
Pāua is the
Māori name given to four New Zealand
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of large edible
sea snail
Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...
s,
marine gastropod
Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda ().
This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...
mollusc
Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...
s which belong to the
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Haliotidae
''Haliotis'', common name abalone, is the only genus in the family Haliotidae.
This genus once contained six subgenera. These subgenera have become alternate representations of ''Haliotis''. The genus consists of small to very large, edible, ...
(in which there is only one genus, ''
Haliotis
''Haliotis'', common name abalone, is the only genus in the family Haliotidae.
This genus once contained six subgenera. These subgenera have become alternate representations of ''Haliotis''. The genus consists of small to very large, edible, ...
'').
It is known in the United States and Australia as
abalone
Abalone ( or ; via Spanish , from Rumsen language, Rumsen ''aulón'') is a common name for any small to very large marine life, marine gastropod mollusc in the family (biology), family Haliotidae, which once contained six genera but now cont ...
, and in the United Kingdom as ormer shells. In New Zealand, these are known as , which (as is the case with nearly all Māori words) is both singular and plural. In New Zealand, its polished inner shell is widely utilised for jewellery and ornamentation.
Species
There are four species of New Zealand pāua:
''H. pirimoana'' is a small, recently described species endemic to
Manawatāwhi / the Three Kings Islands that superficially resembles ''H. virginea''.
Habitat
Pāua are commonly found in shallow coastal waters along rocky shorelines in depths of 1 to 10 metres (3' to 30'). There is clear distinction between juvenile and adult habitats for ''
Haliotis iris'', pāua less than 7 cm (3") occur in crevices and under stones in the shallow
intertidal zone
The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various ...
while adults are found in
subtidal
The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately in depth.
From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminate ...
zone.
Life
These large sea snails survive the strong tidal surges by clinging to rocks using their large muscular foot. They consume seaweed.
Harvesting
Pāua are gathered recreationally and commercially, with strict catch limits are set for both. For recreational fishermen this is five pāua per person per day. The minimum legal size for caught pāua is for ''Haliotis iris'' and for ''Haliotis australis'', measured in a straight line at the greatest length of the shell. The exception is ''Haliotis iris'' taken from the Amateur Taranaki Paua Fishery Area, which is the area of Taranaki coast bounded by the
Awakino River in the north and the
Whanganui River
The Whanganui River is a major river in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the country's third-longest river, and has special status owing to its importance to the region's Māori people. In March 2017 it became the world's second natur ...
in the south, in which the minimum legal size is . However, pāua caught in this area cannot be taken east of
State Highway 4 unless they meet the limit.
In addition, no single person may have in their possession at any time (including on land) more than 20 pāua or more than of shucked (shell removed) pāua. Pāua can only be caught by free diving; it is illegal to dive for pāua using
scuba equipment. All pāua must remain un-shucked until they are on the land side of the high tide mark so
Ministry for Primary Industries
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI; ) is the public service department of New Zealand charged with overseeing, managing and regulating the farming, fishing, food, animal welfare, biosecurity, and forestry sectors of New Zealand's primary ...
(MPI) fishery officers can inspect them if required.
There is an extensive global black market in the collection and export of abalone meat. Pāua
poaching
Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights.
Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...
is a major industry in New Zealand with many thousands being taken illegally, often undersized. The right to harvest pāua can be granted legally under Māori customary rights, but since permits to harvest are abused, it is difficult to police. The limit is strictly enforced by roving MPI fishery officers with the backing of
police
The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...
. Fishery officers can issue infringement notices of between $250 and $500 for minor offences, such as having one or two more pāua than permitted. More serious offences have resulted in hefty court convictions, including seizure of diving gear, boats, and motor vehicles as well as large fines and in rare cases, imprisonment. The Ministry of Fisheries expects in the year 2004/05, nearly 1,000 tons of pāua will be poached, with 75% of that being undersized.
Human use

To Māori, pāua are recognised
taonga
''Taonga'' or ''taoka'' (in South Island Māori) is a Māori-language word that refers to a treasured possession in Māori culture. It lacks a direct translation into English, making its use in the Treaty of Waitangi significant. The current ...
, or treasure, esteemed both as (seafood) and as a valued resource for traditional and contemporary arts and crafts. Pāua were often harvested by diving. Two traditional methods for collecting pāua included using a specialised flat tool called a māripi to pry pāua off the sea floor, or by placing an ''
Astrostole scabra'' (seven-armed starfish), a major predator of pāua, atop the shell.
Pāua could be eaten raw, smoked, cooked in a
hāngī, or preserved. Preserved pāua were often kept for winter months, or used as items to trade with inland
iwi
Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English.
...
.
Pāua shells are frequently used to represent eyes of human and animal figures in
Māori carvings, and used as decorations on skirts, cloaks and in earrings.
Pāua is traditionally are associated with the stars or , the symbolic eyes of ancestors that gaze down from the night sky.
