Another busy week was spent at Mahanga Bay helping with the paua census. This time as well as measuring length and weight of each paua their shell and foot colour was also assessed.
Visually each paua was ranked for shell colouring - ranging from white to dark blue, and foot colouring - ranging from cream to green/cream to black.
The colour of the foot was also recorded with a machine that measured brightness and green, yellowness.
The Asian paua market demands shells of a bright blue colour and white feet so research is being done to farm the paua to achieve these criteria. The measurments we helped do on 3500 paua will help work out which families are producing these characteristics the best.
The Asian paua market demands shells of a bright blue colour and white feet so research is being done to farm the paua to achieve these criteria. The measurments we helped do on 3500 paua will help work out which families are producing these characteristics the best.
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