After years in the computer industry, David’s ‘sea change’ found him enrolling in the fisheries science course at Australian Maritime College in Tasmania.  Graduating with distinction and first class honours, David also won the ocean waves seafood ‘abalone grow-out cage design competition’. Interested in aquaculture, Australian fresh water fish, aquatic engineering and emerging technologies, David has joined Dr Stuart Rowland’s team at the Grafton Aquaculture Centre to investigate and develop the cage culture of silver perch for cotton farms.

The presentation

The cage culture of silver perch in cotton catchments

Mr David Foley, Dr Stuart Rowland, Dr Glenn Wilson, Dr Andrew Boulton  

Water allocation reform in the Murray-Darling Basin is likely to impact on the cost of farming. Water used for the irrigation of cotton and other crops could be value- added by integrating aquaculture into current farming systems.  The silver perch (Bidyanus bidyanus) is endemic to the Murray-Darling River System and has many characteristics of an ideal aquaculture species including fast growth, an omnivorous diet and tolerance to a wide range of water quality conditions. Silver perch are currently grown commercially in Australia in purpose-built earthen ponds, but recent research indicates that silver perch may also perform well in cages.  Cage culture is widely used overseas for many fish species and has advantages over pond culture including efficient feeding, ease of monitoring and harvesting, and effective predator control. The aim of this project, funded by the Cotton Catchments Communities CRC, is to evaluate and develop strategies and best practices for the cage culture of silver perch.  An experimental phase will determine the optimum culture conditions that will then be used in an on-farm trial. The experiments will investigate stocking densities for fingerling and grow-out, commercial feeds and feeding methods, diseases and health management, use of recirculating water systems to promote winter growth, and  cage design.  Results to date demonstrate that stocking density has a significant effect on the rate of growth and survival of grow-out fish in 1m³ cages.  Experiments are currently underway comparing commercial feed performance and quantifying winter growth in a recirculating system.  The work will establish the basic husbandry techniques to determine the feasibility of integrating silver perch cage culture on cotton farms. Other outcomes of the project may have benefits for the silver perch industry and other fish species internationally.