There is a lack of practical skills for on farm fish health investigation and disease management. The National Aquatic Animal Health Technical Working Group (NAAH-TWG) April 2008 workshop highlighted - 'There is ongoing concern that there are too few suitably trained and accredited aquatic animal health professionals to service Australia’s fisheries and aquaculture industries and to ensure succession to a new generation of aquatic animal health professionals.' More recently Dr John Humphrey's presentation at the 2010 Australasian Aquaculture Conference 'Disease investigation in finfish - demystifying the diagnostic process' discussed the need at an industry level for an improvement in investigating fish health skills across the aquaculture industry.

Every state of Australia has an aquaculture industry which requires effective health investigation and disease management. Across Australia aquatic animal health training is being delivered to industry and future stakeholders by vocational trainers using units from the National Seafood Industry Package. Aquatic animal health training is also occurring on the farm informally by other industry professionals.

There is a need to bring together those delivering training, to allow them to update and improve their knowledge and practical skills to enable better delivery and ultimately better outcomes for skill development in farm fish health investigation and disease management to support Australia’s fishing and aquaculture industry.