Environmentally sustainable development of barramundi cage aquaculture

Funded Activity Summary

Development of a major barramundi industry in Lake Argyle in the Kimberley region of WA is proceeding, with a developer obtaining approvals for a 600 tonne production licence and production rising rapidly as the fish approach market size. In the process of seeking these approvals, and also through a strategic environmental review of the opportunities for aquaculture in this area by Department of Fisheries (Report No. R700), the issue of environmental impacts by barramundi aquaculture has been considered a key-limiting factor to expansion towards a major 10,000 tonne industry in Lake Argyle. Presently, the capacity of the Lake Argyle ecosystem to sustainably maintain certain levels of barramundi cage culture is unknown and models need to be developed that will assist in determining the carrying capacity of specific areas of the lake. By comparison to other cage aquaculture scenarios in Australia, the one at Lake Argyle is largely unique, in that large-scale aquaculture in a tropical lake system is not being conducted elsewhere in Australia. However, a sound understanding of the environmental sensitivity of the Lake Argyle ecosystem is lacking. Clearly, for long-term management of this industry, an improved understanding of the level of hydrodynamic and environmental variability and key control points for environmental management of barramundi cage culture need to be defined. Similarly, critical control points of barramundi cage culture environmental discharge (both soluble and solids) also need to be more fully explored.

This project will build on from an existing project of the principal investigator’s, presently underway at Lake Argyle, auditing the nutrient discharge characteristics associated with barramundi fed existing commercial diets.

Objectives:
1. To determine the environmental sensitivity of the Lake Argyle ecosystem to additional nutrients
2. To develop a diet which addresses the environmental sensitivities of the Lake Argyle ecosystem
3. To optimise feed management strategies for optimal efficiency
4. To develop carrying capacity assessment models of the Lake Argyle ecosystem

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 30-06-2004

End Date: 01-12-2009

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $226,632.00

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

There are no FoR codes available for this funding activity

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Aquaculture | Biology | Disease | Modelling | Nutrition | Risk reduction | Seafood Quality | Survey | Training

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