Each year the Greenshell industry seeds out around 350 billion mussel spat, but harvests less than 2 billion market-ready mussels, with more than 99% of the spat being lost during production. Spat losses have been gradually increasing over the years, with the successful conversion of spat to harvested mussels halving over the past 30 years. The inefficient conversion of spat to harvestable mussels, is putting greater pressure on wild supplies and slowing the growth of the Greenshell industry in New Zealand.

 Research has identified that there are a number of causes for this significant loss of spat. One of the major causes is the vulnerability of small Greenshell spat when seeded onto coastal farms, combined with a strong natural migratory behaviour. One approach to address this problem is to raise Greenshell spat in captivity to a larger and more robust size before seeding out to mussel farms. The contained nursery culture of mussel spat is a novel approach to mussel aquaculture that is not practiced elsewhere in the world. Therefore, successful nursery culture of Greenshell spat will require the development of new nursery culture systems for New Zealand, including cost-effective and readily available feeds. The research and development of this novel nursery culture technology for Greenshell spat forms the basis of a three year collaborative project between researchers from the University of Auckland, with Greenshell aquaculture partners, with support from the Ministry for Primary Industries.

 Please see the project updates for progress to date or for more information get in touch with us via the Contact Page.