Aquaculture Trail: In the Eyre Peninsula region of South Australia

At the top of Spencer Gulf a new industry is taking shape. Fitzgerald Bay, near Whyalla, is currently home to five commercial yellowtail kingfish leases and is the first port of call on what's been dubbed the Eyre Peninsula Seafood and Aquaculture Trail.

As part of the trail you can follow the track around the bay to the Point Lowly Lighthouse. It was built in 1883 and it dominates the top end of the Spencer Gulf which is important to the story of South Australian Aquaculture. This is also the home of the Australian Giant Cuttlefish. Between May and September each year hundreds of thousands of cuttlefish - or Sepia Apama - as they're known, gather to spawn on a narrow section of coastline just north of Whyalla.

Next stop on the trail is Arno Bay and the Clean Seas Hatchery owned and operated by the Stehr Group. A tour of the world class facility takes you through the fascinating process of rearing marine fish like yellowtail kingfish and mulloway.

But this seafood saga not only takes in the lucrative but also the magical and mysterious at Port Lincoln. Tracy Warland established her Sea Horse Farm in 1998 and now part of the Seafood and Aquaculture Tail.

All sea horses belong to the genus known as Hippo Campus - Hippo from the ancient Greek meaning horse and campos meaning sea monster.

“Greek poets used to write tales of half horse half sea monster creatures that King Neptune etc rode around on the Seven Seas. I often describe them as having a head like a horse, a tale like a monkey and a kangaroo style pouch for keeping the babies in because it's the male that has the babies. They're made up of a suit of boney body armour.. And then covered in a bit of a leathery type skin. But of course they are a fish.”

It’s from one bizarre marine creature to another, as we head to Streaky Bay and a new abalone breeding facility. The abalone has 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. It's 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 control the climate so basically we can choose when they spawn and when they don't.”

The farmed “abs” sell at three years. And while they look like something from a science fiction movie they are stars in countries like Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China.

The latest figures show that the aquaculture industry on Eyre Peninsula alone now generates sales of $428 million dollars each year. And much of it from the Oyster Industry. Here at Smoky Bay, Jeff and Colleen Holmes head out to check their oyster lease. Twelve years ago they were farming sheep but with the collapse of the wool industry back then Jeff moved into aquaculture.

“It saved Smokey. All the young bucks were leaving. Now people are coming back for the work.”

You can taste the freshness of the local produce at Jeff's oyster shed. It also houses his aquarium which is full of the many marine species to be encountered on this part of the peninsula. For details about Jeff's tour and all the others on the Eyre Peninsula Seafood and Aquaculture Trail contact 1300 788 378. You can also pick up a brochure at SA Visitor and Travel Centre.