The
company produces Australian Greenlip Abalone Halitios laevigata,
a species naturally occurring in the ocean adjacent to the site.
The
Company’s specialist biologists select the best abalone for
breeding, using criteria
such as health, appearance, growth rate and high
meat ratios.
Selected animals are used to produce larvae.
These are settled on carefully prepared algae covered sheets in
special
nursery tanks
provided with an abundance of oxygen and clean
filtered seawater.
Pictured right:-
Broodstock in aquaria in preparation for spawning. Photo SAS
staff
Pictured left:-
Fertilised eggs are incubated in
hatchout tanks where hatching takes place within 24 hours. Photo
SAS staff
Pictured right:-
After hatching larvae are moved
to larger tanks. Larvae grow for about a week in
controlled conditions until ready for transfer onto algae rich
sheets. Photo SAS staff
Pictured right:- Nursery
tanks where spat grow on algae encrusted sheets for the first
4 months. Photo SAS staff
After about 6 months juvenile abalone are removed from the
nursery and the best transferred to growout tanks in the main farm.
At this stage they are over 12 mm in size. They are grown in these
tanks until large enough for the appropriate market
segment. This can be from 65mm to 100mm length
or 40gms to 160gms
weight.
Growout tanks are designed to provide a constant flow of clean
sea
water to deliver
adequate oxygen. Water is pumped over the abalone once and then returned to the sea.
When the farm is completed, 3,600
tonnes of fresh seawater per hour will be pumped.
This provides ideal growing conditions.
Pictured above:-
Wide shallow tanks provide ideal
environment for growing abalone. Photo SAS staff.
Pictured
right:-
Wave action cleans and flushes the
tanks. Photo SAS staff.
When
abalone are ready for harvest, they are individually ‘chipped’
from tanks
to ensure they are not damaged. Then
carefully packed for market - either
‘live’ export, shipment to the cannery or
frozen.
All freezing is undertaken using a specialised ‘Individual Quick
Frozen’ (IQF) system. Each abalone
is
individually frozen
with
maximum speed to ensure best quality.
Southern Australian Seafoods Pty Ltd
PO Box 2516 Port Lincoln South Australia 5606
abalone@saseafoods.com.au
Tel. +61 8 8684 3597
Facsimile +61 8 8684 3651
