inclusion of children through a kids’ fun zone and the flow of competitors and their catch through weigh-in and safety procedures.

MORE: Steve Morgan, email s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au

Board hears NSW concerns

FEARS for the future of commercial fishing in New South Wales were put to the FRDC Board  during a meeting with local industry representatives in Newcastle.

The Board held its June meeting in Newcastle and commended the area’s commercial and recreational fishers on their ability to cooperate with one another and on their shared view of fisheries resources.

The Board was told that allocation issues off Tomaree had been resolved by Tomaree ProAm, a commercial-recreational committee set up to handle access and allocation matters without formally involving government departments.

However, concerns remained about the adequacy of research underpinning NSW management decisions and about the level of consultation, interaction and dissemination of information to industry by researchers and managers. Directors were told more effort had to be put into communicating FRDC R&D outputs to end-users, as often the only engagement with industry was at the data-collection phase.

Local industry representatives identified as priorities:

• Threats to the sustainability and social resilience of commercial fishing in NSW and a need to determine a sustainable structure in the face of an aging workforce, limited earnings, state government licence reduction targets and a lack of a unified industry organisation

• Ecosystem effects of a possible increase of Australian salmon shoals along the NSW coast, especially in the north

• A better national understanding of the status of the protected grey nurse shark and the effect on it of fishing and tourism activities such as recreational scuba diving

FRDC has asked the NSW FRAB to consider how the grey nurse issue should be tackled. It  says its recently-funded project 2006/018 Australian salmon population structure, reproduction, diet and composition of commercial and recreational catches in NSW will address concerns raised about this species’ feeding behaviour.

The Board also met representatives of NSW’s mid-north coast oyster industry to discuss progress in selective breeding, QX resistance, hatchery techniques and technologies and strategic planning for the industry. See Hawkesbury phoenix rises elsewhere in this edition.

MORE: John Wilson, FRDC, phone 02 6285 0400; email john.wilson@frdc.com.au

New FRDC data agreements

OFTEN the data collected during an R&D project sit on a hard drive, disk, CD, DVD or even at the bottom of a filing cabinet, making data access and sharing a difficult task.

These data underpin FRDC’s R&D investment. In the past, attempts to ensure they could be accessed and available beyond the life of a project were limited. However advances in computer capabilities and capacity offer enormous opportunities to store, retrieve and combine data. Imagine the opportunities where different datasets can be connected to describe complex physical environments or provide biological information on a fish species across its whole range of distribution through time.

FRDC’s new data management strategy will mean that metadata will be captured and available so that the most can be made of the extensive datasets that are generated during R&D projects. The value in developing this process to ensure data has a custodian and is available will add significant value to FRDC’s investment.

This new requirement to capture and provide metadata will require new undertakings from R&D applicants and providers to display and make available free of charge these metadata via the web so that they can be searched and potentially accessed as required.

Internet access is provided through the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure, (ASDI) a mechanism established on the premise that there are efficiencies to be gained in sharing data – collecting them once and using them many times.

To achieve this, FRDC will change its internal processes to ensure that:

• Duplication of data collection is minimised

• Standards are used in data collection and management

• Data owners and custodians are nominated at the start of a project

• Metadata and a data licence accompany all data

New requirements

FRDC will now require a data management strategy from R&D providers as part of a research contract, including metadata and long-term management arrangements; and will make final payments contingent on these requirements being satisfied.

Changes have been made to the full application, project agreement, and final report assessment process to meet the new FRDC project management procedures.

The new arrangements will be flexible to accommodate the various available types of datasets and management. Each R&D provider will have the option to host and distribute the data produced.

The Australian Ocean Data Centre Joint Facility (AODCJF) will provide a mechanism to ensure that:

• FRDC-funded data are made available through on-line and distributed systems

• Metadata are validated and published

If an agency is not able to provide long-term custody of data produced in a FRDC project, a hosting and publishing service may be negotiated through the agreement with AODCJF.  An appropriate AODCJF partner will be nominated for the particular datasets produced.

