Blacklip Rock Oyster (BRO) aquaculture is an emerging, culturally identified industry in northern Australia. The BRO industry aims to optimise hatchery production at Darwin Aquaculture Centre (DAC), Northern Territory to produce a commercial supply of Saccostrea echinata (Saccostrea lineage J) by 2023. One bottleneck in production is repeat episodes of larval mortalities due to disease outbreaks. Little is known about the natural microbial community of BROs and their hatchery environment, as most studies focus on commercially important temperate oyster species. In 2020, a full mortality of BRO larvae occurred within the hatchery 14 days post hatch. A post-mortality investigation of BRO larvae identified
V. harveyi as the most likely cause of the mortality due to the high relative abundance of
V. harveyi in dead BRO larvae. A limitation of this study was that nothing was known about the bacterial and Vibrio communities of the larvae and their culture environment leading up to the mortality. Using molecular tools, we aim to analyse how the bacterial and Vibrio communities of BRO larvae and their culture environment change throughout two larval runs, particularly during mortality events. Results from this study will inform the BRO aquaculture industry of disease risk and improve hatchery management.