Yesterday I visited the South Australian Aquatic Sciences Centre at West Beach where significant research is undertaken to ensure the sustainable growth of the state’s aquaculture industries.
Core skills include aquaculture nutrition, genetics and propagation, microalgae production, marine and freshwater ecological research, environmental assessment, oceanography, aquatic biosecurity and fisheries biology, assessment and modelling.
Some of the tanks pictured above were empty following the Christmas break, but others were home to various fish species including Kingfish, Snapper and Mulloway.
The South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) is a leading national researcher into fish farming, which is a growing aquaculture industry.
Much of the work is undertaken in collaboration with universities and commercial partners.
Microalgae research
The Algal Production Group is one of the centre’s interesting activities.
The group is focused on providing practical and cost effective algal production systems for use in aquaculture, nutrient remediation, nutraceuticals, bioenergy and in biofixation of carbon.
Nutraceuticals are products that have the characteristics of both a nutrient and a pharmaceutical.
Bag culture of microalgae at the South Australian Aquatic Sciences Centre.
In December 2008 the State Government announced a $1.2 million research grant to pioneer a commercially sustainable biofuels industry from micro-algal feedstock.
Microalgae are single-celled microscopic organisms which, like plants, use photosynthesis to convert the sun’s energy into chemical energy.
Microalgae are much more efficient converters of solar energy than any known plant, because they grow in suspension where they have unlimited access to water and more efficient access to CO2 and dissolved nutrients.
Microalgae are capable of producing more than 30 times the amount of oil (per year per unit area of land) compared to oilseed crops.
Indeed, microalgae have the potential to produce up to 10 times the volume of biofuels compared to traditional oilseed crops grown on the same land footprint. But unlike oilseed crops, microalgae can use non-arable land and seawater.
This has potential to deliver major economic and social benefits.
What’s most impressive about this work and other research undertaken by SARDI is the collaboration between Federal and State Governments, universities and commercial partners.
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