N.Z. is interested in U.S. salmon farming

Press, 15 February 1982, Page 12

N.Z. is interested in U.S. salmon farming

By

JOHN HUTCHISON

in San Francisco

Salmon farming is practised in the American Northwest, and a Development Finance Corporation official, has been studying its potential for New Zealand. Mr Bruce Pipe, project. analyst for the D.F.C. in Christchurch, said in San Francisco after visiting several facilities in the states of Oregon and Washington, that although salmon “ranches” there have not been in operation long enough to prove their. profit--ability, what he saw suggested that South Island waters lend themselves to similar enterprise. ~ : “High prices and continuing firm demand for salmon seem to make it an attractive export item.” he said, but he em-

phasised that his trip was merely exploratory, and that similar' inquiries are being made into salmon farming in Chile and Iceland. “It would appear that the American methods could be applied equally to New Zealand, he said, adding that water quality is an important factor. Salmon are hatched in captivity in fresh waterways ranging from creeks to large rivers in Washington and Oregon. Mr Pipe reported. When the smolts are several months old they are held tor a period at the stream mouth to “imprint” them biolgically so that they will return to their origins when the}' mature in the sea. In Washington, where commercial salmon farming is not permitted, the hatches are re-

leased to enhance the salmon catch for commercial. fishermen offshore and for sport fishing. In Oregon, he said, in addition to that practice, private hatcheries may harvest salmon which return to the waters where they were commercially bred.

“One of the problems of such commercial production.” Mr Pipe noted, “Is that their fish have to run the gauntlet of the offshore fisheries if they return.” He said that his visits indicated that salmon farming can be successfully conducted in relatively simple conditions as well as in thosb" which advanced technology is employed. The hatcheries breed the' chinook salmon, known ip New Zealand as the quinhat.