Ornatas, Maxima target Australian, South-East Asian plates in 1100-tonne Kimberley tropical rock lobster play

Backers of a proposed $500m tropical rock lobster fishery will target Australian and South-East Asian plates in their plan to produce 1100 tonnes of the sought-after delicacy by the end of the decade. Launched in Broome yesterday, Maxima and Tasmania-based Ornatas will trial a sea raft grow-out enclosure for tropical rock lobsters in Cone Bay, 100km north of Derby. Juveline lobster, known as puerulus, will be grown in a hatchery in northern Queensland then relocated to Cone Bay where they will grow to market size. The project is backed by the Federal Government, which has invested $4.5m into a three-year research undertaking to support the use of sea raft grow-out systems. Ornatas chief executive Scott Parkinson said Australia and South-East Asia would be the key target markets. “There is certainly some opportunity in the US too, but the premium Australian product, it will be for Australia and for South-East Asia,” he said. “China is one of the markets, it has traditionally been the main market... but it is something that has been problematic over the past two years and that is going to take some time for those relationships to improve.” As well as providing juvenile lobster from the hatchery, Ornatas will call on its Tasmanian-based scientific know-how behind lobster aquaculture. More recently, the company has worked with the State Government and traditional owners to establish a rock oyster industry in the Pilbara. Maxima Opportunity Group managing director John Hutton said the North West’s potential as an aquaculture hub was yet to be realised. “There is an opportunity to do it environmentally sustainable, culturally sustainable and if we can create jobs and economic opportunity for local communities up here then that seems to be a good thing all around,” he said. “Maybe one day we might have our own seafood fish and chip shop where we can buy quality seafood out of our own stores up here — maybe the Kimberley seafood basket is a thing.” If successful the partnership hopes to employ about 120 people in the North West, Queensland and Tasmania by 2030. A project steering committee will now research trial sites in Cone Bay.