Welcome to ACWA

The Aquaculture Council of Western Australia Inc. (ACWA) is the incorporated peak body for the State’s aquaculture industry and is an industry group member of the WA Fishing Industry Council (WAFIC), the Seafood Industry Australia Council and the National aquaculture Council.

ACWA is a member driven organisation working to ensure a profitable future for its members and a viable future for the aquaculture industry, which provides the sustainable use and management of public resources.

Established in 1981, ACWA continues to foster the responsible development of the aquaculture industry in Western Australia by working with government and industry to develop and sustain the aquaculture industry.

In recent years West Australian State governments have been very supportive of the aquaculture industry by investing significant capital to meet the growing potential for the aquaculture of various species throughout the state.  One example of is the establishment of Aquaculture Zones, where the necessary preliminary environmental and planning processes have been completed by government and thus making starting an aquaculture venture much simpler. This initiative, in part, has already encouraged significant capital investment in the industry.

Indeed aquaculture in Western Australia now finds itself with the capacity to grow up to well over 48,000 tonnes of marine finfish in addition to abalone and oysters from farms around the state. To give this context it will be roughly four times the production from the state’s wild fisheries and as the demand for high quality seafood grows this is likely to increase still further over time.

As a joint initiative the State government and ACWA developed the new jointly run Albany Shellfish Hatchery to provide spat for oysters and other bi-valves to an increasing number of aquaculture farmers around WA.

Larger scale development opportunities still exist in WA with offshore fin fish aquaculture in the open ocean environment, where the low natural nutrient levels in the ocean provide unique opportunities for sea cage aquaculture, growing new species miles offshore. The offshore cages used are barely noticeable on the surface of the ocean when submerged and this approach to farming is being successfully used overseas to increase seafood production using new technologies.

ACWA is proud to be part of Western Australia’s growing seafood production story and looks forward to the opportunity of working with industry and government to constructively to meet the needs of an increasingly discerning market looking for high quality West Australian seafood.