Project Leader: Dr Alan Duckworth, Australian Institute
of Marine Science
Project 1.3.2 builds on the outputs and
methodology of sponge aquaculture research undertaken in the CRC
Torres Strait.
Given awareness that the scale of the
potential international market for commercial sponges may permit a
venture larger than cottage industry size, it is now important to
examine sustainability of the likely commercial development of a
new industry in the Torres Strait. This can be achieved by
laying ground work for understanding the dynamics of shallow water
sponge characterised communities and exploring risks and threats to
sponge seed stock populations. Given that sponges play an
important ecological role in these environments, possibly acting as
nursery or recruitment habitat for other species of economic or
ecological importance (as reported in other tropical habitats), and
because sponges themselves are useful indicator or sentinel species
for environmental stress, then relevant information will be
delivered that will inform assessment of general habitat risk (from
pollution, disease, invasions or sedimentation). An
exploration of the wider economic potential for bath sponge
aquaculture in Torres Strait (currently undertaken by CRC Torres
Strait and the Torres Strait Regional Authority) will be supported
by other funds and will be carried out in collaboration with the
Yorke Island Council and the Torres Strait Regional Authority.
A business model for a commercial venture at
Masig Island, grounded on a sustainable environmental bottom line,
will place this project in the context of the economic potential of
the broader sponge resource in the Torres Strait region and
facilitate the uptake of outputs for the development of a viable
commercial sponge farming industry throughout the Torres Strait.
Ecological and risk assessment information will be integrated into
the relevant reports cards.
Key objectives of Project 1.3.2 include:
-
An assessment of the distribution and abundance of wild
commercial sponge species in Torres Strait, identifying elements of
environmental risk (evidence of disease, sedimentation, invasives)
and establishing a sustainable strategy for seed stock harvest;
-
Determining the connections between sponge populations and risks
in translocation; and
-
Determining patterns of sponge recruitment/mortality and the
environmental risk of seed stock harvest leading to development of
a sustainable seed collection strategy.
