Fisheries Enhancement Fund - Sustainable Aquaculture Development Pilot Project (Australian Redclaw Crayfish)

The local aquaculture industry is mainly fish farming, while farming for large-scale crustaceans such as shrimps and crabs are less popular. The Fisheries Enhancement Fund, established by the Airport Authority Hong Kong, supported a local research company’s pilot project to breed Australian redclaw crayfish (crayfish) in a factory building.

These crayfish grow fast and have strong disease resistance, so they are relatively suitable for high-density indoor breeding.

Sunny Lee, Technical and Promotion Director, Hong Kong Aquaculture Research Limited, said, “We chose crustaceans for this pilot project which is the Australian redclaw crayfish, in order to observe whether crustaceans are suitable for indoor breeding.”

The team rented a 1,100sq.ft. factory building unit and bred the crayfish in tanks at different water depths, water temperatures and crayfish densities, monitoring the growth rate and survival rate under different conditions.

The behaviour of crayfish needs to be considered for optimal breeding. The team observed that crayfish are aggressive and will fight, leading to casualties. To solve the problem, the team separated the crayfish in individual cylinders and boxes.

“In the early stage, many crayfish died because of fighting, unsuitable water quality or diseases – resulting in a low survival rate of around 50%. Later, we repeatedly improved the breeding conditions, including adopting independent breeding, independent filter tanks, and stacked breeding, which increased the survival rate up to 80%,” added Sunny.

The team eventually discovered the optimal indoor breeding environment for crayfish.

All members of this project team were born post-90s. Sunny, who was a cultural docent, hopes to develop a brand new, highly effective aquaculture model through this project, revitalising the industry and attracting more young people to join.

Sunny said, “We all know that Hong Kong was an old fishing port. Nowadays, young people are not familiar with aquaculture or fisheries. Because of this, we can see there is succession gap in Hong Kong’s traditional aquaculture industry. Many of them said that they could not find successors, and I felt sorry for them. When this project came up, I thought it could be a new opportunity.”

The team is developing a user manual and video clips to introduce local crustacean culturing to the industry, and to promote modern fishery techniques. The next step is to breed other species with a shorter harvest period and higher economic value, like tiger prawns.'

Professor Kenneth Leung, Chairperson of FEF Management Committee, said, “This project fully matches the original intent of the Fund and the outcomes we want to achieve. By helping local fishermen update their operations, we are helping to promote and transform local aquaculture. Breeding Australian redclaw crayfish introduces new species which have never been grown locally before, and is producing encouraging results.”

Peter Lee, General Manager, Sustainability, Airport Authority Hong Kong, said, “The results of many projects are very helpful to the industry. Both scholars and fishermen can provide useful information on the strategies for transformation of local aquaculture and conservation of native marine life.”

To download the video, please go to: https://corpvideo.hkairport.com/downloadmedia/index/download/flavorid/1_a2pqourh