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Ref:744/03 |
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australia
- May 20, 2003 |
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Australia ready to begin
large scale crab aquaculture with mud crabs |
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SEAFOOD.COM NEWS - Sunday Territorian (Australia) May
20, 2003
WANTED: Territory entrepreneurs who don't mind
dealing with a product that bites.
NT research is leading the world in farming mud crabs,
and aquaculturists are now needed to bring the
industry to life.
Progress at the Darwin Aquaculture Centre has
surpassed even the South-East Asian industry, which is
notoriously good at breeding marine animals for the
market.
NT researcher Ian Ruscoe said it was possible to spawn
and raise mud crabs reliably, thanks to work begun in
1995.
Given that one crab could lay three to four million
eggs, and about half of these could be raised to
crablet size, it was now just a matter of finding
Aussie fish farmers who could take on the technology.
'Our aim was to gather info about spawning the crabs
to be passed on to those who want to do a commercial
operation,' he said.
'We're primarily concerned with hatchery rearing and
we are getting to a point where we are ready to pass
on this technology and know-how for growing the
muddies from a small crab to market size.
'We can spawn our own crabs. |
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