Metadata

FRDC prefers that its research providers use the AODCJF/Bluenet-developed metadata entry tool, now in the final stages of development. Standard marine vocabularies will be part of the tool, ensuring marine metadata adhere to national standards in terminology and naming conventions.

Data licensing

FRDC has developed a standard licence agreement based on the Office for Spatial Data Management template to accompany its data. With FRDC approval, R&D providers may also use their own data licences.

Standards

The FRDC Project Agreement requires that data collected meet recognised standards where they exist. Minimum data collection standards ensure that data are stored digitally and with maximum transferability.

Commercial-in-confidence

The FRDC Project Agreement covers issues of security, confidence and ownership of intellectual property. There will be some situations where it is not appropriate to make information available and such data will be kept confidential.

The necessary changes to procedures will take effect in the next round of funding. Details of new data management requirements in the application process and new R&D provider obligations are at www.frdc.com.au.

John Wilson, FRDC Business Development Manager, phone 02 6285 0411, email john.wilson@frdc.com.au

Bream are tough survivors

THE yellowfin bream of Australia’s eastern seaboard can survive significant exposure to air after being mouth-hooked.

Survival rates of those gut-hooked is also high if the line is cut at the mouth and the fish released immediately.

These initial conclusions by New South Wales Fisheries researchers Matt Broadhurst, Paul Butcher, Craig Brand and Darren Reynolds are based on a series of tank experiments with this key recreational species.

The work was prompted by the belief that more than 13 million yellowfin bream are caught each year by anglers from northern Queensland to Victoria, but up to 63 per cent are released, many because they are less than the minimum legal length, with no understanding of their fate.

Writing in the recreational magazine Fishing World the researchers reported a survival rate of 97 per cent for bream they mouth-hooked in tanks and exposed to air before release.

In their first experiment,  two batches of 22 fish were exposed to air, the first for two and a half minutes and the second for five minutes. They were then released into sea cages, fed and monitored alongside control fish for 10 days. All survived.

In a second experiment, 31 bream were mouth-hooked, then ‘played’ for 30 seconds before landing and undergoing the same exposure times. Two that bled from hook wounds died within an hour of release -  the air allowing blood to clot on their gills. The rest survived five days of monitoring.

An associated study indicated that for gut-hooked bream and mulloway, simply cutting the line at the mouth before release – rather than removing the hook – quadrupled survival.

For bream, the researchers reported survival rates of 70 per cent to 85 per cent, with most survivors ejecting the hooks, mostly by mouth, after an average of 20 days. The steel - non stainless -  hooks typically were oxidised to about 90 per cent of their original weight and often had been broken into two pieces at the shaft barb.

The team says it will now investigate the rates at which different types of hooks are swallowed by bream and some other recreational species, in an attempt to identify patterns that maximise the potential for survival after release.

Note

All data should be identified and documented with metadata to facilitate their proper management and use. Metadata provides information about the content, geographic extent, currency and accessibility of the data, together with contact details for further information. The Australian and New Zealand standard is the ANZLIC metadata profile, which is consistent with the international metadata standard (ISO 19115). For more about metadata, see www.anzlic.org.au

Source: © 2006 Kroll Ontrack Inc.

Silver medal

FRDC has won silver alongside corporations such as ANZ, QBE Insurance, Santos and Westpac in the Australasian Reporting Awards (ARA).

ARA chairman Alex Malley said the awards had benchmarked world’s best practice since their inception 56 years ago, contributing to a steadily improving standard of corporate reporting that often was ahead of the regulators.

Next year, he said, the bar would be raised higher, with corporations encouraged to measure and report on the value of their people’s knowledge and its effect on productivity.

FRDC’s annual report has also received a bronze award from the Institute of Public Administration, which commended the Corporation for acknowledging the importance of its stakeholders.

MORE: Peter Horvat, FRDC, email peter.horvat@frdc.com.au

From the Subprogram Leader

The annual Workshop in Hobart in October 2006 was held as part of the 4th National Rocklobster Congress and was a success.  Details of all of the presentations at the Congress can be found on the website at: http://www.seafoodsa.com/dynamic/documents/Title_page.pdf

In this issue we have published a copy  of the outcomes of the Congress, and  we will also publish with the Rocklobster Enhancement and Aquaculture Subprogram a Workshop Proceedings  for the papers presented by the two Subprograms. This will be available for purchase later this year.

