A leading Department of Fisheries researcher will join forces with top European scientists to further a unique fish-diet program that could save the finfish aquaculture industry millions of dollars and maintain the industry in Australia and worldwide.

Currently, a world-wide shortage of live feed is creating major problems for the finfish aquaculture industry so the Department of Fisheries, as part of a national research project, is helping to develop an alterative solution, spearheaded by its Fremantle-based aquaculture specialist, Dr Sagiv Kolkovski.

Dr Kolkovski recently won a $9,000 Federal Government grant to continue his research with Spanish and Portuguese scientists at Portugal’s Universide do Algarve in August.

World shortages of brine shrimp feed are a major problem for the aquaculture industry, a situation which prompted Dr Kolkovski’s participation in the project.

He is one of the world’s foremost aquaculture researchers who is developing an alternative feedsource for aquaculture businesses.

While there are a few other scientists researching live feeds, he is the only scientist in Australia working on an alternative known as formulated micro-diets.

“Growing and keeping live food organisms can represent up to 60 per cent of the cost to hatcheries, so a nutritionally balanced, dried diet substitute would result in huge savings, probably saving up to 90 per cent of feeding costs, for the aquaculture industry,” Dr Kolkovski said.

It is estimated the industry could save millions of dollars annually by using an alternative micro-diet.

“The prime objective of my project has been to develop a suitable diet for larval fish as a viable and cost effective alternative to natural organisms,” Dr Kolkovski said.

“For the past 10 years, we’ve been working on concocting a diet the size of sand grains that would be attractive and easily digestible for fish larvae, as well as providing all the nutrients needed for strong growth and survival.

“My study in Portugal will enable the testing of new techniques in fish larvae physiology research and also establish links with one of the leading aquaculture institutes in Europe.”

Dr Kolkovski is the principal investigator of the micro-diet project, which involves Queensland’s James Cook University, Challenger TAFE in Fremantle, Spanish collaborators and a number of commercial aquaculture companies in WA and around Australia.

He is Lead Scientist of the Mariculture Research and Advisory Group at the Research Division of the Department of Fisheries and is based at the Challenger TAFE aquaculture facility in Fremantle.

His experience in aquaculture research spans several countries and he is in demand as a key-note speaker.