Farming Marron

Introduction

Marron (Cherax tenuimanus) is a very large freshwater crayfish native to the main permanent rivers in the forested, high rainfall areas in the south west of Western Australia (Lawrence 1995). There is evidence of genetic differences among populations from different drainage systems (Lawrence and Morrissy, in press). The distribution of this species has been extended as far east as Esperance and as far north as Geraldton and international interest in marron farming has led to the species being introduced into South Africa, Zimbabwe, Japan, USA, China and the Caribbean (Morrissy et al. 1990) as well as several Australian states. Few of these industries have been successful although rapid expansion of marron farming occurred in the late 1990s in Western Australia and South Australia.

Figure 1 : Map showing distribution of marron in Western Australia

Some of these newer farms have produced excellent results and generally marron is a luxury product highly prized by chefs which attracts much higher prices than yabbies or redclaw crayfish. Marron are usually sold live

and have a commercial "tail-with-shell" recovery rate of 42 - 43 per cent by weight, which is higher than for other cultured freshwater crayfish and compares favourably with marine rock lobsters (Morrissy et al. 1990). Clearly, marron has several attributes which make it commercially attractive although in the early days of the industry the supply and cost of juveniles were major limiting factors.