Introduction

Haliotis has been much sought after in many countries for years on account of the food value of the muscular foot and the decorative nature of the shell. There are Haliotis fisheries in Mexico, Japan, U.S.A., South Africa, Korea, Canada, China, Channel Islands and possibly other countries. All these countries have a vernacular name to denote the genus. In Japan it is awabi, in California abalone and in the Channel Islands the ormer. These names apply to different species of large Haliotis. In New Zealand the common name of the genus is the well-known Maori name of paua, the origin of which is uncertain although three other Pacific languages, including Hawaiian, use a similar word to denote shell fish.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation Yearbook of Fisheries Statistics, Vol. 12, 1960 (1961), the following quantities of Haliotis were landed in 1960:

Mexico (Abulón)		*6,700 metric tons
Japan (Awabi)		4,400 metric tons
U.S.A. (Pacific Coast) (Abalone)		2,000 metric tons
Union of South Africa (Klipkouse)		600 metric tons
Korea (Chón-bok)		500 metric tons
Canada (Pacific Coast) (Ormeaux)	less than	50 metric tons
China	less than	50 metric tons

The paua was at one time quite a staple food of the Maori, who removed them from the rocks by means of bone implements sharpened like chisels and about 7 inches long. These implements are known as ripi and maripi (Phillipps, 1935). The Maoris relied on the paua as a staple article of diet and they were as a rule very careful of the beds of paua on which they depended. They have a saying "Remove karariwha (H. australis) from among paua and the paua will disappear". No one has so far been able to verify this. The Maori believed that once large pauas were removed from a bed it would take more than a life-time for the bed to be replenished, as they thought a specimen six inches long took from 20 to 25 years to reach that size. Little or no use was made of H. australis and H. virginea. Phillipps (1935) gives a resume of the past history of the mollusc as used by the Maori. The chief uses other than food were in inlay work of the shell either on the pa kahawai or fishing hook or in ornamentation of their carvings.

In New Zealand, since 1940, Haliotis has become of increased economic importance. The demand for good shell of H. iris for the manufacture of high-class jewellery has been fairly keen for a much greater period. Over recent years an increasing demand for the soft parts has been added to that for the shell, although collecting of animals by private persons for bait has probably always accounted for large numbers being taken each year.

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A count of the number of paua taken in the Cook Strait area over a period of years by one fisherman has been lodged with the Fisheries Branch of the Marine Department. This fisherman trades in both shell and soft parts. The following figures which cover the two years 1945-46 were made available to the writer:

	Oct. 1944-Sept. 1945	May 1945-March 1946
Total No. Collected	26,067	27,631
No. Sold as Food	20,904 (£194)	18,288 (£171)

These returns cover paua ranging in size from 9cm to 17cm and indicate that the income available from the sale of soft parts would not be sufficient to make a livelihood unless supplemented by sale of the shell.

The Chinese community in Wellington have occasionally sought dried soft parts for export to China, where it is used extensively in making soup. The visceral mass and mantle fringe are removed and the foot dried in the sun or in a dehydrating machine. Dried material is easily packed and light to ship A limited amount of this dried material has been exported. The paua has also found favour (sometimes under the American name of abalone) as a luncheon dish in Wellington restaurants. For this purpose the visceral mass and mantle are removed, the black pigment removed by scrubbing and the foot muscle cut into steaks. After suitable pounding they are cooked. A factory at Picton undertook to can as much paua as could be supplied for export trade and home consumption, either minced or as steaks. All this commercial work is based solely on H. iris. Where records have been kept, no specimen under 9cm in length has been used.

Haliotis iris Martyn was designated the type species of a subgenus of Haliotis, named Paua, established by Fleming in 1952.

No scientific work has been published on the growth and ecological habits of the paua in New Zealand and very little work has been published on this subject in other parts of the world. Stephenson (1924) published a paper on H. tuberculata in the Guernsey Islands in view of the serious diminution of "ormers" on the shores of that island. He concluded that overfishing and disturbance of rocks bearing seaweed food of Haliotis were mainly responsible for the shortage. The Guernsey States then adopted his suggestion for two years' suspension of ormering. No statistics are given in the F.A.O. Yearbook quoted above, however.

In New Zealand, as elsewhere, gathering of the animal is generally carried out at low tide (more being taken during the low spring tides that at any other time). The Maori and most other collectors wade out with knives and by this means remove the paua from the rocks. It is virtually impossible to remove large paua by hand as they are strongly adhesive; but small paua can sometimes be lifted from a rock if caught in a relaxed condition. In some districts such as Taranaki the collecting of paua is a heavy task as the only habitat where they can be found is underneath large boulders which must be turned over to make the paua available and then turned back again if the bed is not to be depleted of seaweed upon which the paua feed. The Maori always make it a rule to return the stones to their former position, but Europeans are not always so careful. One commercial fisherman known to the author makes use of a gaff, a long wooden pole with a strong hook at the end, to collect paua. The hook is slipped under the lip of the shell and enters the foot of the animal so that it may be jerked off the rock and drawn up. This method enables a fisherman to collect in depths of 15 feet and fishing can be carried out quite easily at low tides other than spring tides and even at half tide.