1. SAOGA/SAORC
President SAOGA - Jill Coates
TRYING TO KEEP OUT OF THE
S%#T

2. Our industry colleagues
• Tasmania
• Bushfires
• Algal blooms, recall of product, norovirus, biotoxins
• NSW POMS
• We reman humbled by their experience and willingness to work
with us and share their knowledge.

3. Trying to keep out of the S%#t
• POMS
• SAMS
• Me – politically
• Must Improve Productivity and Profitability
• Mortalities
• Costs
• Price

4. SA Oyster Industry
• Total contribution to state economy $176 million - $36
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million farmgate.
It is the largest aquaculture sector employer.
Principle of cost recovery is that the recovery of costs
from industry should not stifle innovation.
Cost competitive service/compliance
SASQAP program – consideration must be given to more
cost effective operations (business-like) as well as ways
to value add this service for the benefit of all growers
Breeding Program - An Industry responsibility
Support for Oysters Australia – national levy

6. Trying to keep out of the S%#t - me
Cost Recovery
• Oysters paved the way – transparent and accountable cost
recovery direct costs
• Programs and activity based costing - time-wise data
• All aquaculture sectors now meet together
• Agree the rules of engagement
• Working more collaboratively with wild catch fisheries sector –
joint election policy
• Reduced transaction fees (for service e.g. transfers, renewals,
adding a species) to one third.
• Indirect Costs
• Gold plating – cost of government – cost of business/free enterprise

7. Trying to keep out of the S%#t - me
• Successful campaign Marine Parks
• All oyster farms in General Use Zones.
• Bruce Zippel and Trudy McGowan led the initial campaign
• Direct lobbying of Minister/Shadow
• Commissioned our own Impact Statement
• One third of all growers wrote letters of support

8. SAOGA Executive 2013
• National Seafood Industry Leadership Program (NSILP) –
annual scholarship
• Investigating possible:
• IT solutions for stock registers
• Environmental Monitoring Systems to inform decision
making for
• Husbandry
• Biosecurity risks
• Basket recycling project – EPA/SAOGA/RDA partnership
• WH&S workshops and templates –insurance
• Investigating stock insurance options

9. SAOGA/SAORC Funded Executive
Officer
• SAOGA Member is the Operating Entity (licence holders) • Corresponding leases often owned by different legal
entities – now required to list all of their lease entities and
lease numbers on their membership
• Lease holder entities are responsible for site rehabilitation
and therefore for contribution to site rehabilitation fund
• PIRSA requires information about lease holder entities
who are SAOGA members
• No membership =$10,000 bank guarantee to PIRSA

10. Trying to keep out of the S%#t - POMS
Developing a POMS Incident Response Plan for SA
Scenario Planning session facilitated by Rural Directions
Pty Ltd 10 August 2012 – Coffin Bay Workshop
Actions
1. All growers and industry participants
•
Form an SA Steering Group to carry this issue forward to a
national level
• Develop a POMS Response Plan – A national approach was
recommended to avoid duplication, gaps and inconsistencies
between state responses
• Undertake an active surveillance program
• Oyster health is the priority
• Consider a policy which involves compulsory testing during the
peak risk times

11. POMS
2. Individual businesses
•
Induct and train all team members on the POMS Response
Plan
• Develop their own SOP for responding to a suspicious
level of mortality
• Develop a risk management plan
• Implement industry approved stock recording systems
3. Industry
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Develop an agreement for emergency relief funding
Develop a cost-sharing agreement before an outbreak
Arrange ―emergency kits‖ to be available, in an agreed
location within each Bay, to streamline the process of
getting samples tested
• Consider technologies available to develop efficient and
compliant stock management systems

12. POMS
1.
―Exercise Sea Fox: testing aquatic animal disease emergency
response capabilities within aquaculture‖ (FRDC
2012/044) conducted in November 2012
2.
Review of SAOGA Code of Practice – PIRSA and EPA 2013
Risk Assessment Workshop – informal Industry and Experts June 2013 to
develop a draft Risk Assessment Framework
• PIRSA/SAOGA letters to growers:
• reinforcing licence conditions i.e. reporting unusual mortalities and
recording stock movement
• protocols for decontamination of equipment from infected bays
• return of stock from interstate
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3.
Updated website 2013
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Member login
Online stock translocation register

13. POMS
• Draft Aquavet (POMS Emergency Response) Plan
• PIRSA Disease Response Plan: Pacific Oyster Mortality
Syndrome
• Response options are:
• initial containment of outbreak (stop movement of stock across State).
• Then a response strategy is decided, with options being:
• Eradication if feasible (e.g. land-based hatchery, marine environment
unlikely but possible if infection confined to small area )
• Containment
• Mitigation
The response strategy would be chosen based on the specifics of the
outbreak at the time, with the goal to minimize socioeconomic impact.
Industry would be at the table with the State Controller to provide advice
(this is written into the Plan).

