Stuart Smith, Chief of Department of Fisheries, was in Geraldton on Monday September 7 to meet with Indian Ocean Fresh Australia Manager Erica Starling about her farmed mulloway, now on the market in Western Australia and the Eastern States. Erica Starling is from a Geraldton fishing family, and has found farming mulloway a real challenge.
According to Erica mulloway is known to be a robust fish that will grow to about a kilogram in just over a year. She said that mulloway is a classic staple of seafood menus in the eastern states, where it is called jewfish. Erica was the recipient of the 2003 the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Rural Women’s Award for WA and worked on developing a product handling manual for Australian longline caught tuna.
Smith expressed that it is great to see production of a sustainable, healthy form of protein in the clean waters of the Midwest, supported by the department. He added that the Midwest region has great potential to produce significant volumes of healthy seafood from aquaculture due to good water temperatures, great infrastructure in the Geraldton area, including the port and associated trades and suppliers that can support the marine industry due to the rock lobster industry being based here.
It is told that mulloway was chosen as they are endemic to the area (already here) and relatively robust, meaning they can tolerate various ranges of salinity and conditions due to spending some time in river water in the wild. It is also said tat the support of the department has been terrific and they have greatly assisted us in understanding how to optimise and maintain the health of our fish to ensure safe food for our consumers.
