'Huge' boost to farm's profitability
By hoki! MFish chief joins crew
The farm that Ivan built
Would you like fries with that?
From hoki to kahawai...
Work with NIWA on underwater lighting has virtually eliminated early maturation at The Isaac Salmon Farm Ltd, Christchurch.
Michael Field-Dodgson, company manager of The Isaac Salmon Farm Ltd, in Christchurch, is hailing a research project conducted with NIWA as ‘an unqualified success’.
The project was funded by Isaac Salmon and the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology. It tackled the problem of early maturation of the salmon, which Michael Field-Dodgson describes as the farm’s Achilles heel.
Ivan Wilson (right) and Graeme Moss of NIWA measure stock at the East Land Aquaculture paua farm, Nuhaka.
How a former lobster fisherman turned dairy farmer built a successful paua farming operation in a disused lobster holding plant north of Wairoa.
It’s been three years since Ivan and Merrilyn Wilson approached NIWA’s aquaculture team saying they wanted to farm paua. Now, East Land Aquaculture is one of the few farms consistently supplying paua to market.
Amelia Connell has seen a lot of small midwater fish, krill, and squid in various stages of digestion.
Five NIWA staff are sifting through the stomach contents of over 8000 fish collected from the Chatham Rise during a trawl survey in January.
Amongst the more unusual finds are ling stomachs pierced by the dorsal fin spine of bellowsfish. It seems the ling survive and their stomachs heal around the offending spine.
In all, some 50 000 stomachs from about three dozen species will be analysed by the end of 2007.
MFish chief executive John Glaister measures hoki in the wet lab on RV Kaharoa.
In the acoustics lab: voyage leader Richard O’Driscoll explains survey procedures.
NIWA’s 28-metre RV Kaharoa recently conducted a six-week acoustic survey of spawning hoki in Cook Strait. This involved nine sub-surveys or ‘snapshots’ of the main spawning ground. The survey was the twelfth in a time-series of acoustic estimates of hoki abundance in Cook Strait, and the results are vital to establish the status of the Cook Strait fishery.
NIWA has almost completed work on the recreational take of snapper, kahawai, and kingfish in Quota Management Area 1 (North Cape to Cape Runaway), using aerial surveys, boat ramp interviews, and web cameras. New research on the west coast recreational catch starts this summer.
... blue cod, toheroa, blue mackerel, butterfish, and sea perch. These are some of the species included in new research which NIWA is conducting for MFish to provide essential information for stock assessment and fisheries management.
