The postdoctoral appointee will be located within the School of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering (AME) at UniSA. The AME has a range of activities and expertise that will be of direct relevance to the postdoc position and the Seafood CRC.

AME has:-
- Recently launched a Master degree program in Logistics and Supply Chain Management for external delivery of the program.
- Need for industry based engineering projects for its final year mechanical engineering students and Masters by coursework students. Thus projects identified by the Seafood Productivity Engineer will be undertaken by final year students.
- A PhD research program which can tackle some very complex and long term engineering issues for the Seafood industry.
- Staff with expertise in energy reduction and efficient refrigeration for both storage and product transportation.
- Staff with expertise in robotics and machine vision for automation.
- Staff with interests in recycling and life cycle analysis.
- Extensive facilities for testing and evaluating equipment used in seafood processing, storage and transportation.
- A range of softwares for modelling of mechanical systems and technologies.
- Laboratory for product sorting, sizing and separation.
- Collaboration with engineers working in the seafood industry in Israel’s Agricultural Research Organisation.
- Track record of working with companies to develop solutions appropriate to the needs of industry.

Relevance to industry priorities and to Seafood CRC Milestones:

Relevance to Output 1.7 Smart processing technologies and practices.
Addresses the industry priority of New high-value products derived from Australian sea cucumber and New Australian Aquaculture industry for sea cucumber products.

Australian seafood processing co-products, such as SCV are currently discarded. To sustain the future growth of the seafood industry, it is essential to turn these wastes into resources for the development of value-added opportunities for the seafood industry. This area of research has been identified by both Australian seafood industry and the CRC program, through our engagement with seafood processors such as Tasmanian Seafoods Pty. Ltd.

The Flinders Centre for Marine Bioproducts and Bioprocessing has been set up to meet this R&D challenge for the Australian seafood industry. Our engagement with industry partners, particularly Tasmanian Seafoods Pty. Ltd., and extensive consultations with CRC Program Leaders, especially Dr John Carragher, has assisted us in developing this proposal.

The results of the project will make a significant contribution to the sustainable utilization of Australian sea cucumber resources by developing value-added bioproducts from sea cucumber processing wastes, such as the viscera of the sea cucumber. This in turn will significantly aid the growth of the industry, especially into export markets where demand for high-quality Australian seafood products has been increasing.

This project will contribute to the CRC Milestones 1.7.3 “Innovative technologies and approaches to recover under-utilized product (by-catch and processing by-products) trialled and evaluated from at least one sector per annum”.

The European Union (EU) regulations allow for a virus standard (regulation) to be introduced, and it is envisaged that when the EU norovirus method has been standardised (currently being undertaken through CEN) the EU will implement end product virus testing (estimated to be introduced by 2012). Other countries (e.g. Singapore and Japan) already require importing countries to have norovirus testing programmes in place and seafood companies are more frequently requiring shellfish to be certified as ‘norovirus free’.

Australia has limited capability to test for human enteric viruses (specifically norovirus) in shellfish, thus the implementation of such regulations could have significant economic consequences in terms of potential market loss, and expensive testing through other countries laboratories. There is a need for Australia to have domestic virus/shellfish testing capability and expertise in order to minimise potential trade disruption as norovirus standards/regulation is increased globally.

Population pressure on coastal resources is increasing and this may lead to an increase in contamination of shellfish growing areas with human waste and viruses – this in turn may result in more frequent closures of production areas with significant economic consequences for the shellfish industry. This PhD project will provide baseline tools for Australia that will enable risk managers and the industry to better investigate virus pollution events and will contribute to improved management strategies for viruses. This may help to minimise the economic ramifications to the shellfish industry of increasing virus pollution events. Additionally, ‘virus-free’ certification through the utilisation of new analytical methods would generate competitive advantage and possibly price premium in the marketplace.

In late 2005, a sudden mass mortality in abalone resulting from abalone viral ganglioneuritis (AVG) occurred almost simultaneously on three abalone farms in Victoria. In May 2006, AVG was detected in wild stocks along the Victorian coast near one of the infected farms (Appleford, 2006). The outbreak in wild populations has subsequently been detected in both directions along the Victorian coast. A control zone was established to prevent movement of abalone, other invertebrates and fishing gear in and out of the infected area. Nevertheless, the virus has now spread beyond the control zone (Appleford, 2006; Handlinger, 2007). This presents an enormous threat to the lucrative commercial abalone fishery in Victoria and South Australia, as the range of the virus is currently nearing the South Australian border. Due to the difficulty in containing invasive pathogens in the marine environment, the outbreak of AVG in wild abalone populations is considered to be an issue of national concern.

In a recent report to industry on the research priorities related to the AVG outbreak, Handlinger (2007) identified the need to understand host-virus interactions and the host response. Handlinger (2007) further highlights the need for effective disease surveillance in both the wild and farming abalone sectors, as well as the need to establish health status as part of the family lines program, particularly with respect to the movement of broodstock. This requires the effective identification of infected abalone, including those sub-clinically infected and which harbor persistent virus. Consequently, investigation into the host antiviral response to AVG is timely and worthwhile to help ensure the ongoing economic viability of abalone industries faced with sudden mass mortality events from viral outbreaks.

Tropical snapper species are have a highly variable shelf-life during chilled storage. The overall aim of this project is to determine why Goldband Snapper (Pristipomoides multidens) has a greater shelf life than some similar fish species and to use this knowledge to produce some practical applications to increase shelf-life in other species with shorter shelf-life. To do this we will investigate the microbiological and biochemical properties of Goldband Snapper and, using a control species for comparison, determine if any of these properties are responsible for the long shelf life observed with this fish species. The control species for this project, the Saddleback Snapper (Paracaesio kusakarii), was chosen because it is a similar fish but with a much shorter shelf life. If any significant differences are detected, the possibility of transferring or replicating these properties onto other fish will be investigated. This project will impact greatly on the fishing industry if particular bacteria (or lack of bacteria) or other properties which promote long shelf life are able to be identified and replicated on other fish species.

The project is related to and arose as a result of FRDC 2006/209 “Developing targeted strategies for improving product quality through selected low value seafood supply chains.” and will continue working with currently estabished industry partners including WAFIC and WA Department of Fisheries. The project will be under the auspices of the WA Centre of Excellence for Seafood (CoES), and is particularly associated with the supply chain performance theme of the CoES.