Australia's Oceans Policy provides an integrated strategy for the exploration and ecologically sustainable utilisation of marine natural resources. Areas identified as research priorities include enhancing the sustainable development of aquaculture industries and the exploitation of marine genetic resources for pharmaceutical and commercial use. This project will deliver results in both of these areas.

Research in tropical aquaculture will focus on prawn domestication and genetics, the culturing of new species, and the improvement of methodologies to enhance industry production.

The search for new biochemicals from Australia's diverse marine biota will continue towards the development of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, agrochemicals for crop protection, and novel bioremediation agents for environmental protection. The search for novel biochemicals is complemented by examining the adaptations of marine organisms to harmful and aggressive environments resulting in the production of biotoxins and venoms, antifoulants, signalling agents, and other molecular defences. Understanding the biochemical functioning of these agents has wide potential for the rational discovery of new and useful marine products.

Aquaculture in Australia is projected to be worth $2.5 billion by 2010. Globally, biotechnology products (pharmaceuticals, nutriceuticals, agrochemicals and industrial or biomedical agents) have been valued at more than $US 200 billion this year. Prospects for capturing return from these fields range from speculative (the chance of a major discovery) to reliable (the chances of several niche products) given adequate investment. Relevant priorities are:

• Program 1 Objective 6 To understand marine biodiversity and biological processes in Australia's oceans
• Program 2 Objective 7 To improve the sustainability, productivity and environmental performance of aquaculture
• Program 2 Objective 10 To promote the potential of new and emerging industries, services and technologies

• Strategic basic research into marine environmental biochemistry and chemical ecology. The focus is on understanding biochemical solutions that have evolved as adaptations to different challenges (environmental stress, communication, symbiosis). This basic understanding informs the other, more tactical, components of the project.
• Support for existing and new aquaculture industries. The main focus is upon the expanding industry in northern Australia for the black tiger prawn; a global market worth almost $US5 billion. AIMS research is designed to release the Australian industry from its dependence upon a vulnerable supply of wild broodstock and to improve the quality of water discharged from prawn farms. Research into new industries extends from domesticating new food species to culturing sponges for the production of expensive fine chemicals.
• Discovery of bioactive molecules from marine biota. AIMS screens plants, animals and microbes for compounds that may be used as agrochemicals and/or medicines. This search is done intelligently by predicting which organisms are most likely to have evolved original compounds with desirable bioactivity.

• To enhance the production of tropical aquaculture species
• To identify new agrochemical and medicinal leads from marine organisms
• To create opportunities for new marine industries based upon biotechnology
• To understand and value marine biodiversity

Key clients and stakeholders
AFFA, APFA, CALM, CRC (GBRWHA), EA, FRDC, GBRMPA, QSIA, State Museums, aquaculture industries, biotechnology industries, private investors, seafood industries, State/Territory development departments

Funding base (2000-01 figures)
$1,923,582 (Appropriations)
$420,546 (External contracts at 1 July 2000)

Contact
Dr Chris Battershill
Ph: (07) 4753 4431. 
Fax: (07) 4772 5852. 
Email: c.battershill@aims.gov.au

All levels of government have agreed on the requirement that wild fisheries must be harvested on an ecologically sustainable basis. Using this criterion, three-quarters of Australia's wild fisheries are either fully or over-exploited. Landings will therefore continue to plateau or decline, while domestic and international demand for seafood is rising. Aquaculture offers the main prospect of filling this gap and ABARE forecasts that this industry has very substantial potential for growth in Australia.

The Subproject seeks to facilitate the expansion of profitable and sustainable aquaculture industries in tropical Australia. Our current focus is the black tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon), emphasising domestication, selective breeding and enhanced production from pond-reared and wild-caught broodstock. In the new triennium, we will extend this research to cover other edible species (rock lobsters, fish) and organisms that yield other products, such as drugs and fine chemicals. To achieve these goals, the subproject will apply a wide range of expertise from animal husbandry and reproductive physiology through to biochemistry and molecular biology.

