Fertilised blue mussel eggs
Pump room at Queenscliff
Victoria Mussel hatchery moves into FLAT OYSTERS
BY JOHN MOSIG T
he gamble taken by a consortium of marine farmers and Victoria's Department of Primary Industries has paid off. The shellfi sh hatchery they established in 2008
is producing mussel spat at will from conditioned broodstock and mussel farmers have secured a reliable supply of quality seedstock.
The success of the hatchery was timely. In 2008 the
industry was at a crossroads. Natural spat collection had been unreliable and gaps in downstream production had eroded market confi dence. The government had released new water, and without seedstock its development and viability was questionable. The fl ow of seeded mussel ropes from the program gave weary growers the confi dence they needed.
OPTIONS FOR VERSATILITY Sea Bounty's Lance Wiffen is extremely buoyant. "It's all positive. The hatchery's going really well, and now that we've got the mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) successful we're starting on fl at oysters (Ostrea angasi). Then, depending on which way it goes in regards to the dive sector, we'll start on scallops (Pecton fumatus)." "We've fi nished our fi rst fi ve year agreement with the
government and we've signed on for another three years. During that time we'll be doing work into maximising the effi ciency from the seeded mussel ropes and developing growing methodology so we can get the most from the fl at oysters. Management of bonamia in the fl at oysters is something else we'll be looking at. At the end of the period we'll be setting up our own hatchery." Scallop spawning technology is available, but Lance said
there was no point in growing a high quality product if the government licensed a dive sector that would fi ll that market niche.
MUSSEL GENETIC SELECTION Whilst there has been no discernable increase in growth rates in the mussels per se, the benefi ts have come from the early stocking option the conditioned breeding program has provided the industry. By being able to get the spat in the water earlier they are getting a full growing season into the mussels and are getting a better turn around off the farms. At this stage a selective breeding program is part of the longer term agenda. Lance said it was an expensive undertaking, and while the government has helped them to get the current breeding program going, a genetics program would be something they would look at when the industry is better set up fi nancially to absorb the cost and benefi t from the technology.
Victorial shellfish hatchery spokesperson Lance Wiffen (R) tells John Mercer and Aquaculture Minister Joe Helper (L) how it is…
8 ■ NZ AQUACULTURE ■ NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012
OYSTER PRODUCTION They're trying a couple of growing methods for the oysters, but the one that has shown most promise is gluing the spat onto the ropes individually. They've found that growth in cages has been compromised by the cages fouling and reducing water fl ow. This season they're settling the oyster spat on scallop shell, which in turn are attached to the ropes. Once they're 20-30mm the scallop shell is removed and the juveniles are attached individually to the growing ropes. This spring, Sea Bounty will be hanging ropes seeded with 30,000 advanced juveniles of 20-70mm out on the
