4 July 2008
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Tony Burke
Director of Cleanseas Tuna - Hagan Stehr
Tony: G’day its Tony, I’m out at Arno Bay off the coast of South Australia today and here with Hagan Stehr out at at Cleanseas where there’s been a whole lot of aquaculture projects going on, for how long now?
Hagan: Oh for five years, five or six years now yeah [inaudible] closer to six years yeah.
Tony: Ok, and so what sort of fish have you got going here in the aquaculture?
Hagan: Well, we sort of started off with southern bluefin tuna, trying to keep southern bluefin tuna [inaudible] wild, nine years ago now and we have kept it, that was a world first, never ever been able to keep tuna in pens for such a long period of time. Then we brought, after years and years of disappointments, we brought the fish onshore, we built a specialised hatchery and created a nucleus of people, rather the nucleus of scientists from all over the world, and we’re sort of trying diligently closing the life cycle of southern bluefin tuna—which of course as you would know we have had absolute success on the 2nd of March this year we go on from there. And of course through this tuna propagation angle we started with a secondary industry like kingfish and we just found out that we’ve got a tiger by the tail, which we never ever wanted to go into kingfish farming, and we’ve been a little bit lucky, we know how, we start to work out, how to grow the lifecycle of kingfish that is also here in South Australia virtually it’s the first.
Tony: Some of the scientific research that you’ve been doing some of that’s been through the CRC as well is that right?
Hagan: Some of it’s been through the CRC yeah.
Tony: But mostly, mostly your own money?
Hagan: But the CRC [inaudible] have been very very helpful, especially 2nd CRC which I can be honest I can’t say the same about the the previous CRC, but this CRC is really working well with all that seem to be. I think it’s more the people than anything else they seem to want to do something and if you want to do something real direct from the heart you know, you’re half way there. You know that’s what we want together with the CRC within Cleanseas with scientists from overseas with various universities, also that’s the hardest—to be able to keep the science communities, let me tell you, they are like prima donnas, let me tell you they are like prima donnas, to be able to keep the various scientists together and to sing from the same hymn book, it’s little bit of an art. I don’t want to say that I’ve mastered it but I’m going to move towards that.
Tony: How much of your business now is wild catch and how much has moved into aquaculture?
Hagan: In the end we are moving more and more out of wild catch. We still, in wild catch we are still in the tuna side you know–I’ve been in the in the tuna industry for some 45, 47 years actually, and that’s still ongoing, but in the future I can see the tide fast approaching [inaudible] wild catch [inaudible] secondary because—You’ve got to realise the more you travel around the world the industry of the future is not the wild industry. My friends are going to crucify me for that but the fact of the matter is aquaculture is the industry of the future, there is nothing else. I mean you know, if you look 10 years or 20 years down the line, they won’t be in the industry either. You have to be able, they have to have [inaudible] to look 10, 15 years ahead there will always be a wild fish industry, there always will be. But it won’t be able to feed the masses, to feed everybody in the world. It can only come from aquaculture, can’t come from anywhere else.
Tony: Certainly those premises are getting getting bigger and bigger, but Hagan Stehr, thanks for letting me come out to your property, come out to have a look at the work you’re doing today.
Hagan: Minister, Anytime, you are too welcome, any time.
Tony: Thanks Hagan