The Victorian Chief Veterinary Officer has advised that, there are no public health or food safety implications associated with this virus.

We don’t know, but with 45 years of in water observation and harvesting, it is unlikely commercial divers would not have seen a previous disease outbreak. Abalone research did not commence until the 1970s so no one from the Government was looking for these kinds of problems. A review of all abalone diseases in early 2005 failed to reveal this disease in Australia.

Yes! When you observe the actively infected abalone it is unmistakable.
See this video clip  to judge for yourself!

Most likely. There was active surveillance outside the farms from the time of the outbreak. It took over 5 months of discharging untreated effluent into the marine environment before the virus took hold in wild stocks outside one of the aquaculture farms.

Yes. International experts have agreed the best approach would have been to stop farm effluent discharges into the marine environment.

The virus is very unlikely to be in the wild in its present state. Unlike abalone in aquaculture farms, abalone in the wild are not under stress, they are in their natural environment. A good question to ask is, if the virus only manifests itself under stressful conditions, why is it affecting and killing up to 95% of abalone in the wild.

There may be several reasons for this;

• The first being that human activity may assist the virus in moving. This could be by virus particles, could end up on commercial or recreational divers gloves and wet suits etc, and be moved from one location to the next.
• The Victorian coast has extremes of weather, large seas prevent divers from fishing, sometimes a month or 2 at a time. As the virus can kill the abalone with 6 days, the spread of the virus can move through an area, kill the abalone and the virus front move on before divers get back to diving an area.
• Mucus from the infected abalone may attach itself to drift seaweed and move in the currents from one location to the next.

It is possible that we could stop the virus from spreading further. This would require support from the abalone industry and recreational fishers as well as others in the Victorian Community.

There is evidence to suggest that the virus does not appear to be active in the areas once it has previously affected. This has been shown with the aquaculture farms having been restocked for 7 or 8 months now without any sign of re-infection. So we could select an area that has no abalone , and for several months create a quarantine area to stop human activity from spreading the virus.

Yes it would appear so. There have been a number of circumstances where disease has broken out long distances from previous infection fronts. These spots are isolated sections of coast that have limited access points. The outbreaks have occurred at the only land based access point on that section of the coast. There has not been any commercial activity for many months prior to the outbreaks.

• Current management strategy is mainly focused at leaving the abalone stocks alone.  And
• If there is no resistance, this strategy is floored

It is possible that we could stop the virus. This would require support from the abalone industry and recreational fishers as well as others in the Victorian Community.

Quarantine areas, but there are actions we could take to try and prevent the spread. Its not too late to try and minimise the impacts on the environment.

Yes. The abalone industry has already voluntarily removed itself from fishing infected areas. They also insisted DPI reduce the total allowable catch (over $2 million dollars worth) to try and stop the spreading of the disease.

Yes. The Victorian Abalone Divers Association, has had an Abalone Harvest Code of Practice for many years. This document is regularly updated. A copy is available on the VADA website, you can download it here.

We have adopted strict bio-security protocols and paid for and issued disease kits.

• VADA has placed easily accessible refills of detergents and bleaches along the coast free of charge for commercial divers.
• If a diver finds something unusual while diving for abalone, the Victorian Abalone Divers Association (VADA) has agreed to pay all the days running cost, so the diver can return to Port without losing income. He can then complete wash down procedures.
• Lobbied heavily to have areas that have been infected by the virus closed to commercial and recreational harvesting in order to protect remaining stocks.
• Paid to international experts to provide the best possible advice about how to recover abalone stocks and best safeguard the eco-system.

The abalone industry in Victoria has 45 years of being proactive in protecting the marine environment. Victorian industry is fearful that so little has been learnt or changed from this outbreak, that if a similar event occurred again in the future then the disease would again escape into the environment.

No. We believe all businesses have a right to operate and all businesses have a right to grow without impacts by others. Our concern is that businesses that operate in the natural marine environment should adopt a proactive approach to ensuring the marine eco-system is protected and the operations are safe and sustainable. The VADA submission in relation to the Draft Aquaculture Strategic Plan in the marine environment made clear recommendations for protecting the marine environment first.

Yes. The recommendations were based on the principles described in the 1992 Intergovernmental Agreement on the Environment which was agreed to by the federal and all State Governments.    These principles permeate their way through  most State and Federal Government environmental documentation.   VADA has adopted these principles.

The most recent was the voluntary refusal to accept abalone quota valued at  over $2,000,000.00.   The harvesting was to occur between Warrnambool and the 12 Apostles, Port Campbell area. This was done to try and ensure that:

• The commercial industry was not responsible for the spreading of the ganglioneuritis virus.  
• To try and create a quarantine area to slow the spread of the virus
• The other reason was to ensure that if there was abalone resistance to the virus then the most amount of abalone would survive the incursion of the Virus as it moved up the coast.

At this stage no, the virus has appeared and infected abalone at the first land based access point along the coast near Childers Cove. 
We are still hopeful that it may help, although it would have a better chance if the Department of Primary Industries created a quarantine area. 
There are also a number of other strategies that could be employed to assist the effectiveness.

Yes. Research is indicating that the virus is a lot more virulent than we first realised.   It is not acting like an endemic disease, but more and more like an exotic. The virus has been extracted by researchers and even at dilutions of 1,000,000 to 1 it still causes a 100% mortality in abalone. This process of research is still ongoing.

There are indications that the survivors of the virus moving through an area may be more lucky, rather than having some resistance to the virus. Also:

• The most dense abalone populations appear to be the hardest hit by the virus.
•  This may mean that a more strategic approach to managing the virus may have to be adopted.  
• Attempts will have to be made to ensure that there is sufficient abalone surviving to maintain a high level of bio-diversity in the eco-system.

We think the reason there has not been much public attention before is because most of the damage is occurring underwater where not many people can see the impacts of the virus. If there was a paddock with 100 cows in it and 95 died, and then 95 died in the next paddock and then 95 in the next paddock, there would be a public outcry. Unfortunately all this damage to the environment is occurring underwater.

We don’t know yet. Nothing like this has happened before. One of our major concerns is that the abalone numbers will be reduced so much that they will never recover. More importantly is that the whole eco-system may change, and grow over. The species that rely on abalone will have to find other sources of food.

No.   The Merri Marine Sanctuary area at Warrnambool was very heavily hit by the virus with nearly 99% mortality of abalone

No. There is a long list of items that we feel could be done.  The Victorian Abalone Divers Association is willing to meet with community groups and people who are interested to go through these, as well as get new ideas.