Pāua is the

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

name given to three

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of large edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs which belong to the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Haliotidae ''Haliotis'', common name abalone, is the only genus in the family Haliotidae. This genus once contained six subgenera. These subgenera have become alternate representations of ''Haliotis''. The genus consists of small to very large, edible, ...

(in which there is only one genus, ''

Haliotis ''Haliotis'', common name abalone, is the only genus in the family Haliotidae. This genus once contained six subgenera. These subgenera have become alternate representations of ''Haliotis''. The genus consists of small to very large, edible, h ...

''), known in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and Australia as abalone, and in the United Kingdom as ormer shells. Pāua has entered

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

through common use in the New Zealand English dialect, and is both singular and plural, following the grammar rules of its original language.

Species

There are three species of New Zealand pāua: New Zealand's best known pāua species is ''Haliotis iris''. It is also the most common species, growing up to 18 cm (7") in width

Habitat

Pāua are commonly found in shallow coastal waters along rocky shorelines in depths of 1 to 10 metres (3' to 30'). There is clear distinction between juvenile and adult habitats for ''

Haliotis iris ''Haliotis iris'', common name paua, blackfoot paua or rainbow abalone, is a species of edible sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Haliotidae, the abalones.Bouchet, P. (2014). Haliotis iris. Accessed through: World Register of Ma ...

'', pāua less than 7 cm (3") occur in crevices and under stones in the shallow intertidal zone while adults are found in

subtidal The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately in depth. From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminated ...

zone

Life

These large sea snails survive the strong tidal surges by clinging to rocks using their large muscular foot. They consume seaweed.

Harvesting

Pāua are gathered recreationally and commercially but strict catch limits are set for both. For recreational fishermen this is ten pāua per person per day. The minimum legal size for caught pāua is 125 mm (5") for ''Haliotis iris'' and 80 mm (3¼") for ''Haliotis australis'', measured in a straight line at the greatest length of the shell. The exception is ''Haliotis iris'' taken from the Amateur Taranaki Paua Fishery Area, which is the area of Taranaki coast bounded by the Awakino River in the north and the

Whanganui River The Whanganui River is a major river in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the country's third-longest river, and has special status owing to its importance to the region's Māori people. In March 2017 it became the world's second natur ...

in the south, in which the minimum legal size is 85 mm (3¼"). However, pāua caught in this area cannot be taken east of State Highway 4 unless they meet the 125 mm (5") limit. In addition, no single person may have in their possession at any time (including on land) more than 20 pāua or more than 2.5 kg (5½ lb) of shucked (shell removed) pāua. Pāua can only be caught by free diving; it is illegal to dive for pāua using

scuba Scuba may refer to: * Scuba diving ** Scuba set, the equipment used for scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving * Scuba, an in-memory database developed by Facebook * Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, either of two in ...

equipment. All pāua must remain un-shucked until they are on the land side of the high tide mark so Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) fishery officers can inspect them if required. There is an extensive global black market in the collection and export of abalone meat. Pāua

poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

is a major industry in New Zealand with many thousands being taken illegally, often undersized. The right to harvest pāua can be granted legally under Māori customary rights, but since permits to harvest are abused, it is difficult to police. The limit is strictly enforced by roving MPI fishery officers with the backing of

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

. Fishery officers can issue infringement notices of between $250 and $500 for minor offences, such as having one or two more pāua than permitted. More serious offences have resulted in hefty court convictions, including seizure of diving gear, boats, and motor vehicles as well as large fines and in rare cases, imprisonment. The Ministry of Fisheries expects in the year 2004/05, nearly 1,000 tons of pāua will be poached, with 75% of that being undersized.

Human use

Paua shell bracelet in New Zealand-1April2012

To Māori, pāua are recognised

taonga ''Taonga'' or ''taoka'' (in South Island Māori) is a Maori-language word that refers to a treasured possession in Māori culture. It lacks a direct translation into English, making its use in the Treaty of Waitangi significant. The current d ...

, or treasure, esteemed both as (seafood) and as a valued resource for traditional and contemporary arts and crafts. Pāua are frequently used to represent eyes in Māori carvings and traditionally are associated with the stars or , the symbolic eyes of ancestors that gaze down from the night sky. Highly polished

pāua shells are extremely popular as pieces of jewellery with their striking blue, green, and purple iridescence. Whole shells were commonly used as ashtrays through the 20th century.

