Shellfish Breeding

Cawthron’s shellfish breeding methods and technologies are pioneering, having resulted in Pacific oyster and Greenshell™ breeding that underpin a significant portion of national aquaculture production. These programmes have achieved increased mussel productivity and produced disease-resilient Pacific oysters. 

We produce shellfish ‘families’ in unique CUDLS (Cawthron Ultra Density Larval System) tanks at our custom-built aquaculture park in Nelson, before transferring them to aquaculture farms where they are on-grown. The top performing families are used for production stock, supporting further generations of breeding. 

Finfish Breeding

Our breeding research and services extend to finfish. We work closely with the New Zealand salmon industry to optimise the performance of farmed species. Cawthron Aquaculture Park is home to a Finfish Research Centre that supports the delivery of several finfish research programmes. Our research aims to transform the industry’s approach to selective breeding of finfish to boost production efficiency, leading to greater returns and sustainable environmental management.

Breeding Technologies

Cawthron has developed a range of innovative and novel breeding technologies to support our research and the development and implementation of breeding programmes. These technologies include the latest tools for quantitative genetic analysis (calculating the ‘breeding value’ of families and individuals) through to modern genomic approaches using DNA to trace an individual’s family tree or predict its performance based on genetic similarity to other top-performing individuals. 

Cawthron holds expertise in the cryopreservation of sperm, eggs and larvae of shellfish, some of which can be applied to finfish. This technology directly supports selective breeding and enables shellfish hatcheries to produce juveniles (spat) year-round.