You will see that in the previous two sentences I have used the word rocklobster and not rock lobster. 

This is the new decision of the Australian standard names committee, and will be used through out this issue of the Newsletter.

It is proposed to hold this years Workshop in New Zealand in Auckland on 5 and 6 th October.  We are hoping for both Australian and New Zealand participation.  If you would like further information, contact either myself or Emma Phillips; see the back page of the Newsletter for details.

This newsletter has been included with the FRDC R & D News as a trial for distribution to readers who may not have previously seen our issues. Back issues and publications can be requested from  Emma Phillips.

Bruce Phillips: Subprogram Leader.

4TH NATIONAL ROCKLOBSTER CONGRESS HOBART 11TH - 13TH OCTOBER 2005

OUTCOMES

Background: Two years on from Congress 3 in Fremantle 2003, lobster prices are 30% lower, the SA Northern Zone has adopted quota, lobster propagation has arrived and product quality is a given in markets.

As well, lobster markets, marketing, market development, Marine Stewardship Certification, supply chain standards, national seafood promotions, country of origin labelling, European Seafood Expo and the National Food Industry Strategy, are all national lobster industry opportunities.

The Congress posed the questions “Should the industry work together on these opportunities and if so which ones and how?”

THE CONGRESS WAS STRUCTURED IN TWO PARTS

1.    a series of briefing covering a range of industry, aquaculture, and post harvest (see full proceedings) and

2.    presentations on market related topics with group sessions where the following questions were dealt with on a species basis :

• What are the opportunities to work together?

• What concerns do we have?

• How do we overcome these concerns?          

• What is the one project that we would take on in the next 12 months?

Workshop Outcomes

The “Market Development Workshop” including various market related presentations and group sessions, was facilitated by Susan Nelle – Managing Director, National Food Industry Strategy.

Key Outcomes of Group sessions

1. What are the opportunities to work together?

Market/Marketing

• An Australian market development strategy for Rocklobster.

• “Envirodoc” national certification for all seafood.

• Market research based on the needs of the consumers.

• Promotion of Australian lobsters (different  geographic zones) & link to tourism expenditure to further promote Australian lobster.

• Contribute funding. 

• Work together to reduce trade barriers into China (tariffs & market access).

• Education of the chefs regarding sustainability.

• Branding Australian Rocklobster (eco-label) and/or exclusive product brand.

• Manage supply to better meet demand.

Information/communication

• Global database extension to all Australian rocklobster species.

• Education (handling food, packaging, fish markets, information about Australian rocklobster - establish a website and other like education tools.

• Create a better image.

• Establish better links between fishers and processors

• Improve communications between all lobster sectors and different levels in the supply chain nationally and internationally.

• Fisheries Management information exchange.

• Building relationships to New Zealand.

Capacity

• Traceability through the chain.

• Uniform standards across species.

• Ratified codes of practices eg national health and safety.

• Watching brief on animal welfare.

2. What concerns do we have?

• Lack of bench marking.

• Lack contribution (funding) to the big picture.

• Aging fishers.

• Impact of aquaculture eg differentiation between farmed and wild caught products.          

• Market access and trade barriers.          

• Weak national organisation.

• Animal welfare issues.

• Too many committees (duplication of effort.)

• Community perception.

• Traceability through the supply chain.

3. How do we overcome these concerns?

• Implement bench marking studies.

• Improve communication (market place, post harvest, individual fishers changing their behaviour).

• Target young fishers to participate in leadership training

• Rocklobster licence holders ownership the aquaculture propagation.

• Improved market access.

• Develop a well funded national organisation strictly to focus on promotion.

• Distinguish between farmed and wild caught (branding/labelling laws).

• Increase community perception.

• Create funding through a mandatory levy.

• Manage the impact of corporatisation of the industry.

