Alexandra Rotary’s Guest Speaker this week was Dr Brett Ingram, Adjunct Assoc Professor Deakin University and Senior Scientist Victorian Fisheries.

He was inspired by Jacques Cousteau in the 1970’s and studied at James Cook University before embarking on a 40 year career as a fish biologist. In the early days, Brett was part of a team which catalogued the Great Barrier Reef, being towed on a sheet of plywood towed by a zodiac inflatable for weeks/months at a time. It was uncommon NOT to see sharks at this time.

Most of his career has been at Snobs Creek hatchery, where he worked to develop and refine production techniques for native fish including Murray cod and Macquarie perch, and salmonids, as well as research into popular recreational fisheries across the state.  A single Murray cod female releases up to 50 thousand eggs (spawn). This process is hormonally induced in the laboratory. The spawn and milt (sperm from male cod) are mixed, and then incubated in tanks until large enough to be transferred into outdoor ponds where they are fed on plankton until grown to size. Snobs Creek Hatchery produces up to 10million fish/year, including brown and rainbow trout, chinook salmon, Murray cod and native perch.

Brett has also worked at Queenscliff developing breeding programs for the mussel industry, where the biggest challenge was to grow enough food to feed the young. Young larvae or spat settle onto ropes which are then transferred to open water to grow out to marketable size. This has developed into a 2000tonne/year aquaculture industry in Victoria. In Brett’s opinion our local mussels are better eating than the perhaps more widely known NZ green-lipped mussel. 

Brett has spent some time working throughout Southeast Asia on international aid projects to help develop fisheries and aquaculture in rural communities. In some places he worked with headhunters alongside orangutans. Fish are now bred in captivity for commercial consumption. Fishing is a vital industry throughout the Mekong delta. Improved breeding techniques have helped raise the standard of living for villagers.

Overseeing a short lived project which introduced barramundi to the warm waters of Hazelwood pondage was interesting. All was going well until the power station was mothballed, cutting the supply of warm water to the pondage. It is now too cold for these fish to survive there.

Despite all this knowledge, Brett is self-described  as 'very average at catching fish'.

An interesting and informative speech.