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"We have made a lot of progress
in the last four to five years doing what the Japanese have
been trying to do for 20 years," Mr Bayly said.
"Now Japan is looking at our
technology for their northern bluefin farms."
Mr Bayley now manages the
tuna division of
Skretting, a part of the
multi-national aquaculture corporation
Nutreco, and the success
has not gone unnoticed with strong interest being shown in
the pellets in the tuna farming nations such as Spain,
Malta, Mexico and others.
Nutreco's interest goes
further as the European-based company also has shown an
interest in becoming involved in tuna farming off Port
Lincoln, Mr Bayley said.
"After being involved in
salmon farming, they are seeing the benefits of getting
involved in the Port Lincoln tuna industry," he said.
Research into the pellet
feeding technique has been made possible with the support of
the Aquafin Cooperative Research Centre and the
Fisheries Research and Development
Corporation, with the
Stehr Group also being
involved, he said.
Much of the research has
taken place on four pontoons, two of which contained
pellet-fed fish while the other two held fish fed the
traditional pilchard fish.
These research fish, leased
through the cooperation of the Tuna Boat Owners Association,
were farmed by the Stehr Group, who also currently feed
pellets to about half of all its fish and plan to do even
more next season.
The results from the studies
show that food conversion ratios had improved significantly
from 15 to 1 with pilchards to 5 to 1 for pellets (five
tonnes of pellets turns into one tonne of tuna flesh).
Pellets had a higher protein
and fat content than pilchards and that meant lower volumes
were needed, with 220 tonnes of pellets having the
equivalent nutritional value of 500 tonnes of pilchards.
Remote underwater video
cameras proved that much of the pellet material made it
through the cages and seagulls were less attracted to the
pellets, Mr Bayly said.
Another benefit was the
cooking process that helped eliminate diseases or pathogens.
But all of these improvements
would mean nothing if the Japanese were not impressed with
the product quality.
Mr Bayly emphasised that the
pellet was not meant to replace locally caught pilchards but
could be used in tandem with fresh product thereby reducing
even further demand on expensive and restricted imported
baitfish.
Pellet fed fish was getting a
good reception from tuna buyers, with some even noting the
fish lacked the distinctive pilchard odour associated with
some farmed fish, he said.
"The results have been good
fish growth, good colour and good fat content," Mr Bayly
said.
The pellets contain fishmeal
currently produced from anchovies and sardines from Chile,
supplemented with fish oil, a vitamin and mineral mix all
held together with wheat gluten.
Skretting markets the pellet
as being free of land animal byproducts, antibiotics, growth
promoters or genetically modified ingredients, he said.
One of the major hurdles to
overcome was introducing the wild fish from the Bight to the
manufactured pellets.
Mr Bayly said significant
time was spent on developing techniques to wean the freshly
caught tuna off fresh baitfish and onto the pellets, with
the process taking between seven and 10 days.
The interest of the European
companies in Australian tuna farming operations has not gone
unnoticed within the local tuna industry.
The fact that multinational
companies such as Nutreco were showing an interest in
expanding their stake in the industry did not surprise
Australian tuna industry spokesman Brian Jeffriess.
"It's understandable that
there would be that type of interest," he said.
Norwegian company
Stolt Sea Farm was already
the second biggest tuna company in Port Lincoln and it was
not unreasonable that one their major competitors was
showing an interest, he said.
These companies made it their
policy to integrate or take-on all aspects of an industry,
from feed manufacturer to the actual farming to the
marketing of final product, he said.
The success of Nutreco's tuna
pellet development off Port Lincoln could be another
motivating factor for the company to become involved, he
said.
The innovative generation of
Port Lincoln fishers that pioneered tuna farming could not
stay involved for ever and decisions were being individually
made as to how the industry should moved forward, he said.
In same cases the new
generations were taking over and in other cases new groups
of people were becoming involved, he said.
"I believe all the companies
are moving toward becoming more global," Mr Jeffriess said.
By Stan Gorton
FIS.com
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