March, 2011 - Aquaculture New Zealand

March 2011
DNA
Where will
it take us
PLUS: Law & order
Spat NZ domesticating the Greenshell

March 2011
PLUS: Law & order
Spat NZ domesticating the Greenshell
DNA
Where will
it take us
Published by the
New Zealand Seafood
Industry Magazine Ltd.
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So good,
the heart beats
stronger
When it feels this good it
can’t be bad for you. Right
It’s something diners have long suspected
about that warm glow they get after a finely
cooked King Salmon meal washed down with
a glass of pinot gris.
And now there’s medical evidence to prove
that a tipple at the table is good for you.
A recent study by French researchers
analysing data from 84 independent studies
shows that people who regularly drink wine
with a meal containing omega-three fatty acids
have up to 20 per cent more heart tissue.
The extra tissue makes the heart healthier
and stronger and improves a person’s
cardiovascular system.
Get it
while it’s
The trend, as they say, is your
friend. And for New Zealand
aquaculture products, the
dining trends of 2011 are
looking very chummy.
While the results were only published
last month in the Current Pharmaceutical
Biotechnology journal, top New Zealand food
scientist Grant MacDonald said the links had
been known for some time.
“I’ve downloaded about 400 studies along
the same lines,” he said.
“There’s lots of articles, and evidence that
this is real.
“They don’t understand it fully, but the
benefits of the wine do seem to team up with
omega-3s to have a greater effect.
“It’s very complex. On one level, the
polyphenyls in wine are antioxidants so they
lower the oxidative stress on the person’s body,
and so do omega-3s in that they have antiinflammatory
properties.
“Together, they seem to work better but they
can’t put their finger on it just yet as to why.”
Dr MacDonald is quick to point out that the
results reflect a moderate consumption
of alcohol.
After working around New Zealand’s
seafood industry for over thirty years,
Dr MacDonald recommends King Salmon
and Greenshell Mussels as good sources of
omega-3s.
“King Salmon is close to 25 per cent oil
– it’s actually a cheap way of getting your
omega-3s,” he said.
“In New Zealand, King Salmon is
probably the best source of fatty fish.
“Per 150g of fish, there’s about 35g
of lipids which will give you about 9g of
polyunsaturated fatty acids – that works
out to about 5 times your recommended
daily intake of omega-3s.”
But it’s not just found in fish.
“You look at Greenshell mussels –
they have a good amount of omega-3s,”
Dr MacDonald said.
“There’s about 1.3 grams of
omega-3s per 100grams of mussels
plus they’re really high in a lot of
other nutrients.” • Jonny Schwass
The ‘What’s Hot in 2011’ chef
survey by America’s National
Restaurant Association serves
up New Zealand’s King Salmon,
Greenshell Mussels and Pacific
Oysters on top of the menu for
local diners.
Of the top 10 ‘Hottest’ trends,
five will put our products on plates
in the coolest kitchens with locally
sourced seafood (1), sustainability
(3), Sustainable seafood (7), back
to basics (9) and Farm branded
ingredients (10) nominated by the
1500 chefs surveyed.
For Christchurch chef Jonny
Schwass, proprietor of renowned
Restaurant Schwass, it all comes
back to a greater desire to know
where our food comes from.
“It makes sense for it to be an
‘in’ thing,” he said.
“For some reason everyone’s
starting to care about where their
food comes from.
“For such a long time they
didn’t care – they only cared what
it cost.
Top 10 Food Trends
1 Locally sourced meats & seafood
2 Locally grown produce
3 Sustainability
4 Nutritionally balanced
children’s dishes
5 Hyper-local (e.g. restaurant
“Now they’ve started to care
which town it comes from, who
grew it, what it ate, what it’s
parents ate – they want to know
everything about it.
“It’s a very current topic with
all this stuff coming out about
battery hens and pigs raised in
sow crates.”
Suddenly the source of a meal,
has become the story behind it.
“Any story that’s a true story,
a genuine story that involves
sustainability or integrity is a
good story to tell,” he said.
“Image a waiter serving cheap
Canadian bacon to your table and
telling you this pig suffered all
its life, had welts all over its body
until it died and that’s the reason
it’s cheap on your plate tonight.
