NIWA cracks kingfish hatchery production
Bream Bay Aquaculture Park hosts nutrition expert
Innovative deepsea conference
The need for, and the needs of, paua seed hatcheries
Introduction to paua cultivation
Pegasus Canyon hoki survey
Counting scampi with cameras
Where do west coast snapper come from?
Recreational fisheries provide insights into kahawai populations
Enhancing urchin roe value
Why a National Centre for Fisheries & Aquaculture?
NIWA’s National Centre for Fisheries & Aquaculture will be a major sponsor of the DEEPSEA 2003 conference, a global conference on deepsea fisheries to be held in Queenstown in December.
The event, the first of its kind, will provide a forum for international experts to discuss present and future needs for science, conservation, and management of the continental slope and deep seas around the globe.
NIWA has a significant capability and investment in science related to deepsea fisheries, and we are anxious to ensure that the knowledge we have of deepsea systems is known to fishery de
The article, promised in issue #6, reporting on experimental rearing of paua in a recirculation system has been held over until the next issue of Fisheries & Aquaculture Update to allow Phil Heath to collect and analyse more results.
FV Independent 1
Pegasus Canyon. Depth contours are 250, 500, 750, and 1000 m.
Echogram of hoki schools in Pegasus Canyon on 7 September 2002.
Typical hoki catches on Independent 1
The hoki fishery, New Zealand’s largest fishery, is also notable as the first ‘white fish’ fishery in the world to be certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. The Hoki Fishery Management Company, NIWA, and individual fishing companies have been proactive in developing collaborative research projects, working together towards sustainable management of hoki.
Much of the data we use to assess the status of fish stocks comes from commercial fisheries, but recreational catches may be more appropriate for some pelagic species. Some of these, such as kahawai, form schools of similar size and age, and a commercial landing often consists of fish from only one or two schools.
Commercially focused research and development, funded by industry and the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology (FRST), with state-of-the-art aquaculture facilities at NIWA’s Bream Bay Aquaculture Park, have combined to achieve the first pilot-scale commercial production of yellowtail kingfish in New Zealand.
During the 2002–03 kingfish spawning season, NIWA has produced more than 30 000 kingfish fingerlings.
Dr Kolkovski with a cultured yellowtail kingfish produced during experimental trials in Western Australia.
Internationally renowned aquaculture scientist Dr Sagiv Kolkovski was a welcome visitor at NIWA’s Bream Bay Aquaculture Park during the recent kingfish spawning season.
His visit formed the beginning of a collaborative research relationship between NIWA and the Department of Fisheries, Western Australia, to develop commercial techniques for yellowtail kingfish aquaculture.
NIWA is offering a new course on paua farming.
The course has been developed from our highly successful “Introduction to paua cultivation and hatchery technology” and our experience operating a commercial seed production unit.
Courses will be held at the Mahanga Bay aquaculture facility in Wellington.
Each 2-day course will be limited to 12 people.
The number of courses held each year will depend on demand.
Further information
If you are interested, please contact:
Mike Tait
NIWA, Private Bag 14901, Kilbirnie, Wellington.
Phone +64 4 380 7990
Fax +64 4 388 9931
Email: m.tait@niwa.c
Scampi (a type of deepwater lobster) are caught by trawling. They live in complex burrow systems in the bottom sediments and are vulnerable to trawling only when they venture out of them. This may afford them some protection, but it also means that changes in emergence behaviour invalidate the usual methods of tracking abundance by trawl surveys and commercial CPUE (catch per unit effort).
New Zealand scampi (caliper span is 50 mm).
Under contract to the Ministry of Fisheries, NIWA has developed deepwater digital photography as an assessment tool for scampi.
It is now increasingly certain that many coastal fish species in New Zealand use estuarine waters as nursery areas. Unfortunately, estuaries are very vulnerable to human activities, and few, if any, in New Zealand remain in a pristine state.
Sampling snapper to test otolith microchemistry. (Photo: M. Morrison)
Impacts include sedimentation, chemical run-off, pollution, and foreshore reclamation.
Sea urchins (kina) are abundant around much of New Zealand, but there is only a small wild fishery because the domestic market is limited and attempts to export kina have been unsuccessful. The variable quality, low roe yield, and perceived bitter taste of our species, Evechinus chloroticus, are problems for anyone wanting to export kina.
NIWA's new National Centre for Fisheries & Aquaculture aims to provide better access to research services in a way that gets around some of the existing barriers, and enables more effective use of New Zealand’s limited scientific resources.
