SYDNEY, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The escape of 20,000 "predatory" yellowtail kingfish from a fish farm off Port Stephens in Australia's New South Wales state is fueling concerns about the ecological impact and management of the aquaculture project, local media reported on Friday.

About 3,000 kingfish were recaptured after the farm's cage was damaged in rough seas late last month, leaving up to 17,000 of the fish, which are "used to being fed automatically," loose in marine park waters, according to The Newcastle Herald newspaper.

"The pen that had the release was mangled and now we have thousands of mature kingfish released into the wild, nothing will be safe from them," the marine park's association chairman Frank Future was quoted as saying.

"They are voracious feeders and from what I understand they are ravenous. Once they realize they won't get any food in the form of pellets they'll be eating anything they can find. I don't want to think about the impact on wild species."

The kingfish can sell for up to 32 Australian dollars (25.7 U.S. dollars) a kilogram, according to the paper. The fish farm, which is part of a research trial project between the state government and the Huon Aquaculture company based in island state Tasmania, includes five pens, each about 60 meters across, with a capacity for 12 pens. The area's legislative assembly member Kate Washington has raised concerns about the self-regulation of the project and suggested an independent probe into the incident, the paper reported.

A wave buoy at the farm recorded wave heights of more than 11 meters when the cage was damaged, a company spokeswoman was quoted as saying.

The kingfish's "predatory nature" was a major issue, Professor Bronwyn Gillanders from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Adelaide, was quoted as saying.

"They haven't been brought up to feed on wild fish," she said. "But they are predatory fish and they would normally eat other fish. Whether they have the impact claimed, it's difficult to tell."

A spokesman for the state's Department of Primary Industries was quoted as saying that 17,000 kingfish was not "significant" in terms of the total wild population in the area.

"The farmed fish are from local parent stock and are health checked on a routine basis, so they are not considered a biosecurity risk," he said.