4. What is one project that we would take on in the next 12 months?

• Formation of a national communications system between

• Australasian Rocklobster Fisheries.

• Secure an funding stream.

• Establish Global Database – Alice Hurlbatt’s project.

• Purse “Enviro doc” or like Government environmental accreditation.

• Communication on standards.

• Raise national profile.

• Investment nationally in reduction of the trade barriers.

Key Congress Outcomes

A key message from the Congress was that action was required involving the respective Australian State rocklobster industries (and New Zealand) and communication should be upgraded and formalised through the engagement of the industry executive officers and members across Australasia.

The Executive Officers agreed to meet formally at least 6 monthly to progress:

1.     progress projects identified in the next 12 months.

2.     a national rocklobster industry communication strategy.

3.     national capacity opportunities and

4.     market development.

Closing Comments for consideration – major sponsor FRDC

Meeting Close - Improvements and suggestions for the next Congress:

The following were put forward as suggestions for Congress 5, to be hosted by Queensland:

• Target young industry participants.

• FRDC committed to match dollar for dollar every young person who attends the next Congress.

• Need to mix science and industry issues with more emphasis on industry issues such as access security and marine protected areas.          

• How can the congress address the skills of the Rocklobster Industry.

• Provide more notice of the Congress (6 months).

• Keep the price down.

• Include a question time after each presentation. Transporting southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii): a review of current literature and recommendations for future research.

Study of the impact of heat on Polyphenoloxidase in southern rock-lobster (Jasus edwardsii) Haemolymph

By James L. M. Kueh
Curtin University of Technology

The aim of this project was to identify the temperature ranges where heat activation and deactivation of southern rocklobster PPO occurs. Through this, identification of the effects of cooking temperature on melanosis formation in southern rocklobster could be determined.

To achieve this, lobster haemolymph was heated in unsteady conditions at defined temperature intervals. Polyphenoloxidase activity was determined by reaction with L- dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) and measuring spectrophotometrically at 490nm. Baseline activity, a measure of the PPO innately present in lobster haemolymph and total activity, a measure of the maximal enzyme activity following trypsin-mediated activation was determined for all samples. Both measures of PPO activity were ascertained to enable identification of changes in enzyme availability and activity.

In this study it was found that baseline relative PPO activity was maximally activated by heat at 75°C and was not deactivated by high temperature until 90°C. The enzyme was not fully deactivated at 99°C, indicating that the proPO form may be heat resistant at high temperatures or that another haemolymph component is activated to produce PPO-like activity.

Analysis of the total relative PPO activity identified that another haemolymph component, possibly hemocyanin is converted at moderate temperatures (50°C) to a form which exhibits PPO-like activity. The haemolymph component was inactivated at high temperature (99°C).

The findings indicate that high cooking temperatures as seen in processing treatments such as blanching will decrease but will not destroy PPO activity. Other methods of PPO inhibition such as antioxidants and reducing agents may be required to inhibit PPO activity in southern rocklobster haemolymph.

The reduction of o-benzoquinone production by PPO is essential in reducing detrimental melanin production. Minimization of PPO activity and through this detrimental melanosis formation will be required to sustain product quality as value adding of southern rocklobsters commences.

FRDC Project 2005/223

Evaluation of alternative processing technologies applicable to crustaceans.

Hannah Williams: Food Science and Technology Program, School of Public Health, Curtin University.

Each year 4-5,000 tonnes of western rocklobster are cooked and exported from Australia to countries such as Japan and Taiwan. When existing cooking methods are used a proportion of cooked western rocklobster go black after thawing, this results in a product that is unacceptable to the customer.

The blackening of the flesh is known as melanosis and is caused by an enzyme called polyphenoloxidase (PPO). Melanosis is a major problem for the western rocklobster industry and it has been estimated that it costs the industry over $1 million per year. It is therefore necessary to find a method to stop PPO activity and solve the problem of melanosis.

