Mussel man: Shane Wiffen with a haul of Portarlington mussels and Daniel Thomas in the background.
By Michelle Herbison
A STATE-OF-THE-ART shellfish hatchery at Queenscliff has sparked a Victorian mussel industry resurgence, according to State Government.
Agriculture and Food Security Minister Peter Walsh said the facility helped the state’s mussel production grow 68 per cent to 951 tonnes in 2010/2011 year.
Mr Walsh said a falling population of wild mussels was a “major obstacle” for the industry when the hatchery opened in 2008.
“An unreliable supply of wild juvenile mussels had been threatening the viability of the Victorian mussel sector until a joint effort by mussel growers and Fisheries Victoria saw the hatchery established at Queenscliff,” he said.
Mr Walsh expected the increase in production to improve further next year.
Victoria’s total aquaculture industry, including trout, oysters, scallops and ocean fish, increased production 27 per cent last year, he said.
Portarlington mussel farmer Lance Wiffen said his company had more than doubled production in the past few years.
“Four or five years ago we were unable to fill our farms up with mussels and supply the markets we’d been building for the previous 10 to 15 years.
“We just couldn’t collect enough of the wild spat. It was so poor for so long that many farmers left the industry.”
Mr Wiffen said the drought and climate change might have caused the dwindling supply of wild spat.
But the Queenscliff facility was probably as successful spawning mussel spat as any hatchery in the world, he said.
Mr Wiffen believed Victoria’s industry was now “fully sustainable”.
“We don’t have to worry about the ups and downs in climate. We can probably engineer around them.”
The Independent reported in February that farmers predicted Portarlington’s mussel industry could grow up to 700 per cent if State Government delivered plans for upgrading Portarlington’s harbour.
Ports Minister Denis Napthine has pledged to run a cost-benefit analysis on a first stage on the plans.
