Aquaculture Europe 2025

September 22 - 25, 2025

Valencia, Spain

Add To Calendar 25/09/2025 14:00:0025/09/2025 14:15:00Europe/ViennaAquaculture Europe 2025NURSERY CULTURE AS A SOLUTION TO HIGH SPAT LOSSES IN NEW ZEALAND’S GREENSHELL™ MUSSEL INDUSTRYGran Pinedo, Hotel - Floor 2The European Aquaculture Societywebmaster@aquaeas.orgfalseDD/MM/YYYYaaVZHLXMfzTRLzDrHmAi181982

NURSERY CULTURE AS A SOLUTION TO HIGH SPAT LOSSES IN NEW ZEALAND’S GREENSHELL™ MUSSEL INDUSTRY

Brad Skelton* and Andrew Jeffs      

Institute of Marine Science

University of Auckland, New Zealand  

Brad.Skelton@auckland.ac.nz



New Zealand’s Greenshell™ mussel (Perna canaliculus ) industry is one of the most inefficient mussel aquaculture industries in the world. The industry harvests over 350 billion spat each year to seed its farms, yet only a fraction of these (< 1%) are retained in production from seeding through to harvest, representing an enormous constraint on growth and production . This presentation will provide an overview of research that has been carried out to develop alternative approaches to nursery culture of Greenshell™ mussels to reduce spat losses and improve production efficiency. It will include results from trials seeking to adapt commonly used bivalve nursery culture systems (FLUPSYs) to mussels and provide insights from studies that aimed to identify the nutritional requirements of Greenshell™ spat  so that cost-effective alternatives to live phytoplankton for land-based nurseries can be developed . The presentation will conclude by outlining the next steps required to commercialize these approaches to nursery culture, which will facilitate the transformation of the Greenshell™ industry.