New Zealand expecting fish farming boost

Canada: New streamlined regulations are being put in place to support growth of the aquaculture industry to a multimillion dollar business. As expected, ENGO’s are not happy.

Odd Grydeland

Yesterday in FishfarmingXpert we reported on the streamlining of the regulatory regime for aquaculture in Western Australia. Today comes new that the government of New Zealand is also moving forward to build a sustainable aquaculture industry based on ocean farming. Bill Moore of The Nelson Mail reports;

Government changes to aquaculture regulations could open up a multimillion-dollar finfish farming industry in the Nelson region worth far more than mussel farming, Wakatu Incorporation chief executive Keith Palmer said today. He said within five to seven years there could be groper farms in Tasman and Golden bays, with potential for "ocean trout" to also be farmed if the prohibition on trout farming could be lifted. Mussel farms returned $30,000 (~€ 17,000) a hectare a year. Finfish farms returned more than $1 million (~€ 564,000) a hectare, with much higher demand and much less water space required, he said. The changes announced yesterday to streamline aquaculture regulations and give councils more say were also welcomed by Aquaculture New Zealand and Tasman District Council.

Environmentalists and other fishing industry sectors are not enthused. Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley said the moves would put greater emphasis on regional decision-making and, in the case of Tasman and Golden bays, pave the way for finfish farming to be added to mussel farming and shellfish spat-catching. However, they might also lead to further conflict between marine farmers and the other commercial users of the bays – including the scallop industry and trawl fishermen. Mr Heatley said the Government was on track to put in place regulations necessary to help the aquaculture industry to treble its current sales level to reach a target of $1 billion a year by 2025.

More than 60 applications covering more than 8000 hectares were awaiting a decision. "We want those applications to progress. This reform will effectively free up the bottleneck that has kept industry growth in limbo for many years," he said. Cabinet proposed to change the TDC's regional coastal plan which, along with Waikato's, presented "significant barriers to aquaculture growth", and would do so through an aquaculture reform bill later this year. "The proposed changes will enable applications for finfish farming in both regions as long as environmental standards are met," he said.

However, it would primarily be decisions made at a regional level that would determine the nature and pace of growth, and the Fisheries Ministry would work closely with councils. Tasman district mayor Richard Kempthorne said "very real opportunities" for the sustainable development of species beyond mussels and scallops had been known for some time. "This legislative change will allow those opportunities to come to fruition." Mr Kempthorne said further devolution of decision-making to the regions would allow local communities to plan for their future taking into account their unique regional features and needs.

Aquaculture NZ chief executive Mike Burrell said no new marine farm applications had been made since 2004 and he hoped the Government's proposals would break the deadlock that has stopped industry expansion. The Nelson region was a very specific case with a lot of competing users for water space, he said. Getting the balance right was complicated and there was "no quick fix", but he hoped the Government was setting the scene for progress. Mr Burrell said the proposals would provide staged industry funding to allow councils to plan aquaculture development at no cost to ratepayers. "Councils won't be afraid to plan now, and that's the critical thing."

Challenger Scallop Enhancement Company chairman Buzz Falconer said it was too soon to say much, but if more marine farming was approved for areas above scallop beds "we'll go berserk". "That's been our battle from day one, and still is." The Challenger Group represents trawlermen and longliners as well as scallop and oyster fishers, and is involved in several court cases disputing existing top-of-the-south aquaculture decisions. Challenger legal counsel Tony Stallard said it was not opposed to aquaculture and would support development where there was no undue adverse effect on fishing. "If the aquaculture reforms retain that test – and we haven't looked at it fully yet – then Challenger will be interested in looking at each application to see how it is likely to impact on existing fishing and property rights in the fishery. My concern in relation to the devolution of decision-making to local authorities is that they get the detail and the transitional provisions correct, otherwise we're going to look at each application on a one-by-one basis, which is just going to put us back... 10 to 15 years."

Environmental lobby group Friends of Nelson Haven and Tasman Bay also has serious concerns about the size and placement of finfish farms. Co-chairman Steffan Browning said it had opposed a number of finfish farms in the Marlborough Sounds. There was a lot more pollution directly under finfish farms than shellfish farms, he said. "We will certainly have concerns, which will be accentuated depending on the scale of the applications." He said one Marlborough Sounds salmon farm put out nutrient pollution equivalent to what Nelson city produces. "You can imagine if you start cranking that up into Tasman Bay."