14. POMS
Eyre and Western Zone Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome Risk Assessment
Workshop October 2013 Port Lincoln
AIM: to undertake a risk assessment of a Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome (POMS) Disease
outbreak in the Eyre and Western Zone.
This is a scenario based risk assessment, against the impact categories identified in National
Emergency Risk Assessment Guidelines (NERAG) which are; economy, people, environment, public
administration, social setting and infrastructure.
Participants from each of these sectors have been invited and SAOGA has targeted growers reps from
each bay.
PIRSA is the Hazard Leader for Animal and Plant Diseases and as such (under the State Emergency
Management Plan) as been tasked by the SA government with conducting a strategic risk assessment
for our hazard.
OBJECTIVES:
Confirm and identify strategic zone based risks associated with a POMS outbreak
Confirm and identify controls already in place to reduce the risk of a POMS outbreak
Rate the risks (conduct a risk assessment)
Identify treatments for the intolerable risks

15. SUMMARY - POMS
• Industry Emergency Response Plan
• Trained Industry Liaison Officers (October Workshop)
• Heightened awareness of reporting unexplained “unusual” mortalities - need
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SOPs at individual level – reporting into central data base
Recording translocations online – needs full industry uptake
Decontamination protocols -- expanded
Technologies for efficient compliant stock management systems – real time
aps
Emergency harvest protocols
Emergency testing kits in each bay
Cost sharing agreement?
Emergency relief fund?
Surveillance program?
• Risk Mitigation Strategies
• Diversification - angasi
• SA hatchery

16. Angasi
SARDI – maintained hatchery capacity at SARDI and
some supply of angasi to growers in the absence of
commercial supplies.
Aim is to increase supplies this year.
PIRSA – endorsement of angasi on oyster growers‘
licences
Working to expedite this process for growers en masse to
support growers to diversify – reduced red tape, reduced
cost, reduced timeframe.

17. SA Oyster hatchery
• We value our Tasmanian hatchery relationships!
• SAOGA/PIRSA/SARDI
• Exploration of state government regional
development funds and processes to:
• Develop a business plan
• Feasibility study including site exploration
• Project brief
• Project plan

18. Trying to keep out of the S%#t - SAMS
South Australian Oyster Mortality Syndrome
(SAMS)
Upwards of 50% winter mortalities 1998, 2011,
2012
South Australia Oyster Mortality Workshops
November 2012, April 2013
Draft reports prepared by Ben Madin, Rachel
Gordon1 Charles Caraguel 31 July 2013 FRDC

19. SAMS – Workshop 2 with Experts and
Growers
Factors considered potentially significant for SAMS
At the conclusion of the presentations, a number of factors were
identified as core areas worthy of further investigation.
These include:
• Variability in nutritional availability (Feast then famine food
situations, such as those related to upwelling cycles)
• Preferred feed source at different stages of growth and location
• Presence of opportunistic or potential pathogenic agents in the
population
• Impact of different management strategies on animal health
• Change in sea environment during larger scale climatic events
(such as La Nina/El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events) –
significant reduction in phytoplankton in 20011/12 La Nina years
• Impact of long term trends (climate change) on the ocean.

