Are We Making the Most of New Zealand’s Pāua Shell?

Are We Making the Most of New Zealand’s Pāua Shell?

Pāua shell has always had a bit of a double life.

In New Zealand, it can feel familiar - something we have seen in gardens, jewellery boxes, seaside shops, craft drawers and family homes for years. Overseas, however, it is often treated

as something quite extraordinary: rare, distinctive, valuable and almost magical.

Same shell. Very different level of admiration.

New Zealand pāua shell is admired around the world for its colour, rarity and natural iridescence. It is used in jewellery, luxury design, furniture inlay, fashion, souvenirs, interiors and craft. To international buyers, it can be seen as something exotic, premium and unmistakably connected to Aotearoa.

Which raises a fair question:

Are we making the most of it?

Not in a “grab everything and turn it into product” way. Absolutely not. That way madness lies, and probably a stern letter from MPI. (The Ministry for Primary Industries). But in a thoughtful, responsible, New Zealand-needs-to-value-its-own-treasures-properly kind of way.

The shell has value - serious value

A recent RNZ article highlighted just how sought-after New Zealand pāua shell has become internationally. One Southland processor was reported to be selling around one million pāua shells a year, with buyers including luxury brands, international designers and global manufacturers.

That is not “a few shells in a box at the market” territory.

That is a real industry.

And it shows something interesting: the world often sees extraordinary value in a material that New Zealanders can sometimes take for granted. We have become so used to pāua shell that we forget to look at it properly. We know it ispretty. We know it is colourful.

But do we always understand its commercial, creative and cultural value?

Probably not.

And that is the uncomfortable little nugget at the centre of this debate.

Familiar does not mean ordinary

One of the funny things about living close to something special is that it can start to feel normal. People who live near mountains stop photographing them every day. People beside the sea can forget that others travel across the world just to stand on a beach. And New Zealanders, apparently, can look at pāua shell - actual blue-green-purple-silver natural wizardry - and think, “Yes, nice. Handy ashtray.”

A little rude to the pāua shell, really. But it also shows how easily we can take familiar things for granted. Pāua shell has been part of Kiwi homes and gift culture for so long that it sits in a strange space. It is iconic, but familiar. Beautiful, but sometimes undervalued. Recognised, but not always respected as much as it should be.

That is why the conversation matters.

If overseas markets see pāua shell as a premium natural material, perhaps New Zealand should be asking whether we have been a little too casual with it.

But this is where it gets complicated

The obvious response is:

If pāua shells are valuable, why not collect more of them and use them?

Simple question. Not a simple answer.

In New Zealand, recreationally caught seafood cannot be bought, sold or swapped. That includes shellfish. So even if a recreational diver has empty pāua shells after gathering pāua for personal use, those shells cannot simply be sold into a commercial supply chain.

At first, that can feel frustrating.

If the shell is already there, and if it might otherwise be discarded, why not use it? But the rule exists for a good reason. Without strong boundaries, recreational gathering could become a back-door commercial supply. That could increase pressure on pāua populations, make the rules harder to enforce, and create all the wrong incentives.

And pāua is far too precious for a “near enough is good enough” system.The issue is not whether pāua shell should be valued

It should.

The issue is how.

That is the real debate.

Pāua shell should not be treated as rubbish. It should not be dismissed as a leftover with no further purpose. It should not be undervalued simply because New Zealanders are used to seeing it around.

But valuing pāua shell does not mean ignoring the rules.

It means asking better questions.

• Could more legally available shell be processed here?
• Could shell that is already part of the commercial seafood system be used more effectively?
• Could community collection models work in some areas, with proper oversight?
• Could New Zealand build more value around the shell before it leaves the country?
• Could we support more local makers, polishers, designers and manufacturers to work with it?

Those are the interesting questions.

Not “how do we get more at any cost?”

More like: “How do we stop undervaluing something remarkable while still protecting the

resource it comes from?”

The Chatham Islands idea is worth watching

One of the most interesting parts of the RNZ story was the Chatham Islands example, where a special exemption reportedly allows naturally washed-up pāua shells to be collected and sold, with proceeds supporting local infrastructure and youth programmes.

That is the kind of idea that makes people sit up a bit.

Because it is not just about shell.

It is about community benefit. Waste reduction. Local value. Better visibility. A more thoughtful relationship with a material that already means something to New Zealand. Could something like that work more widely?Maybe. Maybe not. It would need proper rules, clear oversight and careful design so it did not create loopholes or encourage over-harvesting.

But it is exactly the kind of conversation New Zealand should be willing to have.

Maybe. Maybe not.

It would need proper rules, clear oversight and careful design so it did notcreate loopholes or encourage over-harvesting.

The challenge is not whether pāua shell has value - it clearly does. The challenge is whether there could ever be a safe, legal pathway for discarded recreational shells to become an asset and create community value, without putting extra pressure on the fishery.

Live exports change the picture too

Another pressure point is live pāua exports.

When pāua is exported live, the shell leaves New Zealand with the meat. That means less shell may be available here for local processors, makers and manufacturers. So, New Zealand can be in the odd position of having a world-famous natural material from our own coastline, growing international demand, local businesses that could use it, and yet limited access to the shell itself.

That feels worth discussing.

Not with panic. Not with finger-pointing. But with a sensible look at whether New Zealand is capturing enough value from one of its own distinctive resources. Because once the shell leaves, the opportunity to process, design, make and tell that story here leave’s with it.

This is the part we know well at Paua World.

A rough pāua shell does not magically become a beautiful, finished piece by itself. It needs cleaning, sorting, cutting, polishing, grading, designing, making, finishing and care.

• There is skill in knowing how to work with shell.
• There is judgement in knowing which colours will sing.
• There is patience in turning something raw and irregular into something someone will treasure.
• That work matters.

Because the difference between “leftover shell” and “meaningful New Zealand keepsake” is not just the shell itself.It is the care taken with it. The time spent learning how the shell behaves. The understanding of its colours, layers, strengths and surprises. There is a science to pāua shell - and a fair bit of art too.

New Zealand should value its own magic

There is a certain irony in needing overseas markets to remind us that pāua shell is special.

But maybe that is part of the point.

Sometimes we need to see our own materials through someone else’s eyes. Not because New Zealand needs outside approval, but because familiarity can dull our sense of wonder.

Pāua shell deserves better than being seen as just a by-product.

It also deserves better than careless use.

The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle: responsible sourcing, thoughtful use, local skill,

honest storytelling and a bit more pride in what we already have.

Because pāua shell is not ordinary.

It is not just shiny.

It is a natural material with colour, character, commercial value and a deeply New Zealand

story.

So, could New Zealand do more?

Yes, probably.

But not by stripping more from the sea. Not by weakening protections. Not by pretending the rules do not matter. New Zealand could do more by valuing pāua shell properly.

• By using what can be used responsibly.
• By supporting local processing and production.
• By exploring community-value models carefully.
• By treating pāua shell not as a leftover, but as a resource worthy of respect.

Because when it is handled well, pāua shell becomes more than a by-product.

It becomes something lasting. A small piece of New Zealand, carrying a much bigger story.

And honestly, it is far too precious to be left forgotten on the ground.