Opposition to trout report

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 5

Opposition to trout report

By

MICHAEL RENTOUL

The Government has been warned to expect a political backlash over a report backing freshwater fish farming which is attracting growing criticism from anglers.

The report on aquaculture recommended that a ban on trout farming be lifted. The Federation of Freshwater Anglers yesterday joined the Acclimatisation Society in warning the Government to expect a political backlash from such a move. The Minister of External Relations and Trade, Mr Moore, and the Minister of Fisheries, Mr Moyle, have backed the changes, advocated by the Trade Development Board in the New Zealand Aquaculture Report. The Ministers have indicated that pending law changes will remove barriers' to development in aquaculture, subject to environmental safeguards. The executive director of the Acclimatisation Society, Mr Bryce Johnson, said such developments would pollute water to the detriment of the wild fish'ery and

recreational users. Water rights were only as good as their enforcement, and New Zealand’s reputation for its water quality was at stake, he said. The importation of trout broodstock could bring in new diseases, and the opening of outlets would encourage trout poaching. Mr Johnson said the report contained contradictions about the export earnings potential from trout farming. It had said considerable marketing effort would be required to find a profitable marketing niche given present levels of (world) production. The federation said it would poll members of Parliament on the Government’s proposal to legalise trout farming, which it described as “provocative and arrogant.”