Bluff oyster fisheries - fulfilling their potential
A first in land-based polyculture
Aquaculture on the road
Orange roughy caught on camera
East coast kahawai in good health
Bringing home Bluff’s oysters – emptying a dredge at sea in the Foveaux Strait. (Photo: Alan Blacklock, NIWA)
Bluff oysters are a much-loved Kiwi delicacy. But changes in the oyster population from the bonamia parasite have led to new challenges for NIWA fisheries scientists.
NIWA is working with the Bluff Oyster Management Company in a Seafood Innovations Ltd project to increase understanding of the factors that drive oyster production.
Graeme Moss (NIWA) and Wally Turvey (Hongoeka Development Ltd) inspect a frame containing very young seaweed at the Hongoeka facility. (Photo: Alan Blacklock, NIWA)
A unique land-based polyculture system is up and running near Porirua, creating an exciting new enterprise for the local iwi.
The venture is a collaboration between NIWA and Hongoeka Development Ltd., a company set up to represent local Māori landowners. After four years of research, funded by the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, a system based on paua and karengo (a red seaweed) was selected.
Local people from Ohope interview recreational fishers and measure their catch. (Photo: Les Morgan, Ohope)
Recreational fishers continue to contribute valuable data by taking part in ramp surveys at the end of their day’s fishing.
Things are looking pretty positive for NZ’s aquaculture industry, with the Government backing a major expansion of the sector. Māori have a big role to play and NIWA has been on the road, providing iwi with the latest information on aquaculture technologies, costs, and returns for a range of aquaculture species.
"The time is right to ensure that iwi are informed about the tasks and economic realities of commercial aquaculture," says Andrew Forsythe, NIWA’s General Manager for Aquaculture and Biotechnology.
Frames from the video images of Orange Roughy shot at depths of almost 800 m.
A sophisticated new video device to estimate the numbers of orange roughy in New Zealand waters has been tested by New Zealand and Australian scientists.
The CSIRO device was deployed for the first time from NIWA’s research vessel, Tangaroa, in July. It combines a high resolution video camera and acoustic equipment with a fishing trawl net, and simultaneously records images and acoustic echoes as the net closes in on schools of orange roughy.
