Advancing Low Input Prawn Aquaculture for Indigenous Communities in the North of Australia
Tracks
Silent Conferencing
| Tuesday, August 27, 2024 |
| 4:15 PM - 4:35 PM |
Overview
Mr Simon Irvin & Mrs Tansyn Noble, CSIRO
Speaker
Mr Simon Irvin
Scientist
CSIRO
ADVANCING LOW INPUT PRAWN AQUACULTURE FOR INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN THE NORTH OF AUSTRALIA.
Abstract
Simon Irvin*, Tansyn Noble, Tim Perrin, Adam Chapman, Cass Hunter, Ron Poantimilui, Anthony Venes
In 2022, CSIRO, Tiwi Resources and the Portaminni family group partnered to explore the opportunity of low input prawn farming on the Tiwi Islands. Low input farming has the potential to be a viable option for remote locations when species stocked at low densities have the capacity to thrive on the naturally available productivity. A community led aquaculture operation has the potential to provide livelihood, training, and business development.
We focus on the opportunity for the marine tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon). CSIRO has completed the second season at an internal demonstration farm in Darwin, with production and research focusing on understanding the biological and environmental challenges of farming in the north. This farm also provides an ideal location for the provision of hands-on training, in conjunction with vocational training provided by local providers in the NT.
On the Tiwi Islands, the partners have identified two suitable locations for a demonstration farm and are currently in the process of costing the construction and operation for a three-season demonstration period. The first season will focus on benchmarking performance on the Tiwi Islands by transferring farming methods established at the internal demonstration farm in Darwin. In the second season and third season, the stocking density (level of inputs) will be varied between ponds, which will enable assessment of management requirements (human hours and energy inputs) on production performance. This will provide information comparing economic benefit, community readiness and farming resilience.
The Tiwi Island farm will provide demonstration accessible to all indigenous communities entities in Northern Australia. In this presentation we will provide the findings from season 2 and describe a plan to work through the challenges in co-developing and funding the farm on the Tiwi Islands.
In 2022, CSIRO, Tiwi Resources and the Portaminni family group partnered to explore the opportunity of low input prawn farming on the Tiwi Islands. Low input farming has the potential to be a viable option for remote locations when species stocked at low densities have the capacity to thrive on the naturally available productivity. A community led aquaculture operation has the potential to provide livelihood, training, and business development.
We focus on the opportunity for the marine tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon). CSIRO has completed the second season at an internal demonstration farm in Darwin, with production and research focusing on understanding the biological and environmental challenges of farming in the north. This farm also provides an ideal location for the provision of hands-on training, in conjunction with vocational training provided by local providers in the NT.
On the Tiwi Islands, the partners have identified two suitable locations for a demonstration farm and are currently in the process of costing the construction and operation for a three-season demonstration period. The first season will focus on benchmarking performance on the Tiwi Islands by transferring farming methods established at the internal demonstration farm in Darwin. In the second season and third season, the stocking density (level of inputs) will be varied between ponds, which will enable assessment of management requirements (human hours and energy inputs) on production performance. This will provide information comparing economic benefit, community readiness and farming resilience.
The Tiwi Island farm will provide demonstration accessible to all indigenous communities entities in Northern Australia. In this presentation we will provide the findings from season 2 and describe a plan to work through the challenges in co-developing and funding the farm on the Tiwi Islands.
Biography
Simon is a scientist whose research focuses on sustainable aquaculture production. He has over twenty-five years of research experience with aquaculture species. He has worked with numerous species, including tiger prawns and spiny lobsters in Australia, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Recently, he has authored or contributed to key technical reports which have examined the viability of aquaculture in northern Australia. Simon leads a project exploring the viability of low input prawn farming for remote areas of Northern Australia. A key objective of the project is the set up and co-management of a demonstration farm on country with an indigenous community.