“Compare that with if you tell
them that we went out to the farm
where these lambs grew, tasted
the grass, went to the processing
plants … that’s a good story to tell
– it’s almost old fashioned.
“Any good food culture
revolves around buying good
food from people you trust, it’s
not always about convenience.
We’d rather spend all day finding
really good stuff and do bugger
all to it.
“I buy pigs from a pig farmer
that we trust, we buy oysters
from the Marlborough Sounds
and we buy salmon from King
Salmon because we know they
look after them – they don’t
add growth hormones or add
anything to make it more than a
salmon,” he said.
gardens, do your own butchering)
6 Children’s nutrition
7 Sustainable seafood
8 Gluten-free/food allergy conscious
9 Simplicity/back to basics
10 Farm/estate-branded ingredients
While Restaurant Schwass has
become known for it’s sustainable
approach, Jonny is quick to point
out that it’s more of a philosophy
than a theme.
“We care about the food we
serve and we want to know where
it comes from.
“We want to know it hasn’t
been sprayed with pesticides and
herbicides.
“We want food to taste like
what it should – we want a carrot
to taste like a carrot and a salmon
to taste like salmon.” •
2 m a r c h 2 0 1 1 3

A plan is hatched
Picture: Dan McCall SpatNZ operations
manager (left) and senior aquaculture
technician Bridget Alexander (front right)
and aquaculture technician Nikki Hawes.
A $52 million investment to domesticate the Greenshell Mussel
is about to revolutionise the industry. With selectively bred
broodstock, a hatchery, new jobs and an eight-figure injection
in yearly revenue, this looks set to be the biggest single
development in decades.
There is a buzz a-brewing through New
Zealand’s Aquaculture sector with news that
the Greenshell Mussel will be domesticated.
It’s news that’s considered the biggest
single advancement in the industry in
nearly 40 years.
It became official last month with the
announcement of Spat NZ’s successful
Primary Growth Partnership bid that will
see $52million dedicated to creating a
brood stock and facilities to revolutionise
the industry.
“It’s monumental,” explains PGP
steering committee chair Toni Grant.
“I see this as the industry growing up.
“It’s part of our evolution.
“This will enable the biggest
development in the industry since we
started farming mussels on long lines
nearly 40 years ago.”
Domestication will see the sector move
away from wild-caught spat, in favour of
animals with pre-determined market and
production desired traits.
It has the potential to improve every
aspect of growing, from sourcing spat,
grow times, product attributes, shelf life
and ultimately profit margins.
Under the seven-year project, Spat
NZ, a collaboration between industry
heavyweights Sanford, Sealord and Wakatu
Incorporation, will build a hatchery and
develop the capabilities to seed a new-andimproved
line of Greenshell mussels.
Sanford Managing Director Eric Barratt
told investors the project would emulate
the selective breeding gains achieved in
other primary sectors.
“Selective breeding has been by far the
most significant development in industries
such as dairy, beef, sheep, fruit, vegetable
and wine,” Mr Barratt said in his Annual
Meeting address.
“The New Zealand mussel
industry has grown to be the
largest single seafood item
exported from New Zealand
but so far only on the basis of
wild caught spat harvested
from beaches north of
Auckland and through spat
harvested in the Golden
Bay and Marlborough
Sounds areas.
“This seven year programme will
co-develop hatchery and life-cycle breeding
families to supply spat on a commercial
basis to the industry in future years.
“We are very confident that this
programme will have significant economic
value to the partners with the selectively
bred mussels being able to achieve
improved prices through better quality,
greater yield and faster growth.”
Early figures suggest the project could
add up to $230 million in annual revenue
and create a significant number of jobs by
its completion.
“When the project is completed and
we look out in 2025 when we have this
selectively bred spat and we know how to
work with it, process it and market it, it will
make a significant contribution to industry’s
billion-dollar goal,” Ms Grant said.
The SPAT NZ project is also significant
in that it marks the first time that industry
competitors have pooled resources for
research and development.
“Individually, each company had been
doing their own research for years,” Ms
Grant said.
