ISSUE 49 ■ SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 $5.00 WHITEBAIT TRIALS: the latest successes
NATIVE AUSSIE FISH OFFER VALUABLE BLUEFIN LESSONS TUNA – LOVE KIWI TAINTED OYSTERS TUCKER REMAIN A THREAT
THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF NEW ZEALAND AQUACULTURE CONTENTS
6814
3 EDITORIAL
4 NEWS Action in the industry
6 BLUEFIN TUNA Food for thought
8 NATIVE AUSTRALIAN FISH I The Granite Belt Fish Hatchery YMT
10 OCEAN LAW: AQUACULTURE OVER THE HORIZON RTES ISSUE 49 ■ SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 $5.00
Ready? Set? Action! COU WHITEBAIT TRIALS: the latest successes AGE AGE:
11 THE COST OF FOREIGN OYSTER RECALLS RIM Why bring tainted seafood to NZ? COVER IMAGE: COURTESY MTI COURTESY COVER IMAGE: COVE
12 ACROSS THE DITCH Overheads killing the industry?
13 OTAGO UNIVERSITY’S SUCCESSFