Australian fisheries research benefits the Asia-Pacific region

Research to address the problems of marine and freshwater fish farming is starting to lift the number of hits being scored. Successful farming of marine finfish and other high-value species such as mud crabs presents many challenges such as finding the right feeds; managing disease outbreaks and ensuring local environments don’t suffer.

Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines have worked together to develop production systems for raising juveniles of several high-value species, as well as mud crabs. The work is already helping poor communities in Bali, where over 600 backyard hatcheries are producing healthy fish for sale locally and increasingly to the lucrative live-fish markets of Asia.

Re-stocking of depleted coral species is helping indigenous rural communities in northern Australia, eastern Indonesia and the Pacific, who have traditionally lived off coral reefs. Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley region have established hatcheries to raise young topshell (a species of trochus), the conical shell of which is valued by the fashion trade. Local communities have taken the initiative and are working with fisheries authorities to reseed nearby reefs in an effort to restore the local industry.

So the odds are good that sharing Australian research will result in plenty of fish in the sea and on the menu, for villages and communities throughout the Asia-Pacific region for a long time to come.