20. SAMS – Workshop 2 with Experts and
Growers
Factors unlikely to be important for SAMS
A lack of consistent findings of a disease presentation unlikely the disease is being caused solely by a highly
pathogenic infectious agent

21. SAMS – Workshop 2 with Experts and
Growers
Groups including a mix of producers and experts focussed
on planning in three themes:
• Environment, feed, and carrying capacity
• Stock performance: genetics, growth, and mortality
• Stock performance: health, prevention and control
• Knowledge gaps were identified
• Research areas identified

22. SAMS – Theme 1
Environment, feed, and carrying capacity
Food:
• – what do South Australian oysters actually eat
• – how much is available and when
• – effect on growth and vitality of oysters
Oceanographic data:
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– salinity, temperature
– pH and oxygen levels
– turbidity and suspended solids
– currents and tidal movements in each bay
– seasonal and climate event variation in each bay
(chlorophyll - sunlight related? – phytoplankton? - La Nina?)
Research Needs:
• Extension Officer
• Nutrition
• Data Collection - SASQAP

23. SAMS – Theme 2
Stock performance: health, prevention and control
• A lack of data, and the need to understand normal was
again identified as a priority
• Health at individual – field observations and microscopic
• Health at population level – mortality, growth and stock profiles
Research Needs:
• Farmer based health monitoring
• Field health professional
• Laboratory based health monitoring
• Industry central data base

24. SAMS – Theme 3 – Normal oyster?
Stock performance: genetics, growth, and mortality
• Again.. what is a normal South Australian oyster?
• What are they eating? What is their metabolic rate?
• Impact of changes of environment on resilience of oyster?
• Linking on farm data back to genetic trials?
• Selection pressure of spat on hatcheries? Faster growing oysters?
Slower growing more robust in terms of disease resilience?

25. SAMS – Theme 3 – linking the data
Stock performance: genetics, growth, and mortality
The following are potential sources of data that are already
available:
• annual returns and stock books
• ASI trial data (limited number of leases)
• genetic variability
• nutrient (phytoplankton & other) levels
• climatic and oceanographic data.
There is currently no capacity to evaluate changes in the
situation in ‗real-time‘ as most information is stored in
disparate forms in multiple locations. Some of the data is
unavailable as it is collected under legislative authority. The
capacity to link much of this environmental data back to
oysters does not exist at this stage.(Economic data)

26. SAMS
Stock performance: genetics, growth, and mortality
Research and Extension
• Oyster feedback and tracing
• Building resilience in the SA oyster -There is scope for a three-
year research project to investigate the knowledge gaps identified
above in SA oyster metabolism, nutrition and immune response Early discussions would suggest a multi-disciplinary team including
expertise in physiology, ecology, genetics and immunology.
• Linking trials to production outcomes
• Better understanding of the hatchery process

27. SAMS - Summary
Better understanding of the normal oyster
Some of the suggestions for monitoring discussed during
the workshop included:
• 1. Implement a performance monitoring system
• 2. Food availability monitoring
• 3. Oyster care plan—baseline testing etc. to determine
what is normal
• 4. Ongoing monitoring to complement research—breeding
for resilience etc.
• 5. Animal movement for real-time tracing in the event of a
disease outbreak.
A workshop to discuss and develop on-farm sampling and
reporting

28. SAMS - Summary
• Nutritional requirements of SA oysters
• Enormous variation in the levels of phytoplankton were
clearly demonstrated by the ten years worth of SASQAP
data presented during the workshop.
• This data however presented a further question—how
much of the dietary needs of a Pacific oyster in SA waters
is met by phytoplankton, and how does it vary between
production location?
• Currently the role of upwellings in ensuring phytoplankton
availability appears to have an important place in the
understanding of management of oysters.

29. SAMS - Summary
Information management
• Information management on many farms could and
should be improved - merit in the development of an
industry owned system for data storage and analysis.
• Provide a simple and secure solution for individual
producers to securely store their own data - also provide a
multitude of outputs including annual returns, information
on transfers between leases and allow disease tracing to
be undertaken centrally.
• Regulatory requirements need to be met by industry—an
opportunity exists for the industry to develop systems of
their own choosing – regulators could data mine –
reducing compliance costs to industry.

30. SAMS - Summary
Information extension—the case for an Oyster
Extension Officer
• This role might include:
• facilitating trials and oyster research
• involve more generic information such as analysis of climatic and
oceanographic data, which could be done working with other
associated groups (i.e. in the climate data case, the ASBTIA)
• an information source for producers, part of which would include
assimilating industry relevant information into a regular ‗newsletter‘
• coordination of information sessions and workshops, assistance
with monitoring disease and support for sample submission

31. Major aquatic animal health issues
Multi-disciplinary team including
expertise in physiology, ecology,
genetics and immunology?
Sustainability (direct and indirect)
Ecological
Economic R and D
Social R and D (Licence to operate)
Integration/multidisciplinary around
triple bottom line?