WELLINGTON, Jul 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Situated on a remote, quiet and scenic coast in Marlborough Sounds, South Island of New Zealand, SPATnz hatchery, made Greenshell mussel breeding hatchery, more sustainable and profitable.
According to figures of stats NZ, the export revenue of Greenshell mussel last year was 287.7 million NZD.
SPATnz stands for shellfish production and technology. It is a scientific programme collaboration between the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) and Sanford, a fishing company in New Zealand, with a century long history.
Greenshell mussel is a very common-seen sea product in New Zealand. They are naturally sustainable and with good culinary qualities. Besides, mussel oil and powder have great potential in nutraceutical business. But how to raise mussels more economically and environmental-sustainably was a question which haunted Kiwi mussel farmers for decades.
Although a single female mussel could produce more than one billion eggs throughout her lifetime, very few of them could survive in nature. The headache for farming mussels was that, people had to get the spat (baby mussels) through wild catch, which allows little control over the timing and quantity of spat supply or the characteristics of the crop.
SPATnz General Manager, Rodney Roberts, said, “Normally these mussels breed in the wild and we wait for their babies, known as spat, to wash up on beaches attached to seaweed or land on catch ropes. That made life difficult for New Zealand mussel farmers, who had to cross their fingers and hope they would have enough spat for their farms from year to year.”
But now, with selective-breeding technology, adopted by experts from SPATnz hatchery, mussels farming stepped onto a new stage.
“We use traditional selective breeding, on top of that, DNA fingerprinting, which is genome sequencing that helps us understand the biology of the animal, so we will take full control of the breeding process.”
“The programme is not aiming to produce a single ‘super mussel’ but to maintain a wide range of high performing lines to choose from. It is different from genetic engineering,” said the manager.
With the selective-breeding technology, scientists settled on a combination of light and temperature, to encourage mussels to produce with maximum quantities and best quality of sperm and eggs.
According to the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI), the most striking improvements, especially in terms of commercial value to mussel farmers, are the certainty of supply spats, compared to wild catch, much faster growth of selectively bred mussels, and uniformity of mussel size and quality.
Mussel farmers are excited about the results. Bruce Hearn, who farms in the Marlborough Sounds said, “One of the advantages of hatchery spat is that, we will know when we are getting it and we can plan for it. That will make a huge difference.”
In addition, as to period of a mussel’s maturity from a seed size around 50 mm to sale size, it usually takes 31 to 36 months in the wild, but under 17 months for the hatchery selective seeds.
The effectiveness and certainty for baby mussel production in hatchery brings huge profits to the business. Sanford, one of the oldest and biggest fishing companies in New Zealand, as well as the co-sponsors for SPATnz programme, attest to this.
The sales figure from the company’s 2020 annual report shows that, mussels was the second largest sales of the company, and mussel overall sales revenue grew steadily due to strong demand from China and U.S. markets.– NNN-AGENCIES
