A $6 million salmon farm project awaits a final decision

Press, 5 September 1980, Page 13

A $6 million salmon farm project awaits a final decision

By

BARRY SIMPSON

A decisidhy.to; :be: made by the Nelson; Catchment Board at its’meeting on September 16 is likely to decide the fate of a salmon farming venture which is planned to become a $6 million industry within .the next 10 years. •• The Bubbling Springs Salmon Farm Company applied to a special tribunal of the board for a water right which seeks a substantial draw-off from the Waikoropupu River (which rises from the Pupu Springs) at Takaka.: The two-day hearing heard evidence from experts in fresh' water-fish-eries; and it heard scientific evidence as well as the plans of the. company as outlined by its manager, Mr Clive Barker. At the conclusion, the chairman (Mr C. R. Bird) suggested that the company’s representatives get together; informally with the Nelson Acclimatisation society, which opposed the application; to i see' ■if a compromise could be reached? ’ ‘ ' Later the board’s secretary (Mr R. W. Paine) said that the tribunal had decided to recommend to the board the granting of a water right, but he declined to say. what quantity was recommended.

• The company, which has been working since the first salmon were released to sea in 1977, is seeking an initial 1.42 cumecs (cubic metres per. second) of water rising to. 5.67 cumecs in 1988-89. The water would pass through the farm and re-enter the river. This larger amount of water is held necessary to cater for the 21 million fish the company plans to raise each year. The society’s objection was largely based on the possibility that disease could be spread from the discharged water and expansion would heighten this danger for trout in the >Takaka River and

endanger trout fisheries in a much wider area. r';V-

Mr Barker told the tribunal that staged development over 10 years could cost the company up. to $6 million, that at its peak it would employ up to 100 people and would eventually earn at least $6 million a year. These figures were based on a 1 per cent-re-turn of fish, but the company was hopeful, with the experiemental work it was doing, that this return could be raised to a 4 or 5 per cent survival figure. To reach total development,;. ,the ; company Would increase in stages the construction of raceways to 150 from the two

being used at present. The extent of this. development would depend .on;the .number of, returning adult fish. ■ The final; numbers of faceways would be for the hatching of 26 million eggs, said Mr Barker. Allowing for a 10 per cent loss from egg to fry and a further 10 per cent loss from fry to smolt, 21 million smolt would be left each year. ' ; ' He told the tribunal that scientific evidence failed to disclose any: basis, for the suggestion that the discharge would have any effect on life in the open rivers. Later, he said, it was proposed to ensure that fish waste was taken from raceways and ponds and used either as a manure or in the production of methane gas; little fish waste • would be discharged. Answering the acclimatisation society’s call for strict monitoring of discharges. Mr K. O. Beckett, for the company, said that there were already adequate safeguards written into the Water and Soil Conservation Act to

ensure there were no harmful discharges. One witness before the tribunal, Mr P. J. Burstall, of the Wildlife Service, questioned whether 21 million fish could be sustained even in a total flow of 5.76 cumecs. He felt that the figure would be closer to 4 million.

The viability of the yens ture was not one for the tribunal or the board, so that many aspects of the salmon farming. project were ,npt raised at the hearing. Later, however, Mr Barker, in an interview, said that although at this juncture few fish had returned to the farm (and these were all adult fish)

since, first releases in 1977, the company was confident that the project was sound. The company had spent $40,000 on sea’ cages and ; was' heartened •by the growth rate of smolt in them.

The object of placing the smolt in sea cages was to try to eliminate their migratory urge so that when they were released they would stay relatively close to shore and when sexually mature would return to their point of exit; This, he said, was an experiment and much research had still to be done on it;

The company either released millions of fish at a time straight from the raceways with the hope of getting a very small percentage returning after a long migration, or released them from sea cages after they had lost the migratory urge. The experiment, however, was likely to come to nothing because of restrictions imposed on the use of fish by the salmon committee of the South Island Council of Acclimatisation Societies, Mr Barksaid. He blamed, too, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for “handing over the bows to the council so they can fire the arrows.” Mr Barker said that harsh restrictions had been applied to . salmon farms by the society and the Government. “We are told what we can do with the ova, what we can do with the fish. We are. being hamstrung.. This, year we got. only’ 60,000. eggs yet we have a contract for 360,000.” An instance of the restrictions was given by Mr Barker. He had received a letter dated August 19 from the salmon committee in which the committee said: “We condone the experimental. programme of sea-cage rearing of stock at present held in cages but in no way will tolerate the sale at any stage of growth of the fish out of sea cages. Fish raised in sea cages may be used

only for release to sea or grown to maturity for ova production. In the meantime the allocation made for this year may not be put to sea-cage purposes. Any further operation of sea-cage rearing from wild stock ova or fry must be approved in advance by this committee.” “You cannot operate a business like a salmon farm under these restrictions,” Mr Barker said. “We’ve just spent $40,000. on these sea cages, and after we’ve finished with the stock that’s in them we can’t be expected just to let the cages lie there for the rest of the year unused.”

The sale of salmon reared to "pan size” has kept the project financially sound until now. The sale of. these pan-size salmon to restaurants and hotels has- always been strenuously opposed by. the acclimatisation societies and here in lies much of societies’ opposition to the venture. Mr Barker hasalways pointed out that without the sale of a small proportion of the total fish reared and released, the venture could not continue. Some financial return, had to -be gained until , adult fish began to return. ‘

The sea-cage . experiments seemed to be very successful, he said.In two months, fish which entered the cages at about 120 to 125 grms, now weighed up to 333 grms.