A school of juvenile grass emperor fish have “migrated” 1300km to Townsville to be part of a nutritional research project that will boost Queensland’s growing aquaculture industry.
A total of 800 fish made the 15-hour journey by truck from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Bribie Island Research Centre in April to be part of the first-of-its-kind study at James Cook University.
The Palaszczuk government is partnering with JCU to research the best diet to grow grass emperor for commercial aquaculture production.
The six-month-old juveniles will be part of a nutritional study by DAF and JCU scientists, who aim to identify the optimal diet to maximise the health and growth of grass emperor – a reef fish that is a good candidate for commercial aquaculture.
The study will build on existing aquaculture diversification initiatives to provide more species for producers to farm, more choice for consumers and more jobs for Queenslanders.
The Palaszczuk government has overseen an aquaculture revolution that has increased the value of the industry in Queensland by more than $100m in the three years from 2018-19.
The industry grew to a record value of $224.7m in 2021-22, up from the previous record of $193.5m in 2020-21.
Mundingburra MP Les Walker said Townsville was becoming a state hub for aquaculture and jobs in the industry are booming.
“Recent figures show the number of aquaculture jobs in Townsville grew from 109 in 2020-21 to 218 in 2021-22,” Mr Walker said.
“The Palaszczuk government is continuing to support those jobs by opening up aquaculture development areas, and by making smart investments in research and development projects like this one at JCU.
“This research could lead to Townsville’s very own grass emperor aquaculture operation in the future.”
James Cook University Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture lead researcher Dr Leo Nankervis said DAF’s development of grass emperor as a new aquaculture species aligned with their expertise in aquaculture nutrition and spawned the idea of developing the first nutrition studies for this new species.
“We are studying the interaction between protein and energy levels for grass emperor feeds in order to arrive at an understanding of their macronutrient requirements,” Dr Leo said.
“We are hoping to gain an understanding of the appropriate feed composition to optimise growth, feed efficiency and minimise waste for the sustainable development of this species.
“We have dedicated feed production facilities that model commercial feed production on a small scale and state-of-the-art replicated tank-based research systems to allow us to determine the effect of feeds on growth, physiology and energy partitioning for both marine and freshwater fish.”
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