maoripho3nix Posted July 31, 2014 Report Share Posted July 31, 2014 Hi All Im looking at a change in career paths for the future, and thought I'd throw a couple questions out there. So after a decent desire and knowledge interest in our little aquatic species (here and in ozzy), and how they live.....I'm looking at doing aquaculture studies. Questions: Who here has done courses/papers etc in Aquaculture? Where did you study? How has this helped with your skills in keeping Aquatic species? If you completed your studies, how has this expanded your career? was it easy enough to continue on into employment? Do you support the Aquaculture industry? Why/Why Not? Any comments will be great Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted July 31, 2014 Report Share Posted July 31, 2014 I think bay of plenty polytech do a bit of aquculture but it may just a part of the marine biology degree. Just got approached by a scientist the other about designing a svstem for trialling multi trophic integrated aquaculture, can't wait to set that one up. :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted July 31, 2014 Report Share Posted July 31, 2014 Do you support the Aquaculture industry? Why/Why N Its a threat to Tropical fish hobby and aquaculture causes damage to wild fish and the environment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted July 31, 2014 Report Share Posted July 31, 2014 :slfg: Aquaculture is really in its infancy in this country but there are a few interesting projects going on and the science is getting better as more research is being done in the industry many species are being cultured for the marine and freshwater hobby as well as species for human consumption Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted July 31, 2014 Report Share Posted July 31, 2014 Most of all the fish/shrimp diseases come from Aquaculture and a major threat to the hobby Bio security in NZ ignore this and are focused on reducing importation of fish to New Zealand, The aquaculture industry is big money for the Government so they discriminate against small industry like the Aquarium trade . As time goes by less and less species of fish will be available in New Zealand as some are hard to get now and they are not getting replaced with new species that are always coming up, Trying to add any new species is not a priority for Bio security so if you can get passed the paper work there is another 5-10 year wait to add anything to the limited list we have. I put a submission in 4 years ago to add a few fish and was told they don't have funding for it, i told them i will pay for it as i knew that 99% of the work was already done by Biosecurity as the fish genus is already on the allowable list ,but then they told me it is not a priority. Its not hard to read between the lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted July 31, 2014 Report Share Posted July 31, 2014 http://www.nmit.ac.nz/programmes-and-co ... anagement/ http://www.otago.ac.nz/courses/subjects/aqfi.html http://www.aut.ac.nz/study-at-aut/A-Z-l ... quaculture http://www.mti.net.nz/course-available- ... rtificates https://www.boppoly.ac.nz/go/programmes ... ne-studies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted July 31, 2014 Report Share Posted July 31, 2014 Aquaculture destruction, major threat to New Zealand tropical fish. http://www.seaweb.org/resources/briefin ... ulture.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maoripho3nix Posted August 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2014 http://www.mti.net.nz/course-available- ... rtificates This course at Mahurangi interested me more than others Ive looked into, because a majority of their papers are to do with freshwater species. Its not hard to read between the lines. I hear you reef....not that I stand up for the government, but the only biggest threat that I can see is from the Salmon farming. Oyster and Mussel farms I believe have little effect. They are filter feeders. Besides without the practices of Aquaculture, these species of shellfish would have been wiped out a long time ago, atleast by these measures there is now a sustainable output. I do hear that disease is a big threat, which is why I guess they wont let more species in?? All I see the government doing is first protecting what there is here and at some point helping those field scientists improve numbers in species. Sure any tom dick and harry can learn about keeping fish, but I believe the real people teaching in the background have broken barriers when it comes to saving the native species here. Especially at Mahurangi. Without aquaculture techniques, skills and practices, then they would not be on the verge of replenishing endangered species. And thats what I am more interested in, how can we help a species survive. Dont get me wrong though.....there are plenty of fishies that Ive kept overseas that I would love to have here. But there will always be that bio block &c:ry Not to mention the restriction of keeping fish. In Perth I had Perch, Baramundi, Trout and Yabbies(Koura), all with inquisitive personalities, I loved studying each species. Although Bara are big, trout are far more "playful" at feeding time. Not to mention that you only need a transfer order to trade fish, no license to hold, no man in the middle. Fisheries over there only want to know what youve got, how many, and where they came from. Anyway back to topic, my biggest attraction to taking a course on aquaculture, is the scientific skills behind it. Aquaculture and Aquaculture for Farming/Sale/Government are 2 different topics. I'd like to be able to one day help the local iwi learn more about what use to be there(in local waters), what is there, and what should be there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted August 1, 2014 Report Share Posted August 1, 2014 myfishybuisness from this forum is studying this course at Mahurangi I believe. He hasn't been on here much in the last twelve months but you could send him a pm if you are interested in finding out, from a students perspective, the value of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fruju Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 I just completed my BSc in marine biology (took aquaculture paper) and will be heading back to uni to complete my pgdipsci and masters next year at the University of Auckland. As mentioned above there is a course at BoP polytechnic and one at Mahurangi, although they are not degrees in a classic sense you can get good practical skills at these institutes. At the end of last year I did a volunteer stint at the NIWA aquaculture facility in Ruakaka, they offered me a job for the period between my studies and I really like it. We do research on Hapuka, Kingfish, Salmon atm, but occasionally other stuff. My end goal would be to get into commercial aquaculture. Yep, I support the industry. For a planet that needs food and has declining fish stocks aquaculture offers an amazing environmentally friendly (group and situation dependent) option. Sure there are problems like any industry, (using wild food fish to create feed/parasites etc) but when compared to alternative farming it can have minimal env impacts with proper management. In regards to Salmon; most of the problems are N.H based, NZ production of salmon is so isolated that our industry is not under the same pressures compared to atlantic/nordic zones. Can't really speak for disease on mussels and oysters, but any outbreaks are spatially restricted it would seem, NZ mussel is regarded as the best in the world (220 million p.a). There are barely any jobs available in ornamental fish aquaculture and would be hard to crack that business. NZ employment is relatively limited, but given time we could have an industry (in my opinion) that could rival dairy. I will probably look overseas for work, but would love to be based in nz. If you're interested in the science behind it you would need to go through to masters level probably. People in NIWA all have high level qualifications. Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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