Fishery survey in the Middle East
Assessing the sustainability of seafood production
Does the set of the ropes affect mussel spat catches?
Predicting commercial catches of red cod for the next season
Introducing...
A special feature of the red cod fishery is that several years of good catches are followed by a similar period of poor catches. These fluctuations, which are thought to be due to variable recruitment, fast growth, high mortality, and the small number of year classes, create challenges for management under the Quota Management System.
Observed and predicted commercial catch for RCO 3 up until 2001-02 fishing year.
Erina Watene has recently joined NIWA’s aquaculture team in Auckland.
Ko Tainui te waka
Ko Taupiri te maunga
Ko Waikato te awa
Ko Ngāti Māhanga me Ngāti Hine ōku hapū
Ko Te Papaorotu me Waikare ōku Marae
Ko Erina Watene tōku ingoa.
Erina with an albino eel.
Erina is Waikato born and bred, belongs to Ngati Mahanga and Ngati Hine hapū, and is affiliated to Te Papaorotu and Waikare Marae.
Erina, who has an MSc (Hons) in chemistry from Waikato University, recently completed her PhD on eel fisheries with NIWA (Hamilton) and the University of Auckland.
Ecosystems that support fisheries and aquaculture are complex webs of interacting relationships (food, shelter, clean habitat). We now have many of the data and techniques required to evaluate food webs in New Zealand waters and to help to address issues of sustainability and interdependence.
Diagram of a northern New Zealand inshore ecosystem. (click to enlarge)
Most seafood production depends ultimately on the creation of new organic matter (primary production) by phytoplankton or seaweeds.
Catches of mussel spat are highly variable because of processes such as predation that occur after the spat have settled, but settlement itself is also highly variable.
Frames of spat-catching rope ready to be hung out.
Frames of spat-catching rope hung out.
Settlement marks the end of the swimming larval stage and the start of the sedentary phase of the mussel’s life.
The fishery resources of the very warm and very salty waters of the southern part of the Persian Gulf are currently being surveyed by a New Zealand-based consortium with a major science input from NIWA.
RV Flinders
ERWDA Director Dr Thabit Abdessalaam and UAE project manager Dr Gary Morgan in Abu Dhabi.
The year-long survey of demersal and small pelagic resources has been commissioned by the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