FRDC funded a project in 2001 (FRDC Project 2001/235) to investigate the impacts of current processing on melanosis in western rocklobster. Currently, boiling is the most common method used in cooking lobsters and so it was important to understand what was happening to the PPO enzyme when the lobsters are boiled. The study showed that when western rocklobsters were heated to an internal temperature between 60 and 80°C there was a large increase in enzyme activity. It was not until after temperatures reached 90°C, or more, that the enzyme activity stopped. Overall, it was found that for most of the cooking period, temperatures were between 60-80°C. Therefore they did not get hot enough to kill the enzyme; rather, current cooking methods actually increased the enzyme’s activity; and increased the risk of melanosis formation.

What was still unknown was how long the temperature needed to remain at 90°C in order to completely stop the enzyme activity that caused melanosis.  Therefore a series of experiments was done using a range of time-temperature combinations to produce a range from severely undercooked to severely overcooked lobsters. From this study it was found that lobsters must reach a calculated heat input equivalent to at least 36 minutes at 90°C in order to prevent melanosis. However, increased cooking time results in increased weight loss in lobsters. For the producer this means lost money.

A solution was needed as to how to reduce the length of cooking time required, in order to minimize both weight loss and melanosis.

In 2005, FRDC funded a further project (FRDC 2005/233) to look at different methods of cooking that use higher cooking temperatures over shorter time periods. The project will establish their impact on weight loss and preventing melanosis formation. It is suggested that rapid heating during cooking may result in improved post processing quality, weight recovery and reduced melanosis.

Current processing methods, i.e. boiling, will be used as the control method to which all other processing methods are compared. The alternative technologies being evaluated are:

• Steam

• Steam with Pressure; and

• Microwave

The work to be done in this project builds on the information obtained from FRDC Project 2001/235. The first step is to determine the standard processing protocols for each alternative cooking method that meets the criteria determined in FRDC Project 2001/235. The experiments required to achieve this are underway in this current lobster season using a pilot facility that has been established in Fremantle, Western Australia.

Live lobsters are supplied from the live tanks at Lobster Australia, Fremantle. After drowning, two rocklobsters were selected for each cook and thermocouples attached to them for recording internal and external temperatures. Nickel-cadmium thermocouples were used for all heat treatments with the exception of the microwave system. When using the microwave, a system of fibreoptic thermocouples and a shielded datalogger were used in order to prevent
electrical arcing.

On each lobster, the third leg on the right hand side was removed at the joint closest to the body and a thermocouple probe inserted. The probe was positioned in the muscle mass at the junction of the head and tail. Another thermocouple was placed on the upper surface of the carapace between the antennae in order to describe the immediate thermal environment of each lobster during the cook. The instrumented lobsters were placed in the central position for each cook regardless of the system used to process.

FRDC project 2001/233 showed that the internal core temperature of lobsters reaches 75ºC after 20 minutes processing when using boiling. In this study (FRDC 2005/233) equivalent sized lobsters processed using atmospheric steaming also took an average of 20 minutes to reach an internal core temperature of 75ºC. The impact of steaming on melanosis rates and weight recovery in rocklobster has yet to be evaluated. Steam processing may offer particular benefits to weight recovery as it has been shown to produce 2% improvement in weight recovery in Homarid lobsters.

The use of pressure in combination with heating has been shown to increases sensitivity of enzymes to heat. It is suggested that using a pressurised steamer will result in a decrease in the heating time required to prevent PPO activity, and hence melanosis, while increasing weight recoveries. Initial trials have shown that the cook time required to reach an internal core temperature of 75ºC was reduced to 14 minutes when using a pressure steamer. The impact of pressurised steaming on melanosis rates and weight recovery in rocklobster has yet to be evaluated.

Studies of PPO enzyme activity in vegetables have shown that microwaves decrease enzyme activity faster than can be accounted for by the temperature profile of the cooking process. The rapid decrease in activity is attributed to the impact of the microwaves on the enzyme’s physical structure.  It is widely believed that the rapid cooking times associated with the use of microwaves would also act to improve weight recovery in processed lobsters. At present, the development of microwave as a commercial processing technique is in its infancy, however, as the technology catches up with the research this will become a more viable option if it is identified as an effective method of improving weight recoveries and reducing melanosis. Initial trials have shown that the cook time required to reach an internal core temperature of 75ºC was reduced to four minutes when using a microwave system. The impact of microwaves on melanosis rates and weight recovery in rocklobster has yet to be evaluated.

