Partnerships and Industry

James Cook University and Pacific Bio (Pacific Reef Fisheries parent company) have had an established and long term partnership in the development and commercialisation of macroalgal species for both bioremediation and biproducts. This partnership provides Pacific Reef Fisheries with access to the latest technologies and developments through JCU’s numerous research and industry partnerships. The future Guthalungra development has been approved by the Great Barrier Marine Park Authority based on the performance of macroalgal bioremediation and the removal of nutrients from discharge water.

Pacific Reef Fisheries have a long term collaborative partnership with CSIRO in developing SMART farming technologies for the industry. The team have developed machine learning and visual recognition algorithms that determine animal size, weight and health, along with predictive tools for water quality variances and pond performance. CSIRO are hopeful to have commercialised products available in 2021/22 on the back of Pacific Reef Fisheries facility development, trials and testing.

Pacific Reef Fisheries Guthalungra project was declared a prescribed project by the Queensland Government in April 2019 and has since had tremendous support from the Co-ordinator General’s Office in the completion of outstanding planning and approval requirements. More recently the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) have been considering zoning the Guthalungra area an Aquaculture Precinct attracting a wider variety of aquaculture operators to the area. RegenAqua bioremediation technology will treat discharge water from the entire facility and provide the option of recycled water to partner tenants.

AQ1 systems have developed technology that is able to determine the appetite of prawns by listening to the eating habits of the animals using in pond hydrophones. This technology sees the prawns being fed 24 hours per day on a “need basis”. Pacific Reef Fishers have completed a number of on farm trials of AQ1 equipment to validate improvements to animal size, pond yields and feed conversion ratios. This technology will be included in future projects and rolled out to existing ponds over the next 24 months.

Rubicon Water are world leaders in automated open channel water distribution, and Pacific Reef Fisheries have worked closely with them to develop a fully automated water supply system for both new and existing facilities. At the Guthalungra facility the only human intervention in the water supply process will be what percentage of ocean water verses recycled bioremediated water should be supplied to ponds.