Mr MITCHELL - 2001-03-01
In November last year the minister opened a $450 000 fish nursery at the Darwin Aquaculture Centre. Minister, can you tell the House how things are going out there and of any progress at this fish nursery.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the honourable member for Millner for both his interest and the question. Indeed, we did open a very large and modern nursery facility at the Darwin Aquaculture Centre in support of the Pivot Aquaculture Project at Port Hurd on Bathurst Island, and I am sure the member for Arafura will congratulate this government on the support they have provided that facility.
As part of the commissioning process we bred some golden snapper to ensure that the processes worked before we were required to breed the barramundi. In recent times, the barramundi breeding project has occupied all the room at the Darwin Aquaculture Centre and as a result we have 10 000 excess golden snapper. I seek leave to table a plastic bag containing two such golden snapper.
As you can see from these fish, in the five month period since they were hatched they have shown remarkable growth rates; growth rates that you do not normally find in the wild. I will pass it around to honourable members to have a look at, but I would ask that they treat them carefully as they are a little stressed.
This very afternoon at 12.30 pm we propose to release 10 000 of those fish into Darwin Harbour. One would hope that would make a negligible impact upon the fish stocks of Darwin Harbour. However, as part of our ongoing community processes and community obligations, when we breed fish such as this and we have no further use for them, we will release them back into the environment and, as you can see, we have succeeded admirably in being able to produce golden snapper. They are now at a stage where all it requires is an investor and commercialisation of one of Australia’s premier seafoods.
Members: Hear, hear!
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the honourable member for Millner for both his interest and the question. Indeed, we did open a very large and modern nursery facility at the Darwin Aquaculture Centre in support of the Pivot Aquaculture Project at Port Hurd on Bathurst Island, and I am sure the member for Arafura will congratulate this government on the support they have provided that facility.
As part of the commissioning process we bred some golden snapper to ensure that the processes worked before we were required to breed the barramundi. In recent times, the barramundi breeding project has occupied all the room at the Darwin Aquaculture Centre and as a result we have 10 000 excess golden snapper. I seek leave to table a plastic bag containing two such golden snapper.
As you can see from these fish, in the five month period since they were hatched they have shown remarkable growth rates; growth rates that you do not normally find in the wild. I will pass it around to honourable members to have a look at, but I would ask that they treat them carefully as they are a little stressed.
This very afternoon at 12.30 pm we propose to release 10 000 of those fish into Darwin Harbour. One would hope that would make a negligible impact upon the fish stocks of Darwin Harbour. However, as part of our ongoing community processes and community obligations, when we breed fish such as this and we have no further use for them, we will release them back into the environment and, as you can see, we have succeeded admirably in being able to produce golden snapper. They are now at a stage where all it requires is an investor and commercialisation of one of Australia’s premier seafoods.
Members: Hear, hear!
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016