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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-21 Daily Xml
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SOUTHERN STAR AQUACULTURE

The Hon. L.R. BREUER (Giles) (15:26): Today I want to farewell Southern Star Aquaculture in our kingfish industry in Whyalla, who are no longer operating. Southern Star Aquaculture specialised in farming yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) in beautiful Fitzgerald Bay in the pristine waters of Spencer Gulf in South Australia. This locally owned Whyalla company was established in February 2001 by a well-known fishing family and gained a wonderful reputation in the marine scalefishing industry. It gained an enviable reputation for excellence and was one of South Australia's leading suppliers of yellowtail kingfish throughout Australia and the world. It employed for many years more than 10 multiskilled staff and prided itself on hiring people who were local and had the dedication and commitment to advancing their knowledge and skills in kingfish aquaculture farming and practices in Australia.

There were four shareholders—Garry, Trevor and Craig Edwards, and Lyndon Giles. The Edwards family is synonymous with the fishing industry in Spencer Gulf, with generations of the family fishing. It was founded by the amazing Cyril Edwards, who passed away a few years ago. They provided the Australian market with pristine seafood for many years. They are an incredibly tough family, all characters in their own right, and very hard men, who expected the best of their staff and the commitment from them that they had to their industry. With their knowledge, and that of Lyndon Giles, who came from a traditional land farming industry, they developed a superb company with highly sought after products. They gained an amazing reputation in the aquaculture and seafood industries.

To grow yellowtail kingfish, juvenile fingerlings were purchased when they had reached a weight of five grams and carefully placed in sea cages on the farms leased in Fitzgerald Bay, and then grown to a product of between three and five kilograms. They were hand fed on pellets specially designed for yellowtail kingfish, and their growth rate, health and water conditions were monitored daily. The waters of Fitzgerald Bay are particularly suited to this venture.

The company was originally granted leases of 20 hectares and a quota of 300 tonnes per annum. As it grew, it was granted an additional 30 hectares with a tonnage of 450 tonnes per annum. This then gave them a total of 750 tonnes. In 2001, they put in 1,800 fingerlings. In their last season, they put in 86,000, an increase of over 200 per cent in 11 years.

The company ceased work late last year, so what went wrong? Basically, the fish fingerlings they were working with became very poor quality and their mortality rate in five years went from about 5 per cent to over 80 per cent, so 80 per cent of their fingerlings died before they grew to marketable size. It is incredible, but nothing to do with sea conditions, feed or disease. The fish were from the Clean Seas hatchery in Arno Bay, and I see today that they reported a $34.1 million loss to 31 December. I understand that they stated that they had feed-related problems, but I believe they had similar mortality rates from their hatchery. I believe the fish brood stock were not replaced in recent years. These fish are caught wild in Spencer Gulf and used for breeding fingerlings. Originally SAAM, who were the predecessors of Clean Seas, had set up the hatchery and they realised that they needed to regularly replace the brood stock every couple of years.

Unfortunately this poor fish stock closed Southern Star down, and, despite the greatest efforts by CEO Lyndon Giles to obtain fish stock from elsewhere, he had to rely on Clean Seas. I understand there were biosecurity issues in getting fish stock from interstate. Lyndon Giles is a legend in the kingfish industry. He fought, battled, and sought help from sources everywhere to help the company to survive. He was incessant in his attempts to get help, and I must say Aquaculture SA and PIRSA were very supportive of his company, particularly Ian Nightingale and Mehdi Doroudi.

Unfortunately he was not able to get any development grants to help this battling small company and compete with a major company like Clean Seas, who controlled both price and stock. He was also not able to match the media attention and hype that Clean Seas commanded with Hagen Stehr. Clean Seas forced prices down and they all suffered. So now we have lost a most desirable industry with a huge potential for Whyalla, and what a shame that is for our community.

I still have great hopes someone will come along and buy the leases and find a new source of fingerlings. I believe that this is still a major potential industry for Whyalla, and I welcome any company who comes in with a new hatchery and price control—they could easily compete in a growing market which is waiting to be captured.

I want to thank Southern Star for their years of investment in Whyalla, and their persistence with establishing a reputation for a quality product, and say how sorry I am on behalf of the Whyalla community to lose you. You employed many of our young people, trained them, nurtured them, and brought a new image for Whyalla which, for so many years, was seen as only an industrial town.

I must declare my son was employed for a few years by Southern Star but finished over two years ago, and that explains my knowledge of the industry. Again, I want to thank you, Southern Star, for all your efforts.

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