Hatchery plan approved

Press, 3 February 1982, Page 6

Hatchery plan approved

A proposal to set up a salmon hatchery on the Waitaki River has won the approval of the Waitaki Valley Acclimatisation Society. The hatching and rearing complex will cover three acres of land near Bell’s Pond, on the north bank of the Waitaki River about eight kilometres upstream from the State Highway One bridge. It will be run by a subsidiary of the Newhaven Salmon Ranch called The Waitaki Salmon Company, Ltd.

The Waitaki Salmon Company is seeking water rights with the intention of starting development of the hatchery complex this season.

Endorsing the proposal, the Waitaki Valley Acclimatisation Society said that “if the venture succeeds there will be a better release of

smolts to the sea, and ultimately their return as adults will enhance the salmon sports fishery for a distance of at least seven or eight miles upstream from the river mouth.”

“This is to the advantage of the licensed sportsman at no additional cost to the society or its members,” said the society. The hatchery will be managed "along proven lines” worked out at the Burnt Hill Ranch in Oregon.

Accommodation for a fulltime supervisor and a biologist will be provided at the site of. the raceways and ponds. The acclimatisation society sees the hatchery “as being beneficial to the local fishery, and even to the survival of the existing South Island salmon fishery.”