Trochus hatchery plan receives $20k

A PLAN to supply electrical power to an experimental trochus hatchery on the Dampier Peninsula has received WA Government funding of $20,000.

Aboriginal communities at One Arm Point and Sunday Island have joined with Fisheries WA to set up the hatchery that will be used to reseed near-shore reefs.

The hatchery, partly funded by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, the Australian Centre for Inter-national Agriculture Research and Fisheries WA, will be used to produce juvenile trochus.

They will be then be moved to depleted reefs by the Aboriginal communities for natural ‘grow out’ .

Trochus fishing is thought to have been carried out in the area for nearly a century.

Its shell is used for jewellery, furniture inlays and buttons for fashion garments and has high potential for export.