During the colonial era of New Zealand, British settlers detested the taste of pāua, but had an appreciation for the shells. Pāua shells were highly requested items on
Second voyage of James Cook
The second voyage of James Cook, from 1772 to 1775, commissioned by the British government with advice from the Royal Society, was designed to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible to finally determine whether there was any great s ...
, and were highly sought after by 19th Century British jewellers.
Eventually pāua became a part of the European New Zealander diet, first often appearing in soups and chowders.
An international market for pāua meat began in the 1970s, after which pāua numbers dropped in the wild.
Whole shells were commonly used as ashtrays through the 20th century, and highly polished
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
pāua shells are popular as pieces of modern jewellery, with their striking blue, green, and purple iridescence.
Aquaculture
Background
Pāua
aquaculture
Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...
is a growing industry in New Zealand. The industry was started in New Zealand in the 1980s, and to date there are 14 pāua farms operating throughout New Zealand, from
Whangārei
Whangārei () is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the largest settlement of the Northland Region. It is part of the Whangarei District, created in 1989 from the former Whangarei City, Whangarei County and Hikurangi Town councils to admi ...
to Stewart Island. The first farms consisted of small-scale backyard and shed farms in which techniques and processes that grew good-quality pāua were developed; these are now being used on a commercial scale in large pāua farms. These farms produce pāua for their meat and shells, and some include the production of blue pearls. Most of the production from these farms is exported to the US and Asian markets.
There is high demand on the worldwide market, as decline in wild stocks due to overfishing and poaching means that the global market for abalone is greatly undersupplied.
Meat and shells
Most pāua farms grow pāua produced from wild
broodstock; however, some have developed their own
hatcheries and
selective breeding
Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant m ...
programs to produce faster-growing species. The pāua are grown to market size (depending on conditions, this usually takes 2–3 years) in either long trays with inflow of seawater at one end and outflow at the other, or smaller tanks with tipper buckets that regularly dump seawater into the tanks to recreate the wave motion pāua experience in the wild.
A number of different feeds are used throughout the pāua's life-cycle. Pāua hatch as
trochophore
A trochophore () is a type of free-swimming planktonic marine larva with several bands of cilia.
By moving their cilia rapidly, they make a water eddy to control their movement, and to bring their food closer in order to capture it more easily.
...
larvae and feed on plankton present in seawater pumped into the holding tanks. When the larvae are ready to settle (usually 7 days at ),
they are moved to settlement tanks that consist of many glass plates with small films of
diatoms
A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma'') is any member of a large group comprising several Genus, genera of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of Earth's B ...
present (usually ''Navicula minimata''). The
diatoms
A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma'') is any member of a large group comprising several Genus, genera of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of Earth's B ...
are the main food source for the juveniles until they reach about in length; the diet is then switched to a
macroalgae
Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of Macroscopic scale, macroscopic, Multicellular organism, multicellular, ocean, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Brown algae, Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ...
species. Several species have been used, including ''
Lessonia variegata'', ''
Pterocladia sp.'' and ''
Ulva lactuca
''Ulva lactuca'', also known by the common name sea lettuce, is an edible green alga in the family Ulvaceae. It is the type species of the genus ''Ulva''. A synonym is ''U. fenestrata'', referring to its "windowed" or "holed" appearance. De ...
''; however, research has shown that pāua will eat most
seaweed
Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), '' Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...
species. The pāua are considered adults around in size and are then fed on a meal-based diet until they are ready for processing and sale.
Pearls

To produce pāua
pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living Exoskeleton, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pear ...
s, the pāua are harvested from the wild stocks (at the legal size of ), and shell or plastic implants are either poked through the shell or fixed in place under the shell with glue. The shape of the insert dictates the shape of the final pearl. After the pāua are “nucleated,” they are kept in tanks for 2 to 3 years and fed on either seaweed or meal, during which time they coat the insert with
nacre
Nacre ( , ), also known as mother-of-pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer. It is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent.
Nacre is ...
. They are then harvested from the tanks, the meat is shucked, and the pearl is removed.
The quality and size of pearls changes depending on the size of the pāua. The pearls tend to be smaller when hatchery-reared pāua are used, which is why pāua from the wild are preferred. High stress levels within the farm can prevent the pāua from coating the insert to produce the pearl, so control of conditions to ensure that the pāua are not stressed is paramount.
Popular culture
Pāua shells make up the decoration on Xena's first
chakram in the hit TV series ''
Xena: Warrior Princess''.
Although the show was set predominantly in ancient Greece, the shell is used because the pāua is native to New Zealand, where the show was filmed.
Notes
References
*
Powell A W B, ''New Zealand Mollusca'', William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979
* Kirk O. Hahn, ''Handbook of culture of abalone and other marine gastropods'', CRC Press Inc, Boca Raton, Florida 1989
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Further reading
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Hidden pāua of Collections Onlineat
Te Papa Tongarewa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa ( Māori for ' the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand a ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paua
Haliotidae
Gastropods of New Zealand
Mollusc common names
New Zealand seafood
Māori cuisine