Now that the baseline protocol for each cooking has been determined, a series of trials using the developed processing protocols will be conducted in the next lobster season (2006-2007). The aim of these trials will be to produce a range of cooks by each processing method that give severely undercooked to severely overcooked lobsters. The lobsters will then be evaluated to establish the impact on weight recovery and melanosis rates of the various cooking protocols. From this the best protocol for each alternative processing method will be established. The ‘best’ protocol will be that method which results in the highest weight recovery with the lowest incidence of melanosis. rocklobsters cooked using the identified ‘best’ protocol for each alternative method will be compared to boiled lobster using sensory evaluation techniques. From the data obtained it will be possible to determine if there are significant beneficial differences between current processing methods and the alternative processing methods.

Overall, the project aims to identify the cooking methods most likely to maximize returns on cooked crustaceans. It is expected that the project will be completed in December 2008.

For further clarity on the priorities or any other information please contact one of the following:

In the know

• Neil Stump is the new CEO of TFIC, appointed from the president’s chair following the resignation of Andrew Febey on health grounds. A commercial fisher for 24 years, Neil Stump is a former President of the Tasmanian Rock Lobster Fishermen’s Association, has a Batchelor degree in Applied Science (Fisheries) and a Batchelor of Science (Hons) and is completing a Master of Environmental Studies degree. Rocklobster fisherman Rodney Behrens succeeds him as TFIC President.

• Rick Fletcher has been appointed Western Australia’s Director of Fisheries Research. He joined the WA department from NSW Fisheries and is leader of the FRDC ESD reporting and assessment subprogram.

• A new head for the Australian Maritime Council in Launceston - Malek Pourzanjani  has been appointed president and principal. He’s currently Professor of Maritime Education and Training at the World Maritime University in Malmo, Sweden, and has previously held professorial appointments in British universities.

• Paul McShane has resigned as Vice-president, International and Development, at the Australian Maritime College to explore other marine resource fields.

• T-shirt and shorts are the new corporate uniform for Seafood Services Australia’s Alan Snow, who is now running Alan Snow Konsulting (ASK@ASKonsulting.com.au) full time, but will continue to work on SSA projects.

• In South Australia Martin Smallridge, a former manager of the SA Seafood Council, has been appointed PIRSA’s general manager of fisheries policy. Kelly Crosthwaite switches from manager of PIRSA’s legal services to act as principal manager of the southern zone rocklobster fishery for the next year.

• New Members of the Order of Australia: An AO to SA’s Scoresby Shepherd for groundbreaking work in abalone biology and ecology and for coast care. AMs to Tasmanian oyster grower Col Dyke, for environmental protection and water quality initiatives; to pioneer aquaculture educator  Nigel Forteath, fellow-Tasmanian and now emeritus professor, for services to the fishing industry and marine and freshwater biology; and to Queensland scientist Bernard Moulden for services to research and education. Medals (OAMs) to WA’s Claude Basile for service to the fishing industry and the community; to NSW’s William Harvey for service to recreational fishing organisations; and to aquaculture pioneer Allan Yates for his leadership in developing the Tasmanian shellfish sector.

• Port Lincoln-based Executive Officer of the Spencer Gulf and West Coast Prawn Fishermen’s Association, Samara Miller, is now a full-time EO – previously she also worked for the Seafood Council of SA.

• Queensland marine biologist Darren Cameron is working out of the Solomons for the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency on a three year secondment from GBRMPA.

• Gavin Begg, CRC Reef’s Program Leader, Fishing and Fisheries, is now Manager of AFMA’s Fisheries Data Program.

• TFIC’s new Project Officer is Shane Fava, formerly senior technical officer, crustaceans, with TAFI.

Know something we should know? Email us: comms@frdc.com.au