“In 2009 it all came together as there
were separate projects going on with
separate funding and we realised we’d be
able to move forward faster by pooling our
resources and sharing knowledge.” •
4
m a r c h 2 0 1 1 5

After decades of pioneering
research, industries accept
genome sequencing is:
Real
science,
no fiction
Dr Peter Ritchie
Twenty-one years ago, sequencing
an entire genome was the stuff
of science fiction. Today it is the
cornerstone of production gains
for New Zealand’s, and the world’s,
largest primary industries.
Think of it as reading the blue
print of an animal - this gene’s for
colour, that gene’s for growth rate
and this gene’s for taste.
As one of the country’s leading
experts in the field, Victoria
University’s senior lecturer in genetics
Peter Ritchie explains, many industries
now use an animal’s DNA sequence to
produce the perfect product.
“Whole-genome analysis can
pinpoint small genetic differences
associated with important
production traits, and we can then
design precision mating and animal
management systems and fast-track
ways to identify superior animals for
breeding,” Dr Ritchie said.
“We get quicker genetic gains
across a broader range of traits
and we have the flexibility to select
animals for specific situations.”
The NZ dairy and beef industries
have been benefiting from the
technology for years but according to
Dr Ritchie, it’s the aquaculture sector
that has the most to gain.
“The dairy industry has a large
genomics focus and the cattle
industry also has a value driven
genetics programme - all of those
primary industries can see that this
is transformational technology,” Dr
Ritchie said.
“If you asked anyone in
dairy, they’d say whole genome
selection techniques are going to
be responsible for 70 per cent of all
future production increases.
“If we have a long term focus,
there’s no reason we can’t get
those sorts of numbers with the
Greenshell mussel.
“Aquaculture doesn’t have the history
of thousands of years of domestication
that’s already resulted in a series of
incremental production gains.
“…we could
effectively
skip what
took
hundreds
of years of
selective
breeding to
achieve in
land-based
agriculture.”
“We’re starting from scratch so
we’ve got a lot more to gain.
“With Aquaculture, we could
effectively skip what took hundreds
of years of selective breeding to
achieve in land-based agriculture.
“Developing genomic
technologies for aquaculture species
would effectively turbo charge
things and get some rapid progress.”
When Dr Ritchie first started
working in the field in 1990, genetics
made world wide headlines with
plans for the Human Genome Project.
“We had just developed gene
sequencing technology and they
started talking about mapping the
human genome,” he said.
“Some people thought it was crazy.
“They said ‘why would we want
to do that’.”
The project took 13 years to
complete and is estimated to have
cost $3billion.
As well as transforming our
knowledge of the human body, it also
revolutionised the field of genetics
and made the technology a lot more
accessible.
With today’s technology Dr Ritchie
estimates New Zealand could sequence
the Greenshell Mussel genome in
around six months at a cost of about
$700,000. We’d then be in a position
Some facts
about DNA:
• DNA is short for:
Deoxyribonucleic acid
• The first dog to have
it’s genome sequenced
was a standard poodle
named Shadow
• The Beijing Genomics
Institute is leading
an international
collaboration to
sequence 1000 animal
and plant genomes of
economic and scientific
importance over the
next two years
• The list of species
sequenced is constantly
growing. So far it
includes:
- Strawberries
- Bed bugs
- The wooly
mammoth
- Rice
- Cows
- Humans
- Japanese
pufferfish
to develop whole-genome selective
breeding programs and efficiently pick
the best natural products.
“As the saying goes, yesterday’s
science fiction is today’s reality,” he said.
“This is not about predicting future
trends, this is about keeping up.
“As a geneticist I am really
positive about the potential for
gains in aquaculture. Compared
to land-based production animals,
marine species have very large
population sizes, which means they
hold a very large amount of genetic
potential. We just need the right
tools to unlock it.
“But industry and science and
government are going to have to make
a decision about whether to invest
and how to coordinate the resources
to do it. It will take more than just me
– we will need a team of researchers.
“It would require some solid
R&D investment and coordinating
a specific set of New Zealand’s
science resources.
“We need to get scientists and
industry to sit around the table, get
a plan together and start working
towards that plan.
