Bumper year for Otago Harbour salmon
UV protection from fish waste
Challenger orange roughy stocks surveyed
NIWA sponsors mussel festival
Toheroa monitoring
FV Thomas Harrison
The Deepwater Stakeholders Group (DSG) has commissioned NIWA to survey orange roughy populations in the Challenger area, at the edge of the New Zealand EEZ northwest of Nelson.
NIWA successfully completed the first of three surveys in 2005. The key objective was to obtain independent information on the state of the stock, which had not been surveyed since 1992.
A 7500-strong crowd turned out in brilliant March sunshine to attend the second Havelock Mussel Festival. The event featured local seafood and wine, arts and crafts, live entertainment, a ‘Mussel Hustle’ obstacle course, and aquaculture industry displays.
Dunedin anglers are jubilant over the recovery of the salmon fishery in Otago Harbour, for which NIWA has supplied smolts and technical advice. ‘The increase has been tremendous, with 57 salmon weighed in to this year’s fishing competition, compared with only two last year’, says Mr Wayne Olsen, chairman of the Otago Branch of the New Zealand Salmon Anglers’ Association (NZSAA).
Population declines of toheroa in the 1960s resulted in prohibition of harvesting in 1981, except for Maori customary take and occasional one-day recreational seasons. NIWA has been active in monitoring toheroa populations in their last remaining strongholds, in Northland and Southland, for the Ministry of Fisheries.
Surveys at Oreti and Bluecliffs Beaches in Southland have shown a steady decline of toheroa over the last 20 years, particularly at Bluecliffs, with numbers only a small fraction of those in the 1960s.
Our biotechnology team continues to make good progress with identifying biologically active compounds from seafood processing byproduct and bycatch. We have recently tested a range of extracts for their UV-protectant properties, using a cell-based UV stress assay that simulates the response of living cells to solar radiation.
Existing sunscreens rely on filtering the sun and can cause allergies.
