Brood Lines

Today

The future development of broodstock is currently being progressed by the Department of  Investment and Innovation. January will see the Research Station at Port Stephens doing hatchery runs of  wildcaught stock, some contributed by growers  (farmers favourites!) from various estuaries along the coast. The aim is to establish 30 families which will become part of the CRC conditioning project, and part of a greater number of families which will include some selected from current broodstock holdings.
Careful consideration has been given to how best to progress the breeding program, and the practice known as ‘single pair matings’ to develop family lines, has been identified as offering greater information and therefore more predictive capacity, and more consistent outcomes. The number of family lines developed will allow for significant culling as performance in various estuaries and conditions is assessed.  
While this is a somewhat lengthy process from the commercial operators viewpoint, SOCo is  supportive of the strategy and very positive about the longer term outcomes.
 

The Background 

The Sydney Rock Oyster Breeding Program has been in progress for over 15 years, having commenced in the early 1990's. originally aiming to select stock for characteristics of faster growth and larger size, using an approach based on mass selection.

The original stock were selected from four estuaries on the coast of NSW  - Georges River,  Hawkesbury River, Wallis Lake, and Port Stephens .

Two lines were generated from this stock:

• The Port Stephens Line was selected for fast growth. Four lines were maintained and independently replicated. A backup line of winter mortaity resistant stock was also held at Port Stephens and replicated in the same way.
• The Georges River Lines were selected for fast growth and resistance to winter mortality (Bonamia roughleyi), a protozoan which causes significant attrition in southern waters. These lines were held at Quibray Bay, at the mouth of the Georges River, a little further upstream at  Woolaware Bay and at Lime Kiln Bar, aproximately 12km upstream from the mouth. After the QX (Martelia sydneyi) outbreak in the Georges R. in mid 1990's, surviving stock from Lime Kiln Bar was bred to develop a QX resistant line with faster growth characteristics.

Click this link to open a comprehensive flow chart of the development of the broodstock. 

Fifth generation broodstock from these lines are available for breeding purposes, from The Select Oyster Company. The Company maintains current generations on leases in a number of estuaries along the coast of NSW to ensure capacity to provide stock in the best condition as and when required.

A production based levy is applied at the hatchery and conditions of use apply.