Tasmanian scientist offers advice to Australian shellfish hatcheries

摘要

"Collective intelligence" the key to success. What began as vague curiosity as to why competitors were able to out-compete some Australian shellfish hatcheries turned into a world-wide quest, according to Tasmanian scholar Ian Duthie in a recent newsrelease by the Nuffield Australia Farming Scholarship program. Duthie, who hails from Orford in Tasmania, says he couldn't see how shellfish hatcheries in other countries could sell their product for almost half the price charged by Australian producers.They were able to sell for about our cost of production, he said. So he set about to find out what was going on, and also to determine how hatcheries in Tasmania and other parts of Australia could increase the number of species they grow. Duthie toureda number of the key shellfish producing countries around the world to soak up as much knowledge as he could. In particular, he said, he visited western countries, such as the US, Canada and France because they're big producers of Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas), winding up visiting three main producers on the US west coast.