According to Smoky Bay oyster grower Gary Zippel, a shortage of spat has kept production well below the 40 million oyster per annum mark when the industry could potentially have grown much faster.

"It has offset production because we have less oysters going into the water," Mr Zippel.

"We’ve got a lot of anxious growers out there."

Australian Southern Seafood Group chairman Greg Patten said the South Australia’s only oyster hatchery, operated by the group alongside its abalone farm, was now increasing its spat production operations as fast as it could to meet the local demand.

"Our spat export planning has been shelved for the main reason that there is a huge demand for spat in South Australia and we are going to focus our efforts on getting adequate supplies to the industry in this State," Mr Patten said.

Planning with the farmers was vital and the hatchery was keen to work with growers and to maintain a good relationship, he said.

Meanwhile Tasmania’s largest oyster spat producer Shellfish Culture currently has a feasibility study underway to see whether opening another branch in South Australia makes sense.

Company general manager Richard Pugh said the company was founded by growers and has been supplying spat since 1979.

"I’ve seen a lot of up and downs and I don’t anticipate that this current shortage will last much longer," said Mr Pugh, noting that only two years ago there was an oversupply of spat.

He said the industry in Australia had seen dramatic growth in recent years as new water particularly in South Australia coming on line, with the challenge now to keep on marketing the product domestically and overseas.

Mr Zippel is chairman of the South Australian Oyster Research Council and a director of the private company Australian Seafood Industries that is working to improve oyster breeding.

Three hatcheries in Tasmania together with the local hatchery needed to provide the local industry with at least 80 million juveniles each year, he said.

"It is a mixture of art and science and it is challenging," Mr Zippel said.

"Sometimes it seems to work by itself and other times it’s not that easy."

The real challenge according to oyster breeders is getting the proper food supply to the tiny growing oysters and great care is taken in keeping the special algae producing bags in constant, disease free production.

As the growers and hatcheries worked together to meet the demand, he estimated the industry would continue to grow beyond its current production levels of around 36 million oysters per year to well in excess of 40 million oysters.

The South Australian Oyster Hatchery has been increasing production since it was founded with the help of a Government loan about seven years ago, so that now it provides between 30 and 40 per cent of the State’s needs.

Brood stock oysters are induced to spawn at the Louth Bay hatchery by fine tuning temperature and food conditions.

The millions of minute larvae are then raised on a special diet of microscopic algae and organisms until they reach the size of a small fingernail when they are sent up to the nurseries at Smoky Bay and Streaky Bay where they are disseminated to growers.

The company says it has retained the services of its most expert oyster breeder and also has plans to possibly set up another nursery at Coffin Bay to further meet demand.

By Stan Gorton
FIS.com