Abalone Tour: In the Eyre Peninsula Region on the West Coast of South Australia

For a state with thousands of kilometres of spectacular coastline…it’s not surprising that so many South Australians have an ongoing love affair with the sea. It may involve casting for salmon off Locks Well on Eyre Peninsula, pulling in whiting off Gallipoli Beach in Coffin Bay, trawling for snook off the coast of Edithburgh or hauling in Blue Swimmer Crabs. Then again the more adventurous may try their luck diving for abalone. Either way…it seems South Australians will go to enormous lengths and depths to sample the fruits of the sea.

But in recent years a new breed of entrepreneur has tapped into this ongoing obsession. On Eyre Peninsula…Paul Clark checks the intake of seawater to this plant…just a few kilometres from the town of Streaky Bay. From here it’s pumped into a labyrinth of pipes and tubs…all supporting thousands of tiny abalone.

“So how long has it taken to get to say an abalone of that size?”

“That’s eh…six months. That would be a larger one of a six month ab.”

“And you must have put in an amazing amount of investment to get to a point where you can cultivate them to this stage?”

“Yer it’s not cheap...it costs quite a few bucks to set up…but ultimately the rewards are down the track…when you consider that say one of these potentially when it’s say an eighty to ninety mill ab…each one of these would be worth about five bucks.”

Not bad when you consider one tank consider one tank can contain up to twenty five thousand juvenile abalone or spat…the equivalent of one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars in retail sales should this purple payload reach maturity. And remember this is one tank…there’s hundreds more at Streaky Bay Aquaculture. Each day Paul checks the trays. These abalone have been produced from raw stock taken by divers from the waters around Streaky. One wild female abalone can produce between six to eight million eggs. They’re later fertilised and fed in artificial conditions.

“This is a green lip abalone from the wild..and that’s actually a female and you can tell by the colour of the bag on the side. When they come in, she would be capable of producing the eight million eggs we’re talking about…in here we climate control it basically so we can choose when they spawn and when they don’t.”

This one’s probably about twelve years old. The farmed abs sell at three years. And while this wild female looks like something from a science fiction movie…she’s a star on countries like Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China.

“Some other directors that are also involved in the wild caught stuff…they’ve been to Hong Kong and seen some of their product on the shelf and when it finally comes around to sale it could be somewhere in the vicinity of seven hundred bucks a kilo. people are paying when it comes from the shop.”

“Seven hundred bucks a kilo.”

“It appears ludicrous doesn’t it.”

Farmed abalone doesn’t fetch much…but they do alright. So you can see why Paul’s invested heavily in Streaky Bay Aquaculture. It’s located on the Little Islands Road just out of Streaky. And for organised tours drop into the West Coast Trading Post on Bay Road.

Notes:
Streaky Bay Aquaculture
Little Islands Road, Streaky Bay

Organised Tours from West Coast Trading Post
14-16 Bay Road, Streaky Bay
Adults $10

Accommodation is available at the Streaky Bay Hotel Motel.

If you have any further questions please email info@postcards.sa.com.au