Stock mortality cover
Fish, shellfish or crustacean losses from named causes such as storm, disease outbreak or equipment failure.
Aquaculture And Fish Farm Insurance
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Aquaculture And Fish Farm Insurance
Cover for fish, oyster, prawn and abalone operations.
Aquaculture stock is alive, hard to see and can be gone overnight. A power failure to a recirculating system, a summer algal bloom, a storm that tears out a lease, or a disease event can wipe a whole cohort. Value climbs the longer stock stays in the water, and cover is generally built around named mortality causes rather than blanket stock insurance.
What is it?
Australian aquaculture spans Atlantic salmon in Tasmania, yellowtail kingfish and southern bluefin tuna out of Port Lincoln, barramundi in Queensland and the Northern Territory, prawns on the Queensland coast, Sydney rock and Pacific oysters, mussels and abalone. Systems run from sea cages and intertidal oyster leases to ponds, raceways and land-based recirculating systems, each with a different failure point.
What does aquaculture and fish farm insurance cover?
Cages, leases and plant
Sea cages, nets, moorings, racks, pumps, aerators and hatchery equipment.
Power and system failure
Loss of stock following failure of pumps, aeration, oxygen supply or refrigeration, subject to the policy terms.
What affects the cost?
- Species and growout cycle length
- Site exposure and water depth
- Backup power and alarm systems
- Biosecurity and disease history
- Stock value at peak biomass
Worth raising on the call
- Stock cover is generally written around named perils, so a normal background mortality rate is not usually claimable.
- Peak biomass just before harvest is when the sum insured matters most, and it is frequently set too low.
- Backup power, oxygen supply and alarm response times are usually underwriting conditions rather than optional extras.
Claims we are commonly asked about
Power failure kills a tank cohort
Mains power drops overnight at a land-based recirculating barramundi farm and the backup generator fails to start, so a full tank of fish is lost before morning. Cover generally turns on whether power failure and equipment failure are named causes, and on whether the alarm and backup conditions in the policy were actually met.
Storm tears out a sea cage
A summer low pushes heavy swell through a lease, moorings part on one cage and stock escapes while nets and collars are destroyed. The plant damage and the lost stock are typically assessed as two separate parts of the claim under different items.
Oyster racks lost in a flood event
A flood pushes debris and freshwater through an estuarine lease, destroying racks, baskets and most of a year class of stock. What is payable generally depends on whether flood is an included cause for that site and on how the stock value was declared at the time.
Worth confirming in the wording
- Worth confirming exactly which mortality causes are named, since aquaculture stock cover is generally built around specific perils rather than mortality in general.
- Worth confirming how normal or background mortality is defined and whether a deductible expressed as a percentage of biomass applies before anything becomes payable.
- Worth confirming what backup power, oxygen supply, alarm and response-time requirements the policy imposes, because these are commonly conditions rather than recommendations.
Common questions
Does aquaculture insurance cover disease outbreaks?
Some policies name specific disease events as an insured cause while others limit or condition them heavily, particularly for notifiable diseases where a government control order is involved. It generally depends on the species, the site history and the biosecurity plan in place. It is worth confirming which disease scenarios are named and what happens if stock are destroyed under a government order.
How is stock value set for fish that are still growing?
Usually through an agreed schedule that steps the value up through the growout cycle, so what is payable depends on when in the cycle the loss occurs. Peak biomass just before harvest is the highest exposure and the point most often under-declared. Regular biomass reporting to the insurer is a common condition of the cover.
What does aquaculture insurance cost?
There is no standard figure, and land-based systems and open-water leases price very differently. The main drivers are the species and growout cycle length, site exposure and water depth, backup power and alarm systems, biosecurity and disease history, peak biomass value, and the excess or biomass deductible selected.
Do I need insurance to hold an aquaculture lease?
Lease and permit conditions vary by state, and some fisheries authorities or landlords require public liability, marine liability, or wreck removal and debris cover as a condition of holding the lease. The requirement generally comes from the lease document rather than from insurance law. It is worth reading those conditions carefully and matching the policy to them.
General information only. Cover, limits and exclusions depend on the PDS, TMD, eligibility, underwriting and the policy terms. See farm insurance for the wider picture.
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