Introduction of abalone 'may be best way’

Press, 29 January 1986, Page 20

Introduction of abalone 'may be best way’

PA Wellington Agricultural scientists say introducing a species of white-footed abalone from Japan or North America may be the best way to establish paua farming in New Zealand.

There were no insurmountable reasons why abalone could not be introduced, according to a Ministry of Fisheries scientist, Mr Peter Redfearn. Fisheries Research Division investigation into abalone farming had so far concentrated on rearing paua to reseed depleted areas.

The benefits of an introduced species would be its growth rate and mature size, factors which severely affected the viability of commercial paua farming.

The alternative to introducing was to make further efforts to convince consumers that black abalone meat was better than white. That would allow the large New Zealand paua to become a viable marine farming product.

Mr Redfearn said that the Japanese paid up to $5O a kilogram greenweight for one white-footed abalone.

Early last year, Mr Redfearn collected large numbers of a variety of white-footed paua, Haliotis virginea, found round the Auckland Islands.

Although many were being reared at the Mahanga Bay hatchery in Wellington, Mr Redfearn was not optimistic about their prospects for commercial farming.

In their earlier habitat they grew to only 80mm in six years. Although that rate might increase in warmer water and with better nutrition, there was no certainty they would ever grow large enough or fast enough to become an economic farming prospect. The white-footed paua round New Zealand’s coastline grows to about 50mm, which is only a small abalone when compared with its Californian relative, the delicacy H. rufescens which reaches 250 mm or more.