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Fisheries Chief welcomes first farmed mulloway in Geraldton
Date: Monday, 7 September 2009
Department of Fisheries chief Stuart Smith will be in Geraldton on Monday September 7, to meet with Indian Ocean Fresh Australia Manager Erica Starling about her farmed mulloway, now on the market in Western Australia and the Eastern States.
Erica Starling is from a Geraldton fishing family, and has found farming mulloway a real challenge.
She says mulloway is known to be a robust fish that will grow to about a kilogram in just over a year.
“It is regarded as a classic staple of seafood menus in the eastern states, where it is called jewfish,” Erica said.
Erica was the recipient of the 2003 the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Rural Women’s Award for WA and worked on developing a product-handling manual for Australian long-line caught tuna.
Department of Fisheries CEO Stuart Smith says it is great to see production of a sustainable, healthy form of protein in the clean waters of the Midwest, supported by the department.
“It is fantastic to see local people employed through this initiative and training for students,” Mr Smith said.
“The Midwest region has great potential to produce significant volumes of healthy seafood from aquaculture due to good water temperatures, great infrastructure in the Geraldton area, including the port and associated trades and suppliers that can support the marine industry due to the rock lobster industry being based here.”
The temperate waters of the Midwest are ideally suited to a range of fish species, including mulloway, yellowtail kingfish, snapper and tunas.
Mulloway was chosen as they are endemic to the area (already here) and relatively robust, meaning they can tolerate various ranges of salinity and conditions due to spending some time in river water in the wild.
Erica said whilst mulloway has a reputation as a slow growing fish, the fish involved in the farming trials have grown steadily and growth rates encouraging, with some of the fastest growing mulloway in Australia.
“We started to trial harvesting fish around 500g at Christmas 2008, with the first commercial harvesting taking place in January 2009,” she said.
The fish are currently averaging 1.3kg each to 2.2 kg. The target size is 2.5-3kg.
Some product goes into Perth markets with the bulk of the harvest going to Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane and Sydney.
“Routine monitoring and testing occurs in conjunction with the fish health specialists at the Department of Fisheries' Fish Health Unit in South Perth,” Erica said.
“The support of the department has been terrific and they have greatly assisted us in understanding how to optimise and maintain the health of our fish to ensure safe food for our consumers.
“Contact with all these people has enabled a great deal of knowledge transfer to management and staff in Geraldton.”
Erica Starling is from a Geraldton fishing family, and has found farming mulloway a real challenge.
She says mulloway is known to be a robust fish that will grow to about a kilogram in just over a year.
“It is regarded as a classic staple of seafood menus in the eastern states, where it is called jewfish,” Erica said.
Erica was the recipient of the 2003 the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Rural Women’s Award for WA and worked on developing a product-handling manual for Australian long-line caught tuna.
Department of Fisheries CEO Stuart Smith says it is great to see production of a sustainable, healthy form of protein in the clean waters of the Midwest, supported by the department.
“It is fantastic to see local people employed through this initiative and training for students,” Mr Smith said.
“The Midwest region has great potential to produce significant volumes of healthy seafood from aquaculture due to good water temperatures, great infrastructure in the Geraldton area, including the port and associated trades and suppliers that can support the marine industry due to the rock lobster industry being based here.”
The temperate waters of the Midwest are ideally suited to a range of fish species, including mulloway, yellowtail kingfish, snapper and tunas.
Mulloway was chosen as they are endemic to the area (already here) and relatively robust, meaning they can tolerate various ranges of salinity and conditions due to spending some time in river water in the wild.
Erica said whilst mulloway has a reputation as a slow growing fish, the fish involved in the farming trials have grown steadily and growth rates encouraging, with some of the fastest growing mulloway in Australia.
“We started to trial harvesting fish around 500g at Christmas 2008, with the first commercial harvesting taking place in January 2009,” she said.
The fish are currently averaging 1.3kg each to 2.2 kg. The target size is 2.5-3kg.
Some product goes into Perth markets with the bulk of the harvest going to Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane and Sydney.
“Routine monitoring and testing occurs in conjunction with the fish health specialists at the Department of Fisheries' Fish Health Unit in South Perth,” Erica said.
“The support of the department has been terrific and they have greatly assisted us in understanding how to optimise and maintain the health of our fish to ensure safe food for our consumers.
“Contact with all these people has enabled a great deal of knowledge transfer to management and staff in Geraldton.”
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