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By
TONY RAGGATT
SYDNEY-based company
Aquacrab Systems Australia Pty
Ltd is breaking new ground with plans to
farm mud crabs at Bowen.
The company has lodged a development application with
Bowen Shire Council to develop a $17 million
barramundi and mud crab farm on a 60ha property at
Yates Creek south of Bowen.
The company plans to
harvest one million crabs and 500 tonnes of barramundi
a year for export to Asia, Europe and the United
States.
Aquacrab director Keith
Painter said that while the technology it would use to
farm barramundi was widely used, the farm's crab
facility would be the first of its kind in the world.
"The mud crab facility
will use new technology designed for intensive
production of mud crabs," Mr Painter said.
"It will be first of
its kind anywhere."
Mr Painter, an
aquaculture farm design engineer, said Aquacrab was
basing its crab farm technology on research into the
biology of mud crabs developed by the Queensland
Government's
Department of Primary Industries.
He said the company had
devised an enclosed system to farm the crabs to be
grown out in individual compartments in troughs.
The crabs had to be
separated to prevent them eating each other.
He said the technology
was confidential but the facility included three basic
stages: a hatchery where crabs were grown from eggs,
ponds for baby crabs to grow to about 5g and a
grow-out facility where crabs would be grown in the
troughs to about 450g.
He said the system
would be enclosed, with no release of waste or water
into the surrounding environment. Water would be
sterilised for re-use.
The facility would be
housed in three sheds covering about 4ha.
The company wanted to
begin construction in mid-year and complete the
facility in 18 months, although it depended on
approvals from local, state and federal agencies.
"It's a massive process
to get licences," Mr Painter said. "There are eight or
nine regulatory authorities and another 10 to 12
agencies that give other approvals." |
