Water Quality

Australia is world renowned for producing the highest quality seafood because of its pristine water quality. Southern Australian oceanic waters are particularly pure because of the water provided by the Great Southern Ocean. Southern Ocean Mariculture is situated close to the continental shelf where the Bonney upwelling brings cold oxygenated and nutrient rich waters up after travelling from the Antarctic. SOM has influences from the Leuwin current from the West and the East Australian current from the east. Importantly for SOM the nearest large population centre is over 70 km away and there is no run off from any large rivers nearby. There is therefore no source of pollution to affect our farm.

Our inlet water comes from a small bay which protects our pipelines from the large swells offshore of our farm. Because the bay is so small we have a real advantage over many other farms as our water has oceanic temperatures ramging from 11-19°C. This small amd low temperature range means that our abalone grow throughout the year, do not get heat stressed and can be processed all year round. This results in a consistent product for our customers to enjoy.

Abalone Site

The selection of the site was pure serendipity. One of the diver's had bought some land so that he could get access to some very well protected bays for diving for abalone. When the idea for an abalone farm was formed the site was already available. The abalone population was strong; the bay protected the farm from the swells of the Great Southern Ocean and the site remote from human habitation.

Abalone Species

Our species is a Hybrid of two species, a cross between Green Lip and Black Lip abalone. We named it Green Tiger because it has a green shell and tiger stripe feature on the foot. It has natural pearl white flesh colour, sweet subtle flavour and succulent texture.

Green Tiger, the combination of the two best-known species in Australia provides you with a unique dining experience.


Growing abalone is a slow process as each abalone takes at least 3 years to grow to commercial size. Our Green Tiger demand a particular environment but perform well at the Southern Ocean Mariculture land based operation as our seawater temperature profile is just right for them. We produce our abalone from stock bred on farm.

The stock is produced once a year and are put into nursery tanks at 5 days old where they graze on natural algae which we help to grow as fast as we can. At about 6 months old we move the abalone juveniles into weaning tanks where they start to eat a manufactured diet. After a further year we move them into our final growing tanks. At each stage they are graded and counted.

The green tiger like to stay in a dark environment as being nocturnal they like to hide during the day. Out on the reef they would be hiding under weed and rocks to stay away from predators. To simulate this we operate in darkened sheds and conduct our work with head torches in order that the abalone are not stressed by the daylight.

Our tanks have high flows of fresh seawater flowing through them day and night. To clean these tanks we send waves of water through them to flush out any waste. The abalone are fed specially formulated diets that meets their protein requirements at all stages of their life cycle.