“It will take industry, university
and CRI involvement to build
something great over the long term
and I believe we can do that. •
6
m a r c h 2 0 1 1 7

As one of the
authors of the
Aquaculture
Strategy, Mike
Burrell, officially
put law reform
on the sector’s
agenda. As
chief executive
of Aquaculture
New Zealand, he
has worked for
change for four
years. Now, as he
prepares to present
the organisation’s
submission on
the Aquaculture
Amendment Bill
(No.3), we asked
Mike about the
sector’s…
Law&
order
QNew Zealand’s aquaculture sector has
wanted legislative reform for a decade – is
this Bill worth the wait
We’ll know when it’s an Act. It’s getting
towards what we need but there’s still some
major things that need to be improved,
particularly around renewal provisions
of coastal permits and the detail of how
planning and consenting will work in
practice.
QSubmissions on the bill closed last
month – how important was it for
AQNZ to make a submission
It’s extremely important. What we learned
from the 2004 reforms is that the detail of
legislation matters enormously, even when
industry and government want the same
thing – sustainable economic growth. We
got it wrong in 2004 and to the great cost of
industry and New Zealand. We can’t afford
to get it wrong this time, which is why we’ve
been involved at a strategic level from the
beginning. We made submissions on the
TAG report, and on the cabinet decisions
so it was very important that we followed
through at this crucial stage to ensure that
the Bill is as good as it could possibly be.
QWhat are the biggest gains for the sector
from the Bill
This is a major piece of reform. We fully
support the active role for central government
contained within the Bill. We support giving
the Minister of Aquaculture powers to make
changes to regional coastal plans. Our hope
is that regional councils will take the initiative
and provide for the sustainable growth of
aquaculture. But we do think it is important
that where the government sees national
priority, that they have the tools to be able to
make it a reality. We support changes to the
Waikato and Tasman regional plans to increase
flexibility. A significant amount of future
growth will come from using the same water
we use now, but for higher value purposes. We
are very supportive of a minimum period for
aquaculture consents. If you want to attract
investment, you need to provide certainty
for that investment. Our preference is for the
default for a coastal permit to be a 35-year
minimum period.
We support attempts to align the UAE and
RMA processes and increase the flexibility
for applicants. We think more can be done
in this area and we’ve made this point in our
submission but this is certainly a step in the
right direction.
We support provisions to allow for the
processing of frozen applications - these are
the applications that were put on hold in the
lead up to 2004 reforms and remain frozen
to this day.
And we are very supportive of the crown
accepting responsibility for meeting the
commitment to the Maori Commercial
Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act. We
have recommended that government work
with iwi to develop a methodology to deliver
the settlement to the satisfaction of all iwi.
QCan this bill enable industry to reach it’s
billion-dollar target
We say at beginning of our submission that
with significant improvements it can deliver
sustained and sustainable growth. Those
improvements are the 47 recommendations
in our submission. But without them, we
fear the 2011 reforms will be a repeat of 2004
and we’ll see a levelling off of growth around
2015. If that happens, it’ll leave us well short
of the billion dollar goal and return us to the
doldrums of the lost decade. But if changes
are made we’re confident the Bill, along
with research and development, marketled
innovation and investment in skills and
education, will deliver the billion-dollar
target by 2025.
QHow close did government work with
Aquaculture New Zealand in developing
this bill
From the beginning we’ve worked with
government, councils and iwi, through
the aquaculture CEO forum to ensure
these reforms were going to work from a
commercial point of view and we’ve been
very pleased with how the government
has listened and provided us with the
opportunity to have our say. That’s not to say
we agree with everything they’ve decided.
But it’s an extremely good process for
industry to have.
QDissecting the intricacies of a piece of
draft legislation with consideration to
the common and varying interests of industry
participants is no doubt a major piece of work.
How did you go about preparing the submission
We drew on as much expertise as
possible from within the industry – from
the companies who’ve been through it
before and know better than anyone what
works and what doesn’t. We used the
expertise of the AQNZ board and we drew
on the expertise of the Marine Farming
Association, the Coromandel Marine
Farmers Association, the New Zealand
Oyster Industry Association and the
Salmon Farmers Association. We also
held two workshops for all stakeholders
to provide feedback on the Bill which
we incorporated into our submission.
Where we could not reach agreement,
this was reflected in the submission and
left to individual companies to make their
points of view known to the committee.
