Food News

Marianvale Blue Murray cod

The top producer of our most prized freshwater fish.

By Maya Kerthyasa
The top producer of our most prized freshwater fish.
What Marianvale Blue has been farming Murray cod from its 1214-hectare property in Goulburn, NSW, since 2009 and is now the foremost producer of the freshwater fish in Australia.
How Brooding stock is kept in outdoor earthen ponds, not much different to the muddy environment they inhabit in the wild, to allow the fish to spawn naturally. The fertilised eggs are then collected and placed in a hatchery. The hatched fish go back into the ponds to feed and grow. Once they reach about a gram in weight they're transferred to an indoor farm where they're raised in a carefully monitored, stress-free environment for 12 to 18 months until they reach the market weight of somewhere between 800gm and 1.5kg.
Why Murray cod are an endangered species, and wild-caught fish can't be sold legally, so buying a farmed product is the only way to go. Marianvale Blue makes sure all its farming practices are as sustainable as possible. The farm's closed-loop water system ensures that no waste goes back into the earth, and because the fish are raised in clean, indoor ponds, you don't get as much of the muddy taste that's often associated with the wild fish. The cod (they're cod in name only, of course) are raised hormone-free, on a diet that mirrors what they'd get in the wild and are carefully monitored to make sure they're as happy and healthy as possible. "It's really the control that we have that makes for happy fish," says Michael Grinyer of Marianvale Blue. "If they're happy and healthy they grow quickly and are good for the table in a short amount of time."
Where You'll find Marianvale Blue Murray cod at a number of retailers at the Sydney Fish Markets, as well as on the menu at the likes of Aria, Est and Quay in Sydney, and Circa in Melbourne. 
SHAREPIN
  • undefined: Maya Kerthyasa