Sustainable aquaculture in Tasmania, Australia: industry initiatives and research priorities

Tasmania is an island to the south of the Australian continent and is Australia’s smallest state by geography and population size. Tasmania has a strong environmental movement and some of Australia’s most important temperate wilderness and marine environments. It is the country’s largest seafood producer by value which is mainly attributable to farmed Atlantic salmon (21% value of Australian seafood). The Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry aspires to World best practice and can be characterised as both innovative and a fast adopter of new technologies. Tasmania presents a unique location for commercial aquaculture and for aquaculture research on salmonid species due to a range of environmental, commercial and historical factors.

Tasmania is a climate change hot-spot so that changes to the marine environment often occur here before they do in other regions of the world. Historically, high water temperatures were advantageous in promoting high growth of farmed salmon. As higher temperatures are experienced more often the industry is having to develop responses to the impacts of climate change. Strategies are underpinned by research and include selective breeding for robustness, evolving management practices and using new technology. The location of salmon farms is also changing and moving away from some coastal zones. Land-based recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS) are being built to increase the size of salmon before they are moved into seawater. Recently, industry has started to explore moving to offshore sites in order to expand beyond the limited coastal sites for aquaculture. The seas around Tasmania are relatively high energy and pose considerable technological challenges as well as unknown questions about production biology.

The aim of the presentation is to overview seafood production in Tasmania with a focus on current industry initiatives and setting research priorities.