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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-04 Daily Xml
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Australian Giant Cuttlefish

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Minister, can you inform the house about the findings of the latest report into giant Australian cuttlefish in the northern Spencer Gulf?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (14:40): I thank the member for Giles for the question and I genuinely acknowledge his fierce interest in the cuttlefish population. I have to say, member for Stuart—

Mr van Holst Pellekaan interjecting:

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: No—in 2013, when I first became Minister for Tourism, we went out and did all those meet-and-greets around the state, and you were at a couple—Port Pirie and the Flinders Ranges. Member for Flinders, we were there. The former member for Mount Gambier and the member for Frome were at a couple. I think the most controversial thing that happened was that my speech went on a little long and someone did a face plant when I was with the member for Chaffey up at Banrock Station. I did not hear a whimper—there was great bipartisan support from every member—but I went to Whyalla and the then candidate for Giles turned up with a protest group. There were all having a go at me about these giant cuttlefish and expecting me to fix the problem. I said, 'There is a lot of things I can do as tourism minister, but I can't get these cuttlefish to come back.' So, the member for Giles has been a fierce advocate for them and he has been diving with them. He said it was the most amazing experience.

Anyway, I am glad to report to the house that 2013 was a bad year for the cuttlefish in Whyalla, but we have seen in the following 12 months a 325 per cent increase in the number of giant cuttlefish. These things are an amazing tourist attraction, they are fantastic, and there is nowhere in the world where they gather in such dense numbers. It is terrific to hear that they are back and they are attracting the tourists. For anyone who wants to go for a bit of a swim up there and have a look, now is a good time (between now and August), which is the season. I think maybe if the member for Hammond and I went up and we went in, we would probably set off some tsunami warning systems. I can certainly—

Mr van Holst Pellekaan: I've done it twice.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: The member for Stuart has done it twice and highly recommends it as well. I know that former tourism minister Jane Lomax-Smith did it a few times, so I am keen to get up there and do it in the next couple of months as well. It is a terrific tourism attraction.

We worked with the federal government and we got about $800,000 worth of funding to do six or seven research projects, and they have had a look at a whole host of reasons why the cuttlefish may have gone away and then not come back. I remember one of the reasons people were talking about was that BHP Billiton were looking to put in a desal plant. They had not built a desal plant but maybe the giant cuttlefish were reading about it in the paper and thought, 'Gee, we'd better not go back there!' So, that was ruled out as one of the reasons, the fact that they might have done it.

The research was led by the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) with support from the University of Adelaide, the South Australian Museum and the Environment Protection Authority. The research projects completed to date investigated the abundance, water quality and habitat conditions of giant cuttlefish at Point Lowly, alternative breeding sites, artificial spawning habitats, commercial fishing by-catch, accumulation of metals in the giant cuttlefish, and the impacts of shipping noise. This is in addition to SARDI's annual population surveys.

Currently, six out of the seven projects have been completed and the results of the projects can be found in the SARDI report 'Surveying, searching and promoting Giant Australian Cuttlefish spawning activity in northern Spencer Gulf' which is being released today. The final project is in the advanced stage of completion which is looking at movement and population genetics.

To date, the strongest signal for explaining the recent interannual variation in both abundance and biomass of the giant cuttlefish spawning population has been the daily average temperature over an estimated 120-day embryo development period. Although it should be noted that temperature is not the only determinant of favourable spawning conditions, as other factors such as the abundance of predators may also have an impact on these wonderful creatures that are such a terrific tourism asset for the people of the Spencer Gulf. Again, I thank the member for Giles for his interest and his great passionate support for the giant cuttlefish.

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