Science Centres: Fisheries

NIWA has invested more than $2.5 million in this new aquaculture production and research facility to help New Zealand meet the growing demand for seafood. The Bream Bay facility, at Ruakaka, just south of Whangarei, was completed in April this year. Research into a variety of fish and shellfish species will provide important information to existing and new aquaculture operators, and help them to create a sustainable industry.

Warm-water aquaculture

We identified the lack of an industry-focused warm-water R&D facility to complement our cold-water facility at Mahanga Bay in Wellington as a key constraint in our aquaculture research. New Zealand’s export revenue is currently dominated by the greenshell mussel industry, but the global demand for seafood provides the opportunity to increase export earnings by diversifying into new, high-value species. Up until now, New Zealand has lagged behind other countries in the area of warm-water aquaculture, particularly for marine finfish species, because of the high costs and technology involved, and the lack of research facilities. This new facility will help to fill this gap.

Why Bream Bay?

The year-round supply of good quality warm water at Bream Bay is ideal because it allows scientists and industry to research and produce species that require warm water, particularly in the larval stages, without the added expense of heating the water. We were also able to use the pipelines from the old Marsden power station to draw the large quantities of seawater required. The owners of the site, Mighty River Power, have been extremely helpful in the development.

The Northland site met or exceeded NIWA’s other site criteria, including its proximity to Whangarei and Auckland and the sea, its zoning, the quality of its seawater, and the existing large pipe and pumping network. The site is also low-lying, has good road access, and all the other necessary services, including, particularly, enough freshwater to run a hatchery.

Planning and construction

It was important that the hatchery was large enough for commercial-scale aquaculture production, yet was flexible enough to also accommodate high quality research and development for both NIWA and industry. To ensure this, we spent a full year planning the facility, and we sought the advice of overseas experts and the local aquaculture industry before settling on the final designs. The Northland Regional Council issued all the necessary resource and land-use consents in July 2001, and construction began in September 2001.

World-class facilities

Bream Bay Aquaculture has four separate buildings that cover an area of 3000 m2, including a hatchery, nursery, conference room, accommodation, wet and dry laboratories, and a workshop and storage area.

The hatchery and nursery can produce large amounts of live feed, including many different species of microalgae. The floor of the hatchery, which required 10 separate concrete pours, has an extensive drainage network, specially designed by overseas experts to keep the floor clean and dry. There are also specialised finfish and shellfish research and production areas, a heat- and light-controlled broodstock room for out-of-season spawning, and a marine pathology unit with quarantine facilities for housing animals from the wild.

Our special seawater filtration system, which arrived in December from Israel, filters about 150 m3 of raw seawater per hour, down to a particle size of about

7–10 µm. It can be easily expanded up to 3600 m3 per hour, and has full backup features in case of an emergency.

Future opportunities

The main aim of the facility is to bridge the gap between small-scale research techniques and commercial-scale production of high quality products. Unique opportunities will be provided for high quality research, the education of future aquaculture personnel, and joint business initiatives with a range of partners, including seafood companies, Maori, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, regional business promotion agencies, trusts, and Government agencies.

Nearly one-third of New Zealand’s total seafood workforce is employed in the aquaculture industry, and there will be local employment opportunities, both directly and indirectly, through related tourism and food and beverage ventures. There will also be a strong educational focus, with many opportunities to train students and industry at all levels, from research through to commercial production.

Kingfish

Kingfish is an ideal candidate for aquaculture development in New Zealand.

• Excellent flesh quality (high evaluation as sashimi grade fish in Japan).
• Range of processed product options (whole, fillets, sushi, sashimi).
• International market opportunities.
• Amenable to aquaculture conditions.
• Fast growth rate.
• A traditional food source for Maori.

NIWA’s research programme is leading to commercial- scale culture. We have established a breeding population, reared eggs through larval and juvenile stages, and ongrown fish to 3 kg in 12 months. Further research will concentrate on improving larval quality

Eels

NIWA is investigating the potential of saltwater culture of longfin and shortfin eels because marine culture would have several advantages over freshwater culture.

• There should be substantially less disease in saltwater.
• Seawater temperatures in northern New Zealand should be high enough for successful culture without additional heating.
• There should be less dependence on technology, with consequent lower investment costs.
• Growth rates may be higher in saltwater.

Our research aims to:

• determine techniques for moving glass eels from fresh to saltwater
• develop systems for the seawater culture of glass eels and juveniles
• determine the growth rates and survival of juveniles reared in saltwater and freshwater.

and developing alternative methods for parasite control. In the light of the recent aquaculture moratorium, we are assessing land-based ongrowing as an alternative to sea-cages.

Pacific oysters

Bream Bay Aquaculture will work with commercial producers to develop better methods for culturing Pacific oysters through the nursery stages to the 10–20 mm size preferred by farmers.

Bream Bay Aquaculture will produce spat for the industry and has had excellent support from northern growers. The first batch of spat is expected to be spawned in May, shortly after the opening of the facility.

Culturing algae in tanks or ponds is very expensive compared with using the algae that are abundant in the local warm waters, so our research will concentrate on finding ways to rapidly grow spat using naturally occurring algae while maintaining good survival.