Glenariffe salmon returns please staff

Press, 9 July 1986, Page 32

Glenariffe salmon returns please staff

Salmon returns this season to the Glenariffe salmon research station on the Rakaia River have pleased Fisheries Research Division staff even before the final count.

A Ministry of Fisheries scientist in charge of the station, Mr Mike FieldDodgson, said that this year’s tally was already up 500 on last year’s total of about 7000.

“That means that this is the second year in a row the salmon-return numbers are more than double what they were in 1984,” he said. “This is because of releases of juvenile salmon from the station over the last five years.

"This is a good sign that augurs well for the South Island’s salmon industry,” he said.

The New Zealand Salmon Company had also reported an encouraging return of about 10,000 two-year-old salmon to their new salmon recapture site on the Tentbum and Lea Rivers, near the

Rakaia rivermouth, Mr Field-Dodgson said. “The company has shown that adult salmon can return from the sea and enter recapture sites in large numbers and in prime condition for sale,” he said. “The Tentbum site is the only recapture site in the South Island that does not allow ithe salmon to by-pass the salmon ladder and go further upstream. “We have yet to see what kind of returns the Tentbum site gets from its three-year-old and four-year-old salmon released in 1984. The future success of salmon ocean ranching operations in the South Island tends to hinge on the success of the Tentburn site.”

The division’s section leader of salmon research, Dr Peter Todd, said that many farmers were showing an interest in diversifying their production by rearing salmon in farm ponds.

“In terms of the number of licences sought, this is the greatest area of

growth in the salmon industry,” he said. “This kind of salmon rearing has low overheads, allowing the salmon farmer to produce quality sockeye and quinnat salmon at competitive prices.” Two leading pondreared salmon industries in the South Island were at Bubbling Springs near Takaka and Peacock Springs at Harewood, Dr Todd said. “Until last year most of the South Island’s* export salmon came from sea cages, particular# from Stewart Island’s Big Glory Bay. They have been produced by such companies as the Southland Salmon Company, the New. Zealand Salmon. Company, and the Stewart Island Salmon Company. “ “The Marlborough Sounds are also beginning to show potential for salmon rearing in sea cages. In terms of the capital outlay, ocean ranching and sea cage rearing have attracted the greatest commercial interest so far,” he said.