Diet boosts lobster returns
Scampi on candid camera
Toothfish: a $20 million fishery
Growing sponges to fight cancer
An artificial diet for lobsters is set to add thousands of dollars to export earnings.
The diet has been formulated by NIWA, in conjunction with Ranchman’s Pet Food Ltd, and maintains condition in wild-caught lobsters while they are held before sale.
About 90% of lobsters caught under quota are exported live, and fishers like to hold their stock for the best price. This strategy is hampered by the fact that wild-caught lobsters don’t feed readily on most pelleted diets, and feeding them trash fish fouls the water. In practice, therefore, most lobsters are held without food.
NIWA has completed the third photographic survey of scampi off the east coast of the North Island. The work has been done for the Ministry of Fisheries, and is intended to produce a time series of relative abundance indices for use in stock assessment modelling.
We use equipment and survey techniques developed progressively by NIWA since 1998. During these surveys, using our coastal research vessel Kaharoa, we typically take 600 to 1000 high-resolution digital photographs of the seabed at scampi depths (200–600 m).
A marine sponge with anti-tumour properties may well become a lucrative aquaculture crop.
The bioactive compound, Peloruside A, works in the same way as an anti-cancer drug which is currently worth NZ$9 billion a year. Peloruside A was found in the sponge Mycale hentscheli during a joint project between Victoria University and NIWA, funded by the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology.
NIWA is growing the sponge for drug testing by an American biotech firm (Reatta Pharmaceuticals Inc) off mussel lines belonging to Marlborough Mussel Company Ltd.
NIWA has produced this chart of New Zealand Fisheries Management Areas. Contact posters@niwa.co.nz to order one ($30.00 including p&p and GST for New Zealand).
New Zealand vessels fishing for Antarctic toothfish in the Ross Sea last summer have had their best season ever, with the total value of the catch exceeding $20 million.
NIWA continues to lead the scientific research in this fishery.
