New South Wales Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, recently opened a new state of the art Aquatic Ecosystems Lab at the Port Stephens Fisheries Institute.

The labratory is specifically designed for shark research and will play an important part in assisting the Institute's grey nurse shark breeding program.

The investment, made under the State Government's Towards 2020 initiative also included funding of a range of other programs and facilities including:

• studying the growth of seagrass;
• investigating small fish caught during field surveys conducted across important coastal wetlands including the Blue Groper;
• the purchase of additional field sampling equipment; 
• the building of a large walk in freezer;
• an aquarium room with running saltwater and freshwater;
• and an area for the dissection of large fish and sharks.