Cawthron, aquaculture, Cawthron Aquaculture Park, shellfish, cryopreservation, breeding.

Cawthron’s aquaculture production R&D is done at the Cawthron Aquaculture Park, 15 minutes drive from Nelson, on the coast of Tasman Bay, behind the famous Boulder Bank, in an area locally known as "The Glen".

The Glen is an ideal site for this work for three reasons:

1.	The seawater is of constant quality because there is no major freshwater inflow nearby and there is little suspended matter in the water during the rare Northerly storms.
2.	The land behind the Boulder Bank lies below spring high tide. This allows us to fill ponds with fresh seawater at no cost.
3.	The Glen is one of the sunniest spots in New Zealand: plenty of sunlight for phytoplankton production in the ponds. We use this phytoplankton to grow shellfish spat and to condition broodstock.

The Glen provides facilities for the development of commercial shellfish hatchery technology and for selective breeding:

1.	Our intensive algae culture facility produces 2000 litres per day ‘gourmet’ algae for larval rearing and broodstock conditioning.
2.	Broodstock conditioning is done in temperature-controlled tanks with a choice of food.
3.	We have a Breeding Room big enough to produce 64 families in parallel or commercial quantities of mussel and oyster spat.
4.	The nursery provides over 300m² of floor space for spat rearing, be it as families or as commercial batches.

The expansion and development of the Cawthron Aquaculture Park is a key strategic priority. This development will provide a world class research and technology park for aquaculture science and research providers, industry partners, government agencies and other stakeholders. It will facilitate collaboration and co-operation and provide critical infrastructure needed for the successful transfer of research and development outcomes to the New Zealand Aquaculture Sector.

As a cornerstone partner of the Horoirangi Centre for Seafood and Aquaculture Innovation, the Cawthron Aquaculture Research and Technology Park is ideally located to provide the impetus for a transformative aquaculture cluster; research and science providers, government agencies, along with industry and indeed all stakeholders to achieve identified economic and strategic benefits to 'New Zealand Inc.' from a growing seafood and aquaculture market.