MORE ABOUT PAUA
...is a unique specie of abalone found only on the coast of New Zealand. Paua have a oval shaped shell with a large muscular foot inside the shell which is used to cling to rocks surrounded by seaweed which they feed on.
THE
NEW ZEALAND PAUA...
HOW PAUA ARE GATHERED
REMOVE
Paua has an oval-shaped shell with a large muscular foot inside the shell which is used to cling to rocks surrounded by seaweed which they feed on. Therefore, the method of removing them is to slide a knife under the paua to prise it off the rock.
MEASURE
Once the paua is removed, the diver can then use a marked instrument to measure whether the paua is legal.
The legal size for a black foot paua as seen in above pictures is 125mm.
Whereas, The legal size for a yellow foot paua is 80mm.
RELEASE
If the paua is found to be 125mm or greater, then the diver may take the paua. Otherwise, if the paua is less than 125mm, it is illegal to take therefore diver is forced to release it. A diver can take a limit of 10 paua per day.
HEALTH PROBLEM
HAEMOPHILIAC
Paua being haemophiliacs means they are unable to clot blood, this causes a big problem in the harvesting of these marine creatures. As any cuts or scrapes caused by the diver when piercing the paua from the rock will result in the paua bleeding to death.
This is not such a problem when the paua are a legal size because they are going to taking home to eat anyhow, but when a younger paua that is an illegal size is cut the paua will die even after being released.
Some would think this is not much of an issue as it can't happen often, yet the truth is it does, and it's down to the fact that underwater it's impossible for the diver to predict the paua's size. The reason for this is because of the law of refraction and light distortion that occurs when looking through snorkel lens. So objects underwater appear bigger than what they are, hence the confusion for divers trying to determine whether a paua is legal or not.
USING THE KORU PAUA TOOL
LEGAL CHECK
The legal check is the most important mode on the koru paua tool, it allows the diver to check whether a paua is a legal size or not. This is quick and easy by first moving the switch left until the screen reads 125mm then pointing the lasers at paua. If the paua is inside the laser points then it's an illegal size.
QUOTA MODE
A feature which is important for commercial divers and more confident recreation divers is that the diver can set the tool to read whether a paua is above or equal a certain size. An example is for the commercial divers that want to only take paua that are equal to 130mm or above and with the koru paua tool this is now possible without even touching the paua. Just as before set the tool to your desired length then point lasers at paua and if the paua is inside the laser points then is not the right size.
MEASURE
Measuring the paua's exact size is to some unnecessary but it's a very important feature for paua surveyors that need to record the exact size of paua. Some confident divers may also use this feature to select the 10 biggest paua when diving. Measuring paua is simple with the koru paua tool but because you need to scan through the sizes until you find the paua's exact size it does require more time, this is why it is more favoured by confident divers and surveyors that use scuba tanks.
