Aquaculture Research

The aquaculture research unit develops technology to initiate new or improve existing aquaculture industries. Key facilities used for this research at the Port Stephens Fisheries Institute include a mollusc hatchery, a quarantine mollusc hatchery, marine fish broodstock centre, marine fish hatchery, marine fish nursery facilities and grow-out tanks and ponds. Commercial or pilot-scale facilities are complimented by replicated small-scale facilities for applied research.  Research directions are developed in consultation with representatives from industry through the Aquaculture Research Advisory Committee.
Key program areas include:

Oysters

Research is key to sustaining NSW's oyster industry in a profitable and environmentally sustainable way.

• Developing and improving hatchery and nursery techniques for Sydney rock, Pacific, Pearl and Flat oysters.
• Selective breeding for oysters.  
• Genetically improving Sydney rock oysters (eg for disease resistance and faster growth) 
• Researching the impacts of human activities on oysters.

Marine Fish

• Improving methods for hatchery production of snapper, mulloway, Australian bass and yellowtail kingfish. 
• Producing Australian bass and mulloway for stock enhancement. 
• Investigating potential of inland saline water for growing trout,  mulloway (and other species).

Algal Production

• Producing live algae for PSFC and industry. 
• Culturing 7-12 algal species.

Nutrition, Diet Development

• Developing and improving diets for fish and prawns. 
• Currently focused on mulloway and yellowtail kingfish growout diets. 
• Replacing fishmeal with Australian agriculture ingredients for use in fish diets. 
• Producing cheaper, environmentally friendly feeds.

Other NSW DPI aquaculture research facilities include the Grafton Aquaculture Centre; the focus for research on freshwater aquaculture, and the Inland Saline Aquaculture Research Centre where technology for inland saline aquaculture is being developed and commercialised. The aquaculture research unit plays an important national role by coordinating projects on inland saline aquaculture and leading oyster research and an international role by assisting with developing and managing the aquaculture projects funded by the Australian Council for International Agricultural Research. 

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Aquatic Ecosystems Research

Aquatic ecosystems field researchers in one of NSW's inland rivers

The aquatic environment in NSW is very diverse, extending from 3 nautical miles offshore to the rivers in the far west.

The ocean environment, estuaries, coastal rivers & streams, inland rivers and freshwater wetlands all have their own unique habitats and biodiversity. Conserving these features while also allowing for sustainable fishing and other uses of aquatic resources is a key challenge for the NSW Department of Primary Industries. The Aquatic Ecosystems research unit provides the scientific underpinning for management initiatives and policy development for these valuable resources.

Field sampling and laboratory analyses based from Port Stephens are undertaken in 3 areas and cover the following activities:

Marine Habitats & Biodiversity

• Mapping key estuarine habitats such as mangroves and seagrasses, and assessing their conservation value. 
• Working with the Department of Environment & Climate Change to map important offshore habitats such as rocky reefs.  
• Sampling fishes above and below new tidally-activated floodgates to assess their performance in improving fish passage into important breeding & nursery areas on coastal floodplains. 
• Adapting modern technology, such as an underwater acoustic camera (Didson) which can monitor fish even in dirty water or at night, to get a better understanding of fish behaviour. 
• Habitat and population studies of grey nurse and great white sharks including tagging and tracking movement patterns using acoustic and pop-up satellite tags. 
• Investigating the feasibility of establishing an artificial rearing program for endangered grey nurse sharks. Current research is focussed on wobbegong sharks as a model.  
• Undertaking surveys to monitor the spread of introduced marine species that have established in NSW waters (eg European fan worms, green crabs and, of most concern, the green seaweed Caulerpa taxifolia). 
• Developing control techniques to eliminate, or at least limit the spread of, newly introduced species before they establish and become troublesome.
• Developing and trialling sampling procedures to assess the condition of estuarine and oceanic waters in NSW as part of the statewide Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (MER) program.

Freshwater Habitats & Biodiversity team

• Identifying the habitat requirements of freshwater fish so that remaining areas of good habitat can be identified and procedures developed for restoring key freshwater habitats such as snags (large woody structures).
• Assessing the impacts of dams and weirs as barriers to the migration of freshwater fish, and designing better fishways to improve fish passage at major barriers.
• Measuring the composition of fish communities in rivers and wetlands as a key indicator of the health of freshwater systems. This involves regular electrofishing surveys throughout NSW and contributes to the riverine theme of MER.  
• Researching the biology, demography, genetics, and current distribution patterns of threatened fish species such as the Oxylean pygmy perch in coastal swamps in northern NSW, Eastern cod in the Clarence river system and Macquarie perch in the Hawkesbury-Nepean system.
• Monitoring the spread of pest fish species such as redfin perch, carp and banded grunter, and developing ways to control infestations of small aquarium fish such as Jack Dempsey cichlids in coastal streams.

Ecosystem Linkages team

• Using sophisticated mathematical models to investigate the ecologically sustainable development of regional marine and estuarine resources in NSW, which is being done in collaboration with the CSIRO. This research is currently based in the Clarence river estuary, but will soon be extended to elsewhere in NSW.

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