By BRIDGET CARTER
Andrew Bell never thought about fame and fortune when he began researching seafood over a year ago.
He just wanted work to complete his PhD in biological science.
But in the last month, the 27-year-old Auckland University researcher has struck gold.
From inside a hatchery, tucked away behind Crop and Food Research's seafood laboratory at Mt Albert, the Mt Eden scientist has bred a golden oyster - rare, lighter coloured, sweeter-tasting and potentially worth big dollars overseas.
International oyster lovers, particularly those in Japan and the southern USA, prefer a lighter specimen to New Zealand's dark Pacific oysters.
So when a gold coloured oyster mysteriously appeared on the West Coast a few years ago, Technology NZ contributed $100,000 for a project by local fishing company Sanford to try and breed these rare creatures commercially.
And Mr Bell was the Technology for Industry Fellow chosen to complete the work.
He says the golden oysters, which appear in about a one in a 1000 ratio in the wild, were plucked from Kerikeri, Kaipara and Whangaroa for breeding over a year ago.The first batch were harvested last month.
"We came out with a 60 per cent success rate,"he says.
Now a treasure trove of 13,000 dozen of the precious gems are under his guard, ready to be sold overseas at the end of the year.
Sanford group technical manager Teresa Borrell says because the product is not yet on the market, the worth of the golden oyster is unknown. It will, however, provide a boost for our oyster exports.
"Internationally we know the lighter oysters are more favoured," she says.
Mr Bell says the next stage of the research will be to find out what gives the oysters that golden glow.
Sweet taste of success for rare golden oyster
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