Summary

The Australian Tropical Rock Lobster (TRL) (Panulirus ornatus) is in high demand for its superb texture and taste, and commanding premium prices – over $80/kg in some markets. However, market-size lobster supply is currently restricted to wild caught adults or lobsters on-grown in South East Asia from captured puerulus/juveniles. This places unsustainable pressure on wild TRL stocks which in turn limits the catch.

Novel hatchery technology – considered a “holy grail” in aquaculture and developed in Australia – now enables commercial-scale production of TRL juveniles, supporting the full life-cycle commercialisation of TRL aquaculture.

Sea Raft Research (Ornatas) holds the Australian licence to commercialise this hatchery technology, which is essential for establishing a grow-out industry in northern Australia. This emerging industry presents significant opportunities, including diversification for existing aquaculture producers and Traditional Owner-led business development.

Ornatas currently operates a pilot hatchery and is constructing a new juvenile production facility north of Townsville, Queensland, designed to replicate the complex oceanic environment required for culturing spiny lobster juveniles. This project builds on the earlier work and undertakes the critical science needed for the next phase: step of production, the grow-out of hatchery-produced juvenile lobsters in sea raft enclosures, with research trials conducted in the pristine waters of northern Western Australia.

To support the development and evaluation of this production technology and meet market demands, the project partners bring expertise across the production-to-market pipeline and focused on six research areas: environmental conditions; raft design; translocation, lobster health and biosecurity; feeding strategies; lobster growth performance; and premium market diversity and acceptability. The project evaluated production systems by comparing sea raft productivity with onshore culture, helping to de-risk and attract quality investment into a new grow-out aquaculture industry for both existing and new aquaculture businesses.

Expected outcomes

Grow-out technology will be developed for TRL in northern Australia. Ornatas has a 10-year growth plan to establish an innovative and world-first $160 million per annum industry, aiming to export 1,100 tonnes of TRL from hatchery-produced juveniles by 2030 (Ornatas Business Plan).

Project outcomes included:

• Development of an environmental monitoring and management plan.
• Design of sea raft grow-out production suited to northern Australian conditions, with scalability for commercial manufacturing.
• Documentation of the translocation process for juvenile lobsters, including health screening protocols. Farm staff were trained in health screening, transport and translocation methods for routine use by Ornatas and receiving growers in northern Australia.
• Evaluation of feed performance in sea raft culture, with findings used by UTas and Ornatas to improve the functional performance of diets for commercial-scale production.
• Establishment of optimal feeding strategies, stocking densities, and biofouling management, documented in standard operating procedures and used to train new marine farm staff.
• Documentation of growth performance, feed efficiency, food safety and eating quality of TRL produced in sea raft systems, providing a baseline for ongoing performance monitoring.
• Development of a business for sea raft grow-out of TRL in northern Australia, enabling comparison with onshore production systems.
• Implementation of a market monitoring system to support farm-based economic decisions around harvest and supply, and to guide future market diversification and growth.

This research will determine the viability of sea raft grow-out of TRL in northern Australia. Lobsters grown over the three-year project will be used to assess market acceptability, supply chain performance, provenance authenticity technology, and brand positioning. A small number of lobsters may be sold to domestic and international markets during this phase.

It is anticipated that, upon completion of this research, the Cone Bay sea raft facility will be upscaled to support full commercial production.