Minister gives paua a helping hand

Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley has given paua stocks a helping hand by releasing hundreds of farm-bred baby paua into the water at Stirling Point near Bluff this morning.

Mr Heatley was taking part in a paua reseeding programme funded and run by the Area 5 Paua Management Company.  The programme releases around 200,000 baby paua every year around the southern South Island from Otago Peninsula to Fiordland and Stewart Island.

“This is a fantastic programme that is giving southern paua stocks a real boost and enhances an important natural resource.  It shows the paua industry is taking an innovative and forward thinking approach to helping manage southern paua fisheries into the future,” Mr Heatley said.

“All the paua released in the programme are available for recreational and customary divers to catch, so the whole community benefits,” he said.

The fingernail sized paua spend the first two-to-three years of their lives out of sight, living under rocks, and will take around five or six years to reach the minimum legal size of 125mm.  The baby paua are placed inside empty shells which are then put under rocks in suitable rocky reef areas where they can grow to adulthood.

Commercial fishers do not operate in the Stirling Point area so recreational and customary divers will receive the full benefit of today’s release.

The Minister was in Southland meeting with representatives of the rock lobster, blue cod, paua and Bluff oyster fishing industries.

The Southland region has some of the most commercially important inshore fisheries in New Zealand including the country’s largest blue cod, paua and rock lobster (crayfish) fisheries, and the iconic Bluff oyster fishery.

“Inshore fishing is a vital part of Southland’s economy and an important part of New Zealand’s economy, it employs thousands of people and brings in millions of dollars in exports every year,” Mr Heatley said.

“My meetings today have been very informative and productive, giving me the chance to hear first hand from the people at the business end of one of our most important primary industries.”

Background

For more information on the management of inshore commercial fisheries and the rules for recreational paua diving please visit the Ministry of Fisheries website at www.fish.govt.nz

More information on the paua reseeding programme and the commercial paua industry is available on the Paua Industry Council website at http://www.paua.org.nz/