Director
Member Organization: Marine Produce Australia
Alastair grew up on a mixed farming property close to the sea and spent his childhood working on the farm and fishing with his family every chance they could. He took that mix and pursued study in Marine Biology and Aquaculture in SA and Tasmania before landing his first job managing the Tuna Research Farm in Port Lincoln in 1994. During his time there he was a pioneer of the blue mussel industry heading up the Growers Association.
After this he moved overseas and was instrumental in the pioneering development of welfare friendly harvest technology while working for Marine Harvest in Scotland. He also helped develop welfare standards for the European Salmon Industry that became global industry best practice.
Alastair is recognised internationally for his achievements in aquaculture. He has a wide experience from almost 3 decades of working with a variety of species in many different countries.
His key focus – “.. every fish is important and needs to be treated as such from egg to the plate, e.g., it might take 20-25 thousand hours of careful husbandry to produce a quality fish but don’t forget that final hour..”.