• Develop methods for hormonal control of spawning of Penaeus monodon
• Improve broodstock performance of domesticated lines of Penaeus monodon
• Investigate domestication of new aquaculture targets (e.g. tropical lobsters)
• Develop innovative technologies for sustainable seafood production

• Enhanced performance of the prawn aquaculture industry, as measured by economic and/or environmental sustainability indicators
• New opportunities for aquaculture industries in northern Australia

Key clients and stakeholders
APFA, FRDC, GBRMPA, QSIA, aquaculture farmers and investors, marine conservation groups, recreational fishing (peak bodies)

Research team
Don Booth, Samantha Duggan, Mike Hall, Matt Kenway, Dave McKinnon, Matt Salmon, Jennie Swan, Rick Willis, Kate Wilson

Contact
Dr Kate Wilson
Ph: (07) 4753 4462. 
Fax: (07) 4772 5852. 
Email: k.wilson@aims.gov.au

The Australian marine environment is famed for its megadiversity. To date, only a fraction of this diversity has been explored for novel bioactive chemicals that can be developed as new drugs and/or agrochemicals.

The research potential of this Subproject is founded upon a comprehensive and fully curated collection of marine biodiversity that the Institute has assembled over the last decade. This large collection of macro- and microorganisms has been captured in an advanced bioinformatics database that allows the search for bioactive molecules to be focused intelligently towards the best targets.

The same techniques used to discover these new marine natural products can also be applied to the marine toxins that contaminate seafood. Consequently, the Institute is also following research to develop inexpensive but sensitive diagnostic kits for this purpose.

On a different level, AIMS is contributing to a national agenda to develop Commonwealth policy on access and benefit sharing to biodiversity resources. Related negotiations are underway with the States (as this volume goes to press, the first joint agreement has been signed by the Premier of Queensland) and Australia's position has been represented in international forums considering these same issues.

• To develop and commercialise technology for seafood diagnostic kits
• To discover novel biomolecules with strong biocidal and anti-infective activity
• To develop collaborative partnerships (industrial equity ventures, regional research networks) to increase the volume of screening and Australia's capacity to exploit promising lead compounds

• A safer seafood industry
• Strategic partnerships with industry
• Economic and social benefits from the discovery and commercialisation of marine natural products through public-private partnerships
• Improved knowledge of Australia's marine resources (marine taxonomy)
• Improved access for all to marine biodiversity with fair and equitable benefit sharing

Key clients and stakeholders
Australian governments (access and benefit sharing policy), biotechnology companies (agrochemical, pharmaceutical) and private investors, seafood industries

Research team
Chris Battershill, Jason Doyle, Elizabeth Evans-Illidge, Gavin Ericson, Sarah Gardiner, Lyndon Llewellyn, Alison Robertson (PGS), Dianne Tapiolas, Nicole Webster, Rick Willis, Kate Wilson

Contact
Dr Lyndon Llewellyn
Ph: (07) 4753 4449. 
Fax: (07) 4772 5852. 
Email: l.llewellyn@aims.gov.au

Marine organisms produce myriad natural chemicals that protect them from environmental stress, defend them against predators, or act as chemical signals. An understanding of the source and function of these unique compounds can hasten their potential development for the benefit of medicine, industry or the environment.

Past examples of this type of research at AIMS have included the identification of powerful sunscreens and antioxidants in reef corals and other marine organisms. The advantage of the AIMS approach is that these compounds are being discovered through fundamental research into the mechanisms by which marine organisms protect themselves against environmental stress. Such discoveries also provide mechanisms for measuring levels of sublethal stress in wild organisms that could be developed into early warning systems for monitoring environmental health.

• Study biochemical responses of marine organisms to environmental stress
• Study biofilms as attractants and settlement triggers for marine invertebrates
• Study chemical communication among marine invertebrates
• Clarify the role of symbionts in the biosynthesis of selected bioactive metabolites
• Examine the sources of paralytic shellfish toxins in Australian marine ecosystems

• Identification of lead bioactives and/or novel applications with potential to produce commercial, social or environmental benefits to Australia
• New understandings of biochemistry and chemical ecology that increase the efficiency and/or effectiveness of the "intelligent search" for bioactive molecules

Key clients and stakeholders
Aquaculture industries, biotechnology industries and private investors, FRDC, Fuchs International, Sunscreen Technologies Pty Ltd

Research team
Chris Battershill, Walt Dunlap, Elizabeth Evans-Illidge, Sarah Gardiner, Andrew Negri, Nicole Webster, Rick Willis, Carsten Wolff

Contact
Dr Andrew Negri
Ph: (07) 4753 4322. 
Fax: (07) 4772 5852. 
Email: a.negri@aims.gov.au