Over 120 of us gathered at Griffith NSW to attend the aquaculture conference and trade show. Presented by the NSWAA, FNFA and NSW DPI the event was run over 2 days from the 2-3rd of September.
Day 1 was the main conference with the opening address by Murray Cod legend Noel Penfold. Held within the Griffith Exies Club, Jondaryan Ave, Griffith, it was an informative day with a large number of speakers from across industry, government and research.
Featured speakers included:
Ian Lyall – NSW DPI Aquaculture Manager
Dr Stuart Rowland
Graham Bowley – NSW DPI Policy Officer
Brett Ingram – PIRVic
Mat Ryan – Riverina Aquaculture
Paul Van der Werf – Earthan Group Pty Ltd
Matt McLellan – NSW DPI Hatchery Manager
Roger Camm
Associate Professor Giovanni Turchinni – Deakin University
Karina Worrell – NSW DPI Aquaculture Biosecurity Officer
Wayne Hutchinson – FRDC
Mike Rimmer
Robert McCormack – Australian Aquatic Biological P/L
MC for the event was our aquaculture manager Ian Lyall. Ian always does a very professional performance.
Speakers from across industry, government and research presented the latest knowledge and techniques for aquaculture in Australia to delegates.
A large number of companies manned trade displays and presenting their products and equipment to industry. Registration, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea were all served in amongst the trade displays.
The conference dinner was held at the Exies Bagtown Motel with local pond/cage grown Murray Cod being showcased on the dinner menu.
Day 2 saw delegates head to the bus and cars for a trip to Yanco Agricultural Institute, Yanco NSW for a Fish Health Training Session. After a lecture on fish health we broke up into smaller groups for hands on fish health examination.
Our group started outside where Dr Jeffrey Go demonstrated the dissection techniques we will need to employ once we move into the lab. We then moved into the Lab where we dissected our own fish and examined gill and skin scrapings under the microscopes.
Lunch was next at the Leeton Hotel, an excellent meal had by all.
After lunch we headed to Mat Ryan’s farm “Riverina Aquaculture” for a farm tour.
Arriving at Riverina aquaculture we were presented with an extremely large shed housing a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). This state of the art RAS system was designed by Paul Van der Werf of Earthan Group and was an eye opener for most of us.
We were lucky to be allowed to see this system that leads the world in design and performance. Heavy biosecurity proticols were in place to ensure we did not present a security risk.
Paul Van der Werf of Earthan Group showed us the system and answered all our questions. The most startling thing about this system was that when we entered the shed most people asked when the system was going to be turned on. Paul responded that it is on with 90,000 fish in the tanks. THE WHOLE SYSTEM RUNS WHISPER QUIET! There is zero machinery or water noise, no noice what so ever in this system, quite amazing!
Mat Ryan showed us the ponds and cages for the growout of premium grade Murray Cod.
It was a very informative and interesting event with positive feed back from all. My thanks to NSW DPI Fisheries, FNFA and especially, Lisa Ryan for all her efforts in organising this exceptional event.
Cheers
Rob