But for the main part, there was a very
strong consensus of support around our
submission and that gives it a lot of strength.
QWhen Aquaculture New Zealand
was established in 2007, one of the
organisation’s key goals was to advocate for
legislative change – do you consider this bill
to be the realisation of that goal
Ask me that question again in a year. We
won’t consider that we’ve met this goal until
the Act has been passed and signed into law
and until we see how it works in practice.
What that means is we’ll be working hard
with industry and the government to ensure
a smooth implementation which gives
effect to the objectives of the bill as quickly
as possible. •
m a r c h 2 0 1 1 9

Scientist. Author. Promoter.
The original authority on
Greenshell Mussel Powder,
he has travelled the world for
more than 30 years spreading
his message about arthritic
relief from the sea. Now...
Heeere’s
Johnny...
It’s 1980 and John Croft is readying himself to appear on the
Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson.
Nearing the end of a American-wide tour promoting
McFarlane’s Greenshell mussel powder, Mr Croft was set to
join an illustrious list of guests, including Muhammad Ali
and the Jackson Five, to have appeared on television screens
alongside the man known as the King of Late Night.
But before he got to hear that famous line ‘Heeere’s Johnny’,
the phone rang.
“I was in the hotel room ready to go on and got a call from
the McFarlane’s company lawyer,” he said.
“He said you’d better get yourself out of San Francisco – the
FDA (Food and Drug Administration) will be looking for you.”
When it comes to the therapeutic benefits of the Greenshell
Mussel, Mr Croft wrote the book on it.
Literally.
His title, Natural relief from arthritis – a Safe and
Effective Treatment from the Ocean, was published in 1979
and prompted the speaking and promotional tour of
the USA.
Mr Croft appeared all over the country carefully
promoting the general health benefits of mussels
but before he made it onto the Johnny Carson
show, a generic Greenshell mussel advertising
campaign had upset authorities by claiming
New Zealand mussels to be an arthritis cure.
The FDA reacted strongly to the claims.
“Our people didn’t want me arrested,
they said get yourself out of there,”
he said.
“I went straight to the airport
and was out of there that night.
“In the end I couldn’t go on the show because I had to
get out of the States.”
The FDA subsequently banned the import of mussel
extracts in what was a huge blow to the industry.
“It was sad, because it had just really taken off,”
Mr Croft said.
“It was a major set back to the growth of the product.”
The ban was eventually overturned and today
America is one of world’s largest buyers of Freeze Dried
Mussel Powder with market demand growing each year.
According to the latest Seafood Industry Council
export statistics, New Zealand exported 298 tonnes of
Freeze Dried Mussel Powder, to an approximate value of
$14.5M in the year ending December 10.
While growth has been continual, the reasons for
demand have changed.
“At first it was a novel thing, that the sea was being
farmed to produce a nutraceutical,” he said.
“For mussels,
oysters,
seaweeds,
other species
of fish, possibly
even sea
horses – there
are wonderful
opportunities
for marine
farmers.”
Top LEFT: John Croft working in
the original McFarlane’s laboratory
(pictured below)
Above: John Croft outside a Dunedin
bookstore as part of a promotional
tour of his 1979 title Natural relief
from arthritis – a safe and effective
treatment from the Ocean.
Below LEFT: One of the original
mussel power labels to be exported
from New Zealand.
“But now days, it’s topical because the latest findings
on some extracts are amazing – they’re doing some
things that pharmaceuticals can’t do.
“There is one extract, made only by Vitaco called
Seatone, which will actually inhibit the specific enzymes
that denature the joint matrix and cartilage,” said Mr
Croft who works as a consultant for various international
companies, including Vitaco Health (NZ) Ltd.
And after 30 years in the business, Mr Croft believes
there is still plenty of upside for marine farmers.
“The potential is enormous,” he said.
“New Zealand is an ideal place for aquaculture - it’s
north-south orientated, has a variety of waters, is very
rich nutritionally, and has a long coast line suitable for
farming a variety of species.
“For mussels, oysters, seaweeds, other species of
fish, possibly even sea horses – there are wonderful
opportunities for marine farmers.” •
10
m a r c h 2 0 1 1 11