NIWA establishes paua seed
production unit
New Zealand
Friday, April 20, 2001
http://fis.com/fis/aquaculture/
NIWA has established a paua seed production unit at Mahanga Bay that will
produce batches of seed on an annual basis and sell them to commercial paua
farmers when they are between 5-10 mm in length.
NIWA had spent about 15 years teaching would-be aquaculturalists how to
produce paua seed and this has been instrumental in getting the paua farming
started. The course, an 'Introduction to Paua Cultivation and Hatchery
Technology', has attracted participants from all over New Zealand as well as
Australia, South Africa and Thailand.
The spawning, larval rearing and nursery culture of paua juveniles or seed
is arguably the most difficult part of paua rearing and it is one that many
farmers would prefer not to do. A reliable supply of seed could well mean a
rapid expansion in the production of marketable paua.
But selective breeding also has the potential to improve the profitability
of paua culture. Growth rates of farmed paua overseas have increased by as
much as 10-15 per cent per generation through selective breeding. Specially
controlled mating between paua with fast growth can increase farm profits by
two per cent or more.
So NIWA's breeding programme will investigate and incorporate this
potential. It will work closely with the industry and also with the Cawthron
Institute which has been developing cryopreservation (freezing) techniques
for paua sperm, eggs and embryos.
Before the first spawning 30 paua farmers were surveyed to find out what
would improve their profitability. Improvements in growth, food conversion
efficiency and survival all featured highly.
In October 2000 dozens of paua collected from the Waiararapa spawned at NIWA
's research centre in Wellington. This resulted in about 20 families of paua
and these will be on-grown in commercial farms around the country. Those
that perform well will be used as future brood stock for producing improved
seed paua with the better rates of growth and survival.
Jenny Haworth