Marine Science
A healthy marine environment and a thriving seafood industry are vitally important to New Zealand. The seafood industry earns more than NZ$1 billion per year and employs 26,000 people.
With great foresight, a marine research laboratory was set up by The University of Auckland fifty years ago on the coast north of Auckland, near the small fishing settlement of Leigh. At the same time as the laboratory's work was becoming increasingly important to New Zealand, the buildings were ageing. So, in 2005, the University launched a fundraising campaign to boost the Marine Centre’s work and update its facilities.
In line with its aim of strengthening education in key areas which contribute to a strong and sustainable New Zealand economy, the Glenn Family Foundation donated NZ$600,000 towards the establishment of a new Chair in Marine Science.
This has enabled the Centre to employ Associate Professor Andrew Jeffs. His research and teaching focus is mainly in sustainable aquaculture, particularly in rock lobster and sea cucumbers.
Aquaculture is an increasingly important part of the seafood industry.This industry is currently worth more than NZ$350 million to the national economy with oyster, mussel and salmon harvesting contributing to exports to over 75 countries. Production tonnages and the range of species farmed have substantially increased in recent times. Research is vital in order to keep growing the value of these tonnages and to extend the range of species and technologies - while ensuring that the quality of the marine environment is not compromised.
Some New Areas of Research
The new complex at Leigh is now the hub of a Faculty of Science Centre: The South Pacific Centre for Marine Science (SPCMS). The addition of a Professor with an aquaculture background is attracting an increasing number of research students. Having the assistance of these students enables the SPCMS to expand its work into exciting new areas such as:
- Understanding the environmental impact of an oyster farm in the Kaipara Harbour which is producing $16M of exports a year
- Helping paua farmers to solve some of their production problems and find out how paua can be helped to grow to a larger size, faster
- New ways to control sea squirts which are a major problem for the mussel farming industry
- How to solve a barnacle (fouling) problem which is currently costing the mussel industry NZ$4 million a year
- How to control parasitic pea crabs in lucrative green-lipped mussel farms: the crabs are currently responsible for 1- 4% loss of production a year
- Researching the feeding biology of larval lobsters in order to improve the raising of seed lobsters from hatched eggs. This is the major bottleneck for lobster aquaculture production worldwide. (Lobster larvae swim around at sea for nearly two years and, during that time, it is thought they may be eating jellyfish, so the university's researchers are pumping their tiny stomachs, using forensic techniques to find out what they have eaten)
- Investigating the environmental impacts of lobster farming
- Determining why so many baby snapper are living in the Kaipara Harbour. Are they, like baby crabs and fishes, attracted to their nursery habitats by natural underwater sounds?
- Investigating the potential farming of sea cucumbers, working with a local marine farmer who has sea cucumbers growing wild on his farm.
This important research is being conducted with industry partners and the information is shared widely with the seafood industry.
Research with International Partners
The benefits from the work at the SPCMS also flow beyond New Zealand’s shores. Associate Professor Jeffs is helping to develop a bath sponge farming project in Micronesia which will bring sustainable incomes to remote island villages. He has also completed an extensive review for the World Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) looking at how to increase aquaculture production in the world’s tropical regions and has been asked to help with numerous lobster farming projects from Brazil to Australia. The SPCMS has also been asked to analyse baby lobsters from New South Wales and Western Australia to try to determine what is causing changes in their wild populations which form an important part of their fisheries. Japanese scientists are also working with the CSPMS on the biology of larval lobsters in both NZ and Japan, in order to improve raising baby lobsters from eggs.
New Graduates
Recent graduates from the SPCMS are sharing their knowledge and skills in a number of productive ways around the world: one, a Maori graduate, is now teaching environmental studies at a Maori university; another graduate is co-ordinating a village development project on sea cucumber farming in Tanzania; one is the environmental manager for a new, large fish farm in Malaysia, while another is working locally developing new veterinary products for NZ.
New Interpretative Centre at CSPMS
The seas around Leigh have been a Marine Reserve for more than 20 years. This means that no commercial or recreational fishing is allowed in the area, making this a favourite spot for divers and snorkelers.
A new Interpretative Centre is providing a draw-card for these and other visitors. Its goal is to inspire interest in science and the well-being of our ocean environment, particularly among young people. As well as showing the richness of local marine life, the Centre demonstrates the value of a vibrant, healthy, marine ecology and what this means to the tourist industry, the commercial and the recreational fishing sectors and to the regional economy.
It gives visitors a wonderful insight into the abundance of marine life found in Northland, as well as to the world-leading marine science research work being done at the South Pacific Centre of Marine Science.
The Glenn Family Foundation is pleased to be involved with this research which is making an important contribution to the future success and sustainability of the NZ seafood industry.
Click on these websites for more information:
http://www.marine.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/
http://aquaculture.org.nz/