Business Salmon woes continue

Press, 17 January 1989, Page 25

Business

Salmon woes continue

New Zealand’s salmon industry is still facing the problem of algae bloom at Stewart Island after last week’s “Dunkirk” at Big Glory Bay. Staff from salmon farming companies at Stewart Island, the island’s community, and people from Bluff and Invercargill all rallied to help save the salmon farming ventures threatened by a toxic algae bloom called heterosigma. New Zealand Salmon Company’s managing director, Mr Peter Townsend, said that on a visit to Big Glory Bay last week he counted 17 small boats in the bay all working to help the salmon farms.

The managing director of Regal Salmon, Mr Terry Shagin, said that his company’s main support vessel had the chef from the Strathern Inn Restaurant, Bluff, on board to feed all the people helping his company at the site.

The algae bloom was first noticed at New Zealand Salmon’s sea pens in Big Glory Bay on January 3, since then the bloom has moved around the bay, but has also re-oc-curred in areas previously contaminated. Mr Townsend said that his company had moved some of its sea pens from the bay out to Patterson Inlet.

However, this did ot guarantee that the pens would now be free of algae because concentra-

tions of the bloom had been sighted around Stewart Island. It had to be stressed that New Zealand Salmon was not dependent on its salmon farming at Big Glory Bay. Only 13 per cent of its turnover came from this source, he said. At the time the algae bloom was first noticed the company had already completed one-third of its harvest at the island, and the rest of the harvest was quickly completed five weeks to six weeks in advance. Scientists from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) research division, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), and other various agencies, were still working at the bay to try to determine the causes of the algae bloom. A report commissioned by the industry from MAF, the DSIR, and the Southland Catchment Board, had concluded that the impact of nutrients from the farms at the bay would be negligible. It would probably be towards the end of next week before New Zealand Salmon could give an accurate indication of the effects of the bloom on its sea pen stocks, he said. Mr Shagin said Regal Salmon expected to provide an assessment on its salmon stocks at Big Glory Bay by Friday. The company was among five groups that have been forced to move

some of their salmon ranching cages from the bay because of algae bloom.

Mr Shagin described last week as a hectic one for the company. This included the rush to complete the salmon harvest and move the cages of the salmon farm outside the bay.

Regal Salmon had completed its harvest of 1986 salmon stock, but the full effects of the 1987 and 1988 stock would not be known until an assessment was completed. The company would trade profitably this year. The harvest of the salmon cages in the Marlborough Sounds was 12 per cent higher than expected, and it had shown the wisdom of having salmon cages in two different locations, he said.

Mr Shagin believed that the abnormal weather in Stewart Island, notably the lack of wind, was instrumental in the sudden appearance of the algae bloom.

Mr Townsend considered the bloom to be a natural phenomena. The presence of the salmon farms in Big Glory Bay had meant that attention had focused on them, but there had been a 20,0005 q km concentration of algae off the West Coast in 1982, he said. Ceres Pacific, the third listed company with sea pens in Big Glory Bay, has also reported salmon losses because of the toxic algae.