Company Launch

The Seafood Cooperative Research Centre officially opened for business on the 6th August 2007 at Port Adelaide, where we were blessed with beautiful, sunny weather.

150 guests from industry, education and research sectors arrived at the Australian Fisheries Academy to celebrate the centre’s achievements, to enjoy the networking opportunities with Cooperative Research Centre Participants and to dine on high quality Australian seafood products.

The official proceedings began with F.V. Marija-L’s grand entrance up the Port River. The entrance was made more dramatic with the opening of the Birkenhead Bridge as the crew rang the bells and blew the whistles whilst the INXS song “New Sensation” blared over the “sea waves”.

Chairman of the Seafood Cooperative Research Centre Board Peter Dundas-Smith then took to the stage and told launch guests, “ It took more than 2.5 years of work by an ‘army’ of industry and government people, to form what is possibly be the third largest ever Cooperative Research Centre”.

“The Cooperative Research Centre is concentrating on two things. The first is research that’s tightly focused on the needs of CRC investors. The second is bang for buck. The Seafood CRC is a very commercial organisation, with industry in the majority on the board, and the centre is backed by top researchers around Australia.”

Managing Director, Dr Len Stephens during his speech was also quick to point out that the CRC would be industry driven. Dr Stephens said, “The aim is to drive dollars into industry pockets through innovative collaborative research across the whole of the seafood value chain. The focus of the research will be on production efficiency and profitability, as well as lifting the quality and integrity of products from this multi-sector group”.

He added, “In an environment of increased pressures on resources and rising costs, the CRC provides the method for industry and science to work together”.

Executive Director of the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation Dr Patrick Hone said that the beauty of the Seafood CRC is the incredible diversity of participants, “It’s truly national and it covers the whole supply chain. We have the involvement of Australia’s premier research industry for seafood – we are all cooperating for a common purpose”.

Senator the Hon Eric Abetz who officially launched the company was incredibly enthusiastic , “Considerable resources are being contributed by industry and their investment will drive Research and Development that will contain costs, improve product quality, reduce wastage throughout the value chain, increase productivity and develop new markets. The hallmark result will be safe, high quality, nutritious and sustainably managed seafood products”.

Guests enjoyed the day’s hospitality which featured a stunning seafood lunch, industry product showcases, research provider displays and a cooking demonstration by Simplot Australia’s Executive Chef David White.

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First Visiting Seafood Cooperative Research Centre Fellow - Professor Michael Crawford

Seafood Services Australia (SSA) ‘Seafood for Life’ Global Network organised for Professor Michael Crawford, Director of The Institute of Brain Chemistry & Human Nutrition at London Metropolitan University, to spend the week in Australia beginning the 4th February 2008 to promote the benefits of eating seafood.

Professor Crawford is one of the world’s most influential researchers and writers on nutrition and related subjects. Michael has urged greater consumption of seafood to reverse the growth of mental health problems in developed nations, saying, for example, that the rise in brain disorders and mental health problems associated with a deficiency in Omega 3 (fish) oils is “the most pressing health issue of the 21st century -- forget obesity, mental health is the real disaster already beginning to happen”. (Mental health has overtaken heart disease as the leading medical health problem in Europe, estimated in 2004 to cost 386 billion Euros a year).

The Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre, along with SSA and a number of other Cooperative Research Centre Participants developed an action-packed program for Michael which included him:

• Attending an industry meeting at the Primary Industry and Resources of South Australia and speaking with a number of CRC "industry heavy weights"
  
  
• Being our dinner speaker at the inaugural Visiting Fellow Dinner. The dinner was a sell-out!
  
  
• Being the keynote speaker at a sold-out seminar entitled “Seafood for a healthy body and mind”. This was sponsored by the Australian Seafood CRC, Nutritional Physiology Research Centre, the University of South Australia and the Nutrition Society of Australia, Adelaide Group. The seminar was followed by a networking session over a light lunch, kindly provided by Flinders University and the University of Adelaide with Australian seafood generously provided by the South Australian Research and Development Institute.
  
  > Click here to download the seminar program
  and speaker biographies.
  
  

• Meeting with a number of recent graduates at the University of South Australia
  
  
• Being our guest of honour at the Sydney Fish Market for an early morning tour of the market (to mark the beginning of Lent)
  
  
• Being our guest of honour (along with guests from the seafood industry, government and media) at a breakfast served by the Sydney Seafood Cooking School, followed by Michael speaking about “Why we need to eat seafood".
  
  
• Being a keynote speaker at Sydney University for the Nutritional Society of Australia (Sydney group), and International Life Sciences Australasia at a seminar entitled "Seafood for a healthy body and mind" (the Omega-3 Centre provided drinks and nibbles)
  
  
• Being our guest of honour for a walk along a Gold Coast beach with the SSA Seafood for Life team, followed by a dinner for invited guests
  
  
• Being a guest speaker at Simplot Australia's Retail Conference talking to approximately 250 retail experts following the launch of a new seafood product

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