Sustainable fish farming

The refurbished and expanded salmon farm at Big Glory Bay on Stewart Island, opened by Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley on Friday, is a real good-news story in itself for Southland's economy and employment opportunities, but even better is that it may be just the beginning of a significant growth in sustainable fish farming, writes The Southland Times in an editorial.

Clear indications of a more-relaxed approach to the resource consent process for aquaculture from the National-led Government by Mr Heatley at the opening should lead to a surge in sea-cage fish farming in the next decade, not just for the traditional salmon but for other species as well. Care will have to be taken, but New Zealand has a huge coastline and we should be able to use much more of it for farming without having a serious impact on our coastal environment.

Sanford's salmon farm at Big Glory Bay occupies only a few hectares but it holds almost half a million salmon, from fingerlings to mature fish, and will produce about 3000 tonnes of fish in the next 12 months, all to be exported overseas, now that the $7 million expansion has been completed.

It is a sophisticated operation, the equal of any in the world according to several international fish-farm experts who attended the opening, and much more friendly to the coastal environment than in earlier decades when conservationists rightly protested at the polluted coastal waters around farms throughout New Zealand because so much of the meal being fed to the caged fish ended up on the sea floor.

Sanford's new fish tanks are monitored by overhead and underwater cameras, and feeding cycles tightly controlled. This is considered cutting-edge technology. Even so, the salmon are eating their way through about 8 tonnes of meal each day, an indication of the growth being achieved even in the colder waters of the south.

However, the really exciting developments are still to come. Sanford and the other main aquaculture players in New Zealand are working together to develop the viable farming of several other species that should eventually lead to a much wider range of fish species being exported to overseas markets.

While experiments with blue cod have not been successful they have proved to be too delicate to be reared in sea cages other fish such as butterfish, kingfish and greenbone show real potential.

New Zealand has almost unlimited opportunities in international markets once farming of these species is mastered because, while demand continues to grow, most wild fisheries around the world have been so over-fished that supply cannot any more meet the needs of consumers, especially in Asia and Europe.

So fish farming will continue to expand and, if care is taken, New Zealand should be able to claim for its aquaculture that which is already accepted throughout the world for our agriculture exports the clean, green, environmentally friendly image that gives a natural premium to our products.

New Zealand aquaculture has so far remained free of the diseases that have afflicted fish-farming operations overseas, diseases that have in some cases become so rampant that whole farms have had to be shut down and abandoned. We are the only country in the world engaged in aquaculture that does not use chemical medicines in the meal fed to fish to keep them "healthy".

We need to keep it that way, so while National's plans to ease restrictions on resource consents for sea-cage farming are to be welcomed, Mr Heatley will need to take care that special point of difference is not threatened.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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