The proposed evaluation will be critical to providing feedback directly from consumers on how effective the implementation of the Plan has been. This data can then be triangulated with data from industry (both qualitative and quantitative) to gain a full picture of all aspects of implemenation of the Plan. Specifically, the evaluation will measure reach and awareness of the campaign as well as identifying which media were effective in gaining consumer attention, recall of specific promotional items (recipe cards, posters, banners, decals etc) and the impact of the campaign on both consumers attitudes and behaviour. Further, we will be able to use existing knowledge of consumers purchasing behaviour and attitudes towards prawns as a benchmark against which this new data can be compared.

Considerable scientific information on the health benefits of eating seafood is accumulating, yet relatively little of this information has been effectively communicated to the general public or translated into opportunities to promote fresh seafood consumption. There is a need for this to be done, since the FRDC-funded Sydney asthma study demonstrated clearly the commercial potential of communicating research findings to the mass market.

The seafood industry and the general public need an organised mechanism to identify important health issues, to seek out scientific findings and to translate these into a format that can be used by the seafood industry marketers and others to promote the consumption of fresh seafood in a responsible, accurate and safe manner.

There is a need also for the general public to become more aware of the health benefits of seafood.

The South Australian seafood industry is possibly the fastest growth industry in the State having climbed rapidly to a position of the State’s 5th largest export industry with a production value of almost $650 million. The entire seafood industry has doubled in size every two and a half years since 1994 and is expected to break the $2 Billion barrier before 2010. The strongest growth has been recorded in the aquaculture sector of the seafood industry which is now nearing $400 million worth of annual value.

The aquaculture industry is made up of land based and marine based operators. The largest South Australian sectors are all marine-based with tuna, oysters and marine finfish all strongly performing. The relatively new mussel industry is currently in a major expansion phase. The most significant land based industry is abalone.

The aquaculture industry in South Australia has expanded considerably over the past twelve months, however there are little or no available disease emergency management plans or training courses for this industry. With further rapid expansion planned for the marine finfish industry, the tonnages of farmed fish will rise very rapidly over the next eight to ten years. There are currently approximately 3000 tonnes of fish currently in the water (non tuna) and this figure is expected to rise to some 10,000 tonnes by 2010. Research priorities have centred on the reproduction and grow-out of new species and have often overlooked the threat of specific disease(s) until they occur.

It is imperative for the successful management of aquatic animal health issues that an immediate, proactive approach be adopted. A continuing reactive stance towards disease management is hazardous, causing high risk to both the industry and the environment, and greater exposure to negative public sentiment, let alone the potential scale of the economic loss.

The aquaculture industry has made serious attempts to train as many personnel as possible and for the past two years the two principal training providers, the Australian Fisheries Academy and the Spencer Institute of TAFE have been training record numbers of personnel.

Seafood Training SA is the industry’s peak body on all training and development support matters. The organisation is the only seafood body in the State that has representation from all industry sectors and peak bodies as well as relevant Government agencies and undertakes detailed research on industry training needs.

Following a series of discussions with sector bodies last year, it was identified that the industry lacked relevant training in emergency management procedures for aquatic animal health. Whilst basic training in aquatic animal health and emergency procedures forms part of the new Seafood Industry Training Package, a large number of both employers and employees have no formal training or access to materials that meet their specific needs.

There is currently an urgent need to develop a number of structured Aquatic Animal Health Emergency Procedures Manual and accompanying training workshop(s) specifically for the each of the State’s burgeoning aquaculture industry sectors and ensure that all staff from farm hand operatives through to farm managers are conversant with the procedures.

A Yellowtail Kingfish Aquaculture Industry R&D Committee has been established which includes representatives of industry, State and Commonwealth Governments and the scientific community. The Committee has recognised disease management and disease risk identification as high priorities in a 2003-2008 draft Strategic R&D Plan, presently under development. These are in line with the research and development priorities for aquaculture identified by the South Australian Fisheries Research Advisory Board. Targeted priorities that this project will address within industrial development include, fish health, farm husbandry, and public perception. With regard to natural resource sustainability, this project will help in environmental protection and will contribute to the development of best environmental practices.

Prevention is the best and most cost-effective strategy for managing disease. Furthermore, Australia’s lack of vaccine and drug availability to aquaculture makes other forms of prevention the only viable option for Australia. There are four requirements that must be addressed in order to have an effective preventive program. First, one must be able to anticipate the problems one may face. A preliminary assessment of the risks of disease development and amplification is an important first step. Second, the knowledge of accurate identification of clinical symptoms and pathology by trained farm staff allows a mechanism for early detection and categorization of potential fish health problems. Third, the mechanism is an ongoing system of vigilant observation and recording in the form of action-based detection of emerging changes. Finally, one must identify actions that should be taken in response to laboratory and disease-related findings.

Before recommending the best disease management practices, one must first inventory the industry needs and identify the gaps in knowledge and infrastructure that limit capacity to achieve disease control objectives.