Highest honour for barra research

The WA seafood industry has bestowed its top award on a researcher whose work paved the way to send live barramundi juveniles on a 2500km road trip from Fremantle to Derby and on to fish farming operations at Cone Bay.

Greg Jenkins received the Michael Kallis Leadership Award last night for his work on barramundi farming and other aquaculture projects.

The Challenger Institute of Technology researcher has also bred western school prawns in an attempt to restock the Swan and Canning rivers. He played a key role in restocking the Blackwood River with black bream.

WA Fishing Industry Council chairman Arno Verboon said Mr Jenkins had made a big contribution to the commercial and recreational fishing communities. Mr Jenkins has managed Challenger’s aquaculture research and development unit since 1994.

Marine Produce Australia, which produces Cone Bay barramundi, still relies on juveniles trucked from Fremantle to stock its farm off the Kimberley coast.

Other big winners at the awards, held every two years, included the Western Rock Lobster Council (environment) and Austral Fisheries (seafood business).