Spring Bay Seafoods has won the 2017 National Seafood Industry Awards for Research, Development & Extension.

This award was presented to Phil Lamb and his team at Spring Bay Seafoods for their work on Biotoxin Management Planning.  

Judging criteria:

The award is presented to an entity that has demonstrated excellence in developing and undertaking a research, development and extension activity that has contributed substantially towards a sustainable and profitable seafood industry.  

The activity:

• addressed a high priority for the seafood industry
• was end-user driven, and produced outcomes that contributed towards the sustainability and profitability of the seafood industry
• was challenging, involved technical risk, and required systematic investigation and a high level of innovation to achieve the planned outcome

Biotoxins from harmful algal blooms have crippled the shellfish and rock lobster industry, resulting in product recalls, harvest area closures, job losses and damage to the reputation of Australia’s seafood industry. The partial shutdown of the Tasmanian shellfish industry in 2012 was estimated to have cost the Tasmanian economy approximately $23m.

Since 2012, Spring Bay Seafoods have demonstrated detailed and rigorous evaluation, development and adoption of a range of biotoxin rapid-test kits for the purpose of reducing risks faced by a commercial shellfish producer. The outcome is a novel, end-user suite of management tools being applied “on-farm” to allow early detection of biotoxins, thus avoiding recalls or the risk of unsafe product reaching domestic and export markets.