Pearl Oyster Propagators (POP) has provided technical and management expertise to pearl farmers since 1989. POP has been directly responsible for setting-up two marine bivalve hatcheries and a pearl farm/base camp in the Northern Territory, as well as four hatcheries/farm facilities in Western Australia, Indonesia and Thailand (a total of six projects). These projects cost between $0.7 million and $16 million AUD to set-up, depending on their size and location. The total number of pearl oysters seeded by all six projects from 1989 to 2002 (13 years) was at least 1,138,600 oysters.

POP has provided site-selection surveys/stock-take/capital assessments and modelling of a number of aquaculture ventures in Queensland, Western Australia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and the Philippines that related to holothurians (sea cucumbers), crustaceans (mud crabs), finfish (seahorses and aquarium fishes) and gastropods (abalone).

POP has trained and supervised postgraduate students between 1994 and 1999. In association with Australian funding bodies, such as Aquaculture CRC (Commonwealth’s Research Centre for Aquaculture) and FRDC (Commonwealth Fisheries Research Development Corporation), POP has participated in research on nutrition/diet, disease and husbandry techniques of the larvae, spat, juveniles and brood stock of pearl oysters.

Recently, POP has been assisting Indigenous Australian communities to develop local aquaculture enterprises compatible with their land (habitats) and social-economic (cultural) conditions.

POP provides the following services:

• site-selection surveys, feasibility studies, production modelling/costing;
• business plans, negotiations and environmental management plans;
• preparation of licences for water and aquatic livestock husbandry;
• design and construction of infrastructure and hatchery facilities;
• training (Indigenous and non-English speaking) and R & D;
• production and/or marketing of gastropods/bivalves /pearls; and
• auditing livestock and/or farm infrastructure, licences, and operations.

For further information (including work résumés) please contact Robert A Rose (PhD, managing director and an owner/operator with over 25 years aquaculture experience in five Indo-Pacific countries):info@pearloyster.com.au