Ocean Grown Abalone’s Brad Adams is revolutionising abalone

But take a closer look. Here, at the southwesterly tip of Western Australia, where the Southern and Indian oceans meet, Adams is ­pioneering a new industry in Australia: ocean-based abalone aquaculture.

Adams and his crew of three are heaving tanks aboard Tin Thing, one of their growing fleet of dive boats, in preparation for a day of building their patented artificial reefs and harvesting a small haul of greenlip abalone. While this is aquaculture, it still requires an ocean catch. We head out; to our west is the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, and we’re keeping our eyes peeled for migrating humpback and southern right whales, albeit under the grey layers of an unseasonally wintry sky.

Past the harbour markers, skipper Mitchell Lynn suggests that the cabin, not the deck, might be the best spot to stand, as he opens up the boat’s twin ­engines and pushes at speed into Flinders Bay.

Below on the ocean floor, rows of bunker-like concrete habitats form an artificial reef system in an environment that Adams describes as a “desert of sand and sea grass”. Since building the reef, divers attest to an improved ecosystem in the bay, with renewed vegetation and juvenile fish in species such as flathead, cod, dhufish, pink snapper and wrasse.

Adams’s company, Ocean Grown Abalone, is set to join a growing line-up of premium and super-premium seafood brands — anchored by sustainability and quality — that are changing the way we buy our seafood. Whether it’s when we dine out or when we go to the fishmonger, we don’t simply want a prawn or a bit of barra any more. Increasingly, we want a brand: names like Pacific Reef Cobia, Hiramasa Kingfish and Cone Bay Barramundi.

Like many top chefs, Peter Gilmore, of Sydney’s Quay and Bennelong, is keenly aware of the need for high-quality, well-produced farmed seafood in Australia. “The wild resources need to be very well managed and aquaculture can fill a gap and a need,” Gilmore says.

The footprint in Flinders Bay is light. Just 1.2ha of a 120ha lease is in use: it’s far from the usual image of intensive aquaculture projects. As Adams puts it, “All we are doing is providing a habitat for an animal and then using nature to feed [it], all at a very a low ­density. The reason abalone works so well as an aquaculture candidate is that they’re low volume, high value.”

Once production is in full swing, Adams expects to take 100 tonnes a year from the bay. Against a global wild catch of 5000 tonnes, that’s not insubstantial. Abalone is pulled on to Tin Thing’s deck in net bags; a shell that fills my hand encases white flesh and vivid green lips. Of the 18 species that inhabit Australian waters, greenlip is the one most highly prized by the Asian market, partly for its perceived health benefits.

In the hand, the mollusc does “the dance” — a mesmerising slow writhe and jive. A bit confronting to the uninitiated, yes, but ­demand is high and at $170 a kilo this is the super-premium end of aqua-culture, where the lines of wild and cultivated blur.

“They look like a wild abalone because essentially they are,” Adams says. “They spend 18 months in a hatchery reared on diatoms [algae] with water flowing over them. They just graze away and then spend the rest of their years in the same environment as the wild abalone.”

While the first commercial harvest isn’t likely until early next year, some chefs in the southwest, including Aaron Carr at Vasse Felix and Mikihito Nagai of Miki’s Open Kitchen, both in Margaret River, have been early adopters. As has Dany ­Angove, head chef at Leeuwin Estate, who serves Ocean Grown Abalone cooked sous vide then thinly sliced, garnished with enoki and seaweed and bathed in a chicken consomme.

While the tourist market of Margaret River is Angove’s usual audience, the famed winery restaurant is also home to the international food festival Gourmet Escape each November. Angove recalls the reaction of three-star Michelin chef Massimo Bottura, who was a guest at last year’s festival, to abalone. “As soon as he tried the product he was just blown away — he came into the kitchen and asked what it was. He described it as meat of the sea.” He grins at the memory.

Angove sources all his seafood from Australian waters, whether it’s Cobia from north Queensland or Hiramasa Kingfish from Port Lincoln. “We’re getting this fish that can be spiked, caught and here in 48 hours. Sustainable aquaculture products are what we’re after.”

He’s not alone in his appreciation of what Australian fisheries, and increasingly aquaculture, have to offer. For Gilmore, there are several factors at play in using and selecting aquaculture products: “Of course chefs want high quality, but we also want something that’s a bit unique.”

He uses a mix of sustainable wild catch on a small scale and carefully chosen farmed product. Clean Seas’ Hiramasa Kingfish, for example, was used for sashimi at the ­recently opened Bennelong. It is, Gilmore says, a consistently high-quality product.

From the heights of a restaurant such as Bennelong there’s a trickle-down effect through the industry and to consumers. Sydney-based John Susman, who has been spruiking fish for 30 years, reflects that branded seafood has been with us for decades as a commodity market but now we’re seeing “brands becoming an umbrella for all these other elements: provenance, history, sustainability, quality and value”.

For Susman, chefs are the change agents but home consumers are the real beneficiaries. “It was only a generation ago that we were drinking ‘red’ and ‘white’ wine and now we make a discerning choice as to the quality we drink on a Tuesday night with our tea or a Saturday night at a dinner party.”

With Australia importing 75 per cent of its seafood and concerns about standards of production abroad, the ability to make a quality-based choice has never been more desirable, and it’s for this reason that branded premium seafood is booming. You’re not just buying protein for the pan, but also peace of mind that standards are high, whether ­operational or environmental.

Sustainability might be an overused term but it’s an imperative driving the choice of both chefs and retail customers. Salmon, “the chicken of the sea”, is a perfect example. Susman points to Mt Cook ­Alpine Salmon, a high quality sashimi-grade product produced by New Zealand farmers with “a vision for what they want this fish to achieve from a ­culinary angle”.

It’s a far cry from the image of farming for weight over flavour and texture, but even at the more ­intensive end, the big Tassie producers don’t do too badly: as Peter Horvac of the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation points out, Tassal is the first ASC (Aquaculture Stewardship Council) certified salmon fishery in the world, while Huon and Petuna are both BAP (Best Aquaculture Practices) certified.

Amid all the attention on sustainability and standards, this might not seem groundbreaking — and certain Tassie producers have come under fire recently from environmental groups concerned about the effect of salmon farming on water quality — but it’s a step forward. Horvac believes the Australian seafood industry “is reaching a maturity that we have not seen for a long time”; that we are experiencing “a renaissance where the guys are becoming proud of being a primary producer”.

Proud producers. Conscientious chefs. Consumers willing to pay a premium price for a premium product. Is this the future of our seafood industry?

Adams is planning a second farm in Esperance and talks of Port Lincoln and Tasmania being next. While abalone is usually seen as an export product, he’s thinking closer to home.

“We are touching the surface of what we can do with abalone and how it can be presented to a more Western palate,” he says.

“I think you’ll be seeing it in the best restaurants in Australia; and I think they’ll be asking for it.”

Abalone four ways

Dany Angove, head chef, Leeuwin Estate: Thinly slice the abalone, dip in flour, then egg, then in panko crumbs. Pan-fry very quickly — just in and out. Serve with a bit of nori salt and a simple ponzu sauce made from lime, light soy and mirin.

Brad Adams, Ocean Grown Abalone: Keep it simple. Slice it thinly, saute in a hot pan for 10 seconds in olive oil and garlic. Finish with salt and pepper and a touch of lemon.

Aaron Carr, executive chef, Vasse Felix: Slow cook whole abalone in a white Chinese chicken stock (made with aromatics of lemongrass, garlic and 
ginger — no soy) and leave to cool in the stock. Then shave and serve on a soba noodle salad.

Mikihito Nagai, head chef and owner, Miki’s Open Kitchen: For sashimi, slice the abalone very finely. Mix some soy and wasabi together, then spray the mixture lightly on to the slices using a spray bottle. Do not saturate.

Source: The Australian, Max Brearley, 10^th October 2015
Originally published as: Ocean Grown Abalone’s Brad Adams is revolutionising abalone