Bright future prospects for salmon fishing in Canterbury

Press, 4 February 1987, Page 47

Bright future prospects for salmon fishing in Canterbury

The end result of the arrival of commercial salmon farming in New Zealand .is likely to be improved fishing prospects for recreational fishers.

That conclusion was arrived at over a period of time by Dr Peter Todd, section head for salmon research and aquaculture at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Research laboratory, Kyle Street, Riccarton.

As a result of the increased demand for salmon eggs from the commercial salmon farmers it has been possible to expand production at the Glenariffe Salmon research station, Dr Todd said.

“Ocean ranching is already proving of benefit to the angler and was agreed to by them at the outset because of the expected gains for all anglers,” he said. As the “user-pays” concept penetrates the public service the salmon research section finds itself well placed to meet new demand for selfsufficiency he believes. He points out that fresh water research has been

partially funded for years by a research levy going to M.A.F. from licence fees paid to acclimatisation societies. The fact that the fisheries salmon producers have been supplying eggs to the salmon industry for some years also gives the section an advantage in adapting to the new policy he believes.

“Because we have a product to sell to industry we are relatively well placed,” Dr Todd said.

While there are some internal changes to the salmon section, one requirement from the angling community remains constant.

“We are always keen to see returns of tagged salmon as the information

we get from tag returns helps us to accurately gauge our releases," Dr Todd said.

Gaining tag returns is a vital part of the process of monitoring release success and the return rate to rivers and hatching areas, he explained. On average for every thousand young salmon released in a batch the

return rate of heads amounts to just two. The record monitored return -rate was 7 per cent, a figure put in perspective . when compared with the natural survival figure of about .01 per cent.

All anglers returning heads to the nearest head depot for evaluation automatically go into a draw offering a top prize of $lOOO, four of $lOO and twenty of $2O.