Other names

'' means 'sea ear' and some parts of the world use this term for various species. Pāua is also called "Sea Opal" in the United States and Australia.

Pāua aquaculture

Background

Pāua aquaculture is a growing industry in

. The industry was started in

in the 1980s and to date there are 14 pāua farms operating which are located throughout

, from Whangarei to Stewart Island. The first farms that were started consisted of small scale back yard and shed farms in which techniques and processes that grew good quality pāua were developed and these are now being used on a commercial scale in the large pāua farms. These farms produce pāua for their meat, shells and some farms solely focus on the production of blue pearls. Most of the production from these farms is exported to the US, and Asian markets. There is high demand on the worldwide market as decline in wild stocks due to over-fishing and poaching means that the global market for abalone is greatly under supplied.

Aquacultural uses

Pāua meat and shells

Most pāua farms on-grow pāua that is produced from wild broodstock, however some farms have developed their own

hatcheries A hatchery is a facility where eggs are hatched under artificial conditions, especially those of fish, poultry or even turtles. It may be used for ex-situ conservation purposes, i.e. to breed rare or endangered species under controlled condi ...

and

selective breeding Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant m ...

programs to produce faster growing species, the pāua are then grown to market size (depending on conditions this usually takes 2 – 3 years) in either long trays with inflow of seawater at one end and out flow at the other, or smaller tanks with tipper buckets that regularly dump seawater into the tanks to recreate wave motion that the pāua experience in the wild. ''Handbook of Culture of Abalone and other Marine Gastropods'' There are a number of different feeds used throughout the pāua's life-cycle. Pāua hatch as

trochophore A trochophore (; also spelled trocophore) is a type of free-swimming planktonic marine larva with several bands of cilia. By moving their cilia rapidly, they make a water eddy, to control their movement, and to bring their food closer, to captur ...

larvae and feed on plankton that are present in seawater that is being pumped into the holding tanks, when the larvae are ready to settle (usually 7 days at 16 °C; 61°F) they are moved to settlement tanks which consist of many glass plates that have small films of

diatoms A diatom (New Latin, Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group com ...

present (usually ''Navicula minimata''). The

are the main food source for the juveniles until they reach about 3 cm (1") in length then the diet is switched to a

macroalgae Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

species. Several species have been used including ''

Lessonia variegata Lessonia may refer to: * ''Lessonia'' (alga), a genus in the family Lessoniaceae * ''Lessonia'' (bird), a genus in the family Tyrannidae * ''Lessonia'', a synonym for '' Aglaura,'' a genus of hydrozoans {{genus disambiguation ...

'' '' Pterocladia sp.'' and ''

Ulva lactuca ''Ulva lactuca'', also known by the common name sea lettuce, is an edible green alga in the family Ulvaceae. It is the type species of the genus '' Ulva''. A synonym is ''U. fenestrata'', referring to its "windowed" or "holed" appearance. Des ...

'', however research has shown that pāua will eat most seaweed species. The pāua are considered adults around 6 cm (2") in size and are then fed on a meal based diet until they are ready for processing and sale.

Pāua pearls

To produce pāua

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

s the pāua are harvested from the wild stocks (at the legal size of 12.5 cm; 5"), shell or plastic based implants are either poked through the shell or fixed in place under the shell with glue, the shape of the insert dictates the shape of the final pearl. After the pāua are “nucleated” they are kept in tanks for 2 to 3 years and fed on either seaweed or meal during which time they coat the insert with nacre . After the 2 – 3 years they are harvested from the tanks, the meat is shucked, and the pearl is then removed. The quality and size of the pearl changes depending on the size of the pāua. The pearls tend to be smaller when hatchery-reared pāua are used, which is why pāua from the wild are preferred. High stress levels within the farm can prevent the pāua from coating the insert to produce the pearl so control of the conditions in the farm to ensure that the pāua are not stressed is paramount in

production.

Popular culture

Pāua shells make up the decoration on Xena's first chakram in the hit TV series '' Xena: Warrior Princess''. Although the show was set predominately in Ancient Greece, the shell is used because the pāua is native to New Zealand, where the show was filmed.

Notes

References

* Powell A W B, ''New Zealand Mollusca'', William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 * Kirk O. Hahn, ''Handbook of culture of abalone and other marine gastropods'', CRC Press Inc, Boca Raton, Florida 1989 * * * * * * * *