Editorial: Useful platform for aquaculture growth

OPINION: For too long now aquaculture has been like the Porsche that is never driven out of the garage.

The potential is obvious, but will never be realised without a change of heart by the holder of the key.

National has been promising to kick-start the industry for long enough, and suggested early last year that the overdue reforms would come "almost immediately" if it gained office.

A year after that event and its intentions are still being refined, but industry supporters have good reason to be delighted with the basic thrust of a major report released at an aquaculture conference in Nelson this week.

One important suggestion is to appoint a minister of aquaculture to help steer any regulatory changes through Cabinet and into law. This makes perfect sense.

The industry currently earns $360 million a year in sales. It has set a $1 billion annual target within 16 years, but talk at the Rutherford Hotel this week has been of the potential for at least twice that, if favourable conditions and appropriate business practices prevail.

Clearly then, a separate minister and a dedicated agency is fitting. If we need ministers for racing, senior citizens, small business, Pacific Island affairs and statistics, there is every reason to support a ministerial champion for aquaculture, too.

And establishing an agency within the Ministry of Fisheries rather than creating a separate ministry will avoid duplication and excessive start-up costs, while still giving the Government a greater role in encouraging and developing the industry.

The other key focus of a technical advisory group's report to the Government is a recommendation that the regulatory hurdles hampering aquaculture development be lowered.

No new aquaculture space has been created in the five years since a moratorium on new permits was lifted in 2004.

Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley is not wrong when he says the ability of the industry to research and innovate has been stifled – although key players such as Nelson's Cawthron Institute have hardly been idle over the past two decades of political procrastination.

The report argues for greater flexibility around zoning to allow aquaculture development outside of those areas currently ringfenced for it, simplified and streamlined planning processes and a levy on marine farmers to help fund development.

Mr Heatley said the Cabinet has not yet examined the report, but he sees it as a solid start-point for revitalising the industry.

However, as frustrated as the industry and Government might be about the lack of progress, they must remain wary about allowing the pendulum to swing too far towards liberalism.

Growth must come at an appropriate and sustainable level. There are other important uses for marine space, and environmental consequences must be anticipated, researched and mitigated.

Clearly, marine farming is the way forward, as global wildfish stocks decline. A positive byproduct of allowing the industry to grow is job creation – with potential for at least 4000 new jobs over the next 16 years.

That would be welcome – but far more so if the general excesses so often associated with boom industries can be managed out of the equation.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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