Growing spat on Christmas tree ropes

Professor Andrew Jeffs (Leigh Marine Laboratory) explains what Christmas tree rope is and how it is used to collect mussel spat.

Transcript

VOICEOVER

One alternative to harvesting spat from 90 Mile Beach is to dangle hairy rope – called Christmas tree rope – in the water near mussel farms.

PROFESSOR ANDREW JEFFS

They’re called Christmas tree ropes because they look a bit like Christmas tree tinsel. They have a central thread with lots of hairy fibres hanging off them, and the mussel seed which is floating in the water finds it and thinks it’s a piece of hairy seaweed and settles in it and attaches to it and sets up home there. That Christmas tree rope is then harvested and hung out on a mussel farm, and the mussels then grow up from there.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Professor Andrew Jeffs, Oliver Trottier – Leigh Marine Laboratory, Auckland University. Just the Job, Dave Mason Productions. www.careers.govt.nz/resources/tools-and-activities/just-the-job