Australia's prawn farmers able to endure climate changes

The Queensland Aquaculture Industries Federation said yesterday, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 that their prawn farmer members will be able to adjust their processes to cope with climate change.

A recent report by the CSIRO suggests Australia's $2 billion (US $1.39 billion) commercial fishing and aquaculture industries are vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Dr Trevor Anderson, federation president, is confident in the capacity of the industry to adapt to changing circumstances and with varied conditions as it does so already.

He said most of the aquaculturists are very innovative people and with an industry that is characterized by innovation, there would not be anyone who would suffer badly in the aquaculture industry.

Short of a massive increase in temperature, like if it went up 10-15 degrees, production  would be unaffected.

If the temperature change was only two or three degrees, there would be management techniques which allows for the change, he added.