AMIAD – AUSTRALIA & ASIA PACIFIC NEWS – VOLUME 11 – MARCH 2018 v.1finalAmiad_AU_News_March_2018_high_resolution | Page 9

Flash Back | Abalone Production
Growth in abalone production sees increasing demand for aquaculture solutions.
Whilst Australia isn’t a stranger to the abalone market, the recent surge in demand from many Asian
countries, coupled with its expensive value in comparison to other seafood, has made the market very
desirable to enter.
China is easily the leading producer of farmed abalone in the world, producing over 127,000 tonnes in 2015,
and remains the foremost consuming country, too, but other Asian countries like Korea are slowly catching
up here in both.
Traditionally, abalone has always been caught wild in Australia, with it being recognised as the world’s
largest remaining capture abalone fishery, landing nearly 4,500 tonnes in 2015. However, the global demand
is now shifting towards farmed abalone, a much more sustainable method, with 95% of abalone worldwide
now coming from aquaculture.
To stay competitive in the market and preserve the industry in Australia for many years to come, abalone
farms are becoming more & more prevalent, with coastal South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania becoming
renowned hubs for their farming & production.
With this change, Amiad was asked to help devise a new system for Southern Ocean Mariculture, an
abalone farm in Port Fairy, South-Western Victoria. This was a result of a successful project in 2015 using
the same process for another part of the facility.
Above: A simplified diagram of the requirement, existing Arkal filtration for seaweed, sand and other particles
followed by 3 x 48” AGF media vessels.
Below: A detailed description of the process.
Amiad AGF shallow bed media filters
Sand media filters operate by separating the suspended material in the water as it flows through a bed of
media in a pressurised tank.
After the specified operation time, one AGF pod will automatically backwash at a time using filtered water
provided by the other pods. The pods will be backwashed one after another. This process rids the vessel of
accumulated mass, effectively cleaning it for its next operation period.
The backwash initiation is usually time-based with a differential pressure override if required, or can be
manually or remotely initiated.
9 | March 2018