Sustainable Fisheries Program

Research Section: Marine Ecosystem Assessment

Healthy marine ecosystems are fundamental for supporting the goods and services derived from the sea. Understanding the relationship between the physical and biological components of the marine ecosystem is a core research activity of the Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute. The ecosystem approach to fisheries management requires underpinning by multidisciplinary science and integrated information. Whether sustainably managing targeted fished species, protecting rare and vulnerable species, monitoring key representative habitats, or managing discards, there is a common need to understand the perturbations on marine systems. Research into human perturbations through fishing is undertaken by the Effects of Fishing Research Group.

Research group: Effects of Fishing

Research into the effects of commercial and recreational fishing on ecosystem structure and function is required to support the development and implementation of the ecosystem approach to fisheries management. The major focused of this research group is to gain a greater understanding of how the marine ecosystem functions and the consequences of, for example, the removal of exploited species, both in terms of biomass and size structure, from communities. Initial research has focused on the interspecies interactions and the development of tools for addressing ecosystem change and separating natural variability from human induced impacts. Application of these tools for delineating and the interplay between ecosystem resilience and human impacts is a core research activity.

Climate Change Theme

Interpreting, modeling and adapting to climate change is a cross cutting theme across all research sections of TAFI. 
The south east of Australia has been identified as the fast warming marine waters in the southern hemisphere. Separating the unidirectional changes in marine ecosystem function from bidirectional signal of natural variation provides a major challenge for researchers. Tasmania, which is uniquely position in this global warming hotspot, provides the ideal natural laboratory to improve our understanding of how the marine environment adapts to a changing climate and the consequences on marine users. Impacts on recruitment, growth and species distributions will provide new opportunities as existing goods and services establish new productivity regimes.

Understanding ecosystem resilience, development of innovative and novel methods for monitoring ecosystem change and prediction and adaptation research are key activities that will require collaborations between the physical and biological sciences together with partners in the social, economic and governance disciplines.

Estuaries and Coasts Research Program

The NRM Program at TAFI encompasses a broad range of activities and involves staff from various schools across the University, in particular the Marine Research Laboratories (MRL) at Taroona and the School of Zoology.

Although our research centres on Tasmanian marine, coastal and estuarine environments, we also have national and international research projects and collaborations in our areas of expertise. The program is divided into six sections, the first three based at MRL and the later three based at the School of Zoology

•  Estuarine Dynamics,
•  Marine Biodiversity
•  Habitat Mapping and Assessment
•  Marine Ecology,
•  Freshwater Ecology,
•  Marine Mammals and Seabirds

Research group: Marine Biodiversity

The Marine Biodiversity Research Group has been involved in biodiversity assessment, monitoring and evaluation of change in MPAs in southern Australia for nearly two decades.  This group has used MPAs to investigate change in inshore marine environments due to fishing, climate change, introduced marine pests and pollution. It is also examining the potential of trained and motivated volunteers to cost effectively describe and monitor the state of temperate Australian coastal biodiversity. It is also involved in research to predict the distribution of biodiversity and how best to conserve and manage marine biodiversity in a multiple-use environment. For more information on current projects please visit the Marine Biodiversity Research Group page.

Research group: Habitat Mapping and Assessment

The Habitat Mapping and Assessment Research Group is mapping the distribution of seabed habitat types in estuarine, coastal and marine waters of Tasmania using photographic, acoustic, biological and sediment sampling methods.  To date the group has mapped from Whale Head (South Eastern Tasmania) to Hunter Island (North Eastern Tasmania) and at present is ‘filling in the gaps’ of Macquarie Harbour and the Tamar river. Details provided at http://www.utas.edu.au/tafi/seamap. It also maps new and extended marine farm zones in Tasmanian coastal waters. Additionally, the group is participating in research involving habitat assessment, including developing tools to predict, assess and conserve Australia’s marine assets. For more information on current research projects please visit the Habitat Mapping Research Group page.

Research Section: Estuarine Dynamics

The Estuarine Dynamics section has two main Research Groups, Estuarine Ecology and Aquaculture and the Environment.  Both groups focus on understanding processes and structure of estuarine ecosystems, in particular source and fate of nutrients in estuaries, effects of land-based activities and aquaculture on estuarine and coastal systems, environmental flows to estuaries, primary and secondary productivity in estuaries, effects of heavy metals and other pollutants in specific estuarine locations, impact of introduced marine species and developing monitoring programs to assess changes in estuarine condition.

Further information on the Research Groups Marine Ecosystems, Freshwater Ecosystems and Marine Mammals and Seabirds can be found on the School of Zoology website http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/ in the Antarctic Wildlife Biology, Freshwater Ecology and Marine Ecology Research Groups.

Sustainable Aquaculture Research Program

Aquaculture research at TAFI is conducted under three research sections:
• New species for aquaculture,
• Sustainable production,
• Aquatic animal health,

Within each research section there are a number of research groups:

Research Section: New species for aquaculture

Research group: Striped trumpeter

Striped trumpeter Latris lineata, were chosen as the best candidate for diversifying sea cage culture in Tasmania in the late 1980’s. They are highly prized as one of the best eating fishes in Australia. They have a complex life history and have proven difficult to culture. Current research is focused on the production of healthy juveniles using probiotics, novel systems and improved nutrition. Sea cage trials using cultured juveniles are underway. For more information please visit the Striped trumpeter Research Group page.

Research group: Rock lobster

The highly prized southern rock lobster constitutes an important but fully exploited fishery in Tasmania. Farming of lobsters can further increase production but this can only be done sustainably by culturing larvae from eggs to juveniles in the hatchery. TAFI MRL scientists focus on larval rearing and were recently successful in producing the first hatchery juveniles in Australia. Juveniles would then be raised in sea cages or tanks on land to market size. For more information please visit the Rock Lobster Research Group page.

Research Section: Sustainable production

Research group:  Nutritional Physiology

The major aim of nutritional physiology is to determine the fundamental mechanisms underlying growth and nutrient utilisation. Research considers the energetic costs of growth through understanding feed and nutrient intake, digestion, protein synthesis and degradation, amino acid and energy metabolism, fatty acid metabolism and deposition and nutrient requirements. Of particular interest are the consequences of climate change, the interaction between gene expression and nutrition, and making aquaculture feeds and feeding more sustainable.

Research group:  Endocrine Physiology

Research focuses on the endocrine (hormonal) control of growth (i.e. growth hormone and insulin-like growth factors) and reproductive development in fish.  Current research projects are investigating environmental control of growth and early maturation in salmonids (Aquafin CRC project) and environmental and endocrine interactions in the commercial production of barramundi.  Furthermore, the potentially detrimental impacts of husbandry and environmental related stressors in commercial aquaculture operations are investigated for a range of species.

Research group:  Molluscan Aquaculture

Current research activities involve the oyster and mussel industry looking at development of novel feeds for larvae, control of broodstock conditioning and the process of market conditioning.

Research group:  Feeding and Activity in Fish

This research covers aspects of feeding and activity in fish including feeding strategies, feeding behaviour, rhythms, food anticipatory activity and diel patterns. The research has examined the effect of meal delivery frequency, feed type and environmental conditions on feeding and activity patterns, and technologies to measure these patterns.

Research Section: Aquatic animal health

Research group:  Fish health

The research covers a diverse area of disciplines, diseases and host species. The main focus is Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD) which affects salmon industry in Tasmania. Currently, epidemiology and pathology of the disease are studied. Other aquatic animal health research includes fish immunology, pathophysiology, parasitology and aquatic toxicology.