Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production sector in the world. It is the only environmentally sustainable means of meeting increases in the global demand for seafood. The Australian and Queensland Governments have set ambitious targets for the expansion of northern Australia’s aquaculture industry and this team addresses key obstacles stifling growth of existing tropical aquaculture industries. AIMS also works towards development of new aquaculture industries.

Projects include culture of tropical lobsters for food, and sponges for bath and industrial use, and for chemical products. This team is your one-stop-shop when it comes to innovative approaches to tropical aquaculture industry research and development. From rock lobsters to black tiger prawns, land-based and in-sea, high and low-tech culture systems… the Tropical Aquaculture team is working closely with industry and community stakeholders.

Our Team

The Tropical Aquaculture team (takes you to profile) has expertise in systems design, hatchery technology, broodstock production and physiology, water quality management, live foods, reproductive biology and endocrinology, disease, molecular biology, genetics and coastal ecology. This allows AIMS to address most aspects of aquaculture production in its research, ranging from the initial production of larvae through to measuring potential environmental impacts of aquaculture production.

The Aquaculture team is making great strides in understanding the process required to rear black tiger prawn broodstock in captivity on a commercial scale, a feat that has so far eluded the tiger prawn industry worldwide. The aim of the project is to reduce the industry’s reliance on broodstock from the wild, a practice fraught with supply and demand, and disease problems. AIMS aquaculture researchers are working together in a major collaboration with the Australian Prawn Farmers Association, two prawn farms and the CSIRO and Qld DPI&F. Key results include the finding that the ability to reproduce successfully in captivity may have a genetic basis, allowing researchers to apply selective breeding techniques to select for the best captive breeders. AIMS researchers have also used sensitive new assays for important viruses known to cause disease in prawns to show that even the act of handling broodstock can stress them to a degree that leads to rapid viral multiplication and may increase mortality.

It is hoped prototype sponge farms set up by AIMS in collaboration with indigenous communities off the coast of Queensland, in Arnhem Land and the Torres Strait will provide new employment and training opportunities in remote areas of tropical Australia. These farms will grow sponge species sourced from local waters to produce natural sea sponges for industrial, cosmetic and bath use for under supplied international markets. The objective is to develop low-tech in-sea aquaculture techniques compatible with the customs of the communities where they’re located. AIMS has also pioneered aquaculture of sponges near its Western Australian facility to produce chemicals needed for pre-clinical trials of promising drug leads.

Growing exports: AIMS research supports the nation’s aquaculture industry          

AIMS has a competitive advantage in the field of tropical aquaculture research by virtue of its physically isolated location on Cape Ferguson, with a large land area right on the coast. The site adjoins a limited access "Scientific Research Zone" with some of the cleanest seawater in the region. Seawater for the Institute is sourced directly from an offshore intake and is relatively free from human activity. Fully integrated rearing facilities (hatchery, growout and maturation) are located adjacent to a new, state-of-the-art biotechnology laboratory, allowing immediate application of biotechnology tools to the aquaculture of target species. AIMS also has fully equipped research vessels enabling access to sites for in-sea experimentation, and it is located amidst the primary prawn aquaculture region in the country, giving it direct access to industry.

Our Collaborations

Important research collaborations have been achieved with:

• industry partners in the prawn and seafood industry,
• other research providers such as CSIRO and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries,
• universities including James Cook University and the University of Queensland
• indigenous community groups off the east Queensland coast, in the Torres Strait and in Arnhem Land
• overseas universities and research providers