Premier Mark McGowan and Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly today opened the new Albany seafood hatchery that will support the expansion of aquaculture and create WA jobs.
The hatchery will support the development of a South Coast aquaculture industry and is estimated to create almost 100 direct WA jobs and a further 250 indirect jobs over 10 years.
The successful commercial-scale farming of edible oysters, mussels, scallops and Akoya pearl oysters depends on a reliable supply of large quantities of juvenile seed stocks, known as spat.
At times farming has been difficult with unpredictable spat recruitment but the new multi-species mollusc hatchery, which will be fully operational in early 2018 and has substantial biosecurity features, will produce spat and fill demand.
The WA aquaculture and wild-catch mollusc sectors are worth about $75 million – the new hatchery is estimated to increase the sector’s value by up to $12 million within five years.
Growing Western Australia’s aquaculture industry is a key component of the WA Government’s Plan for Jobs, to create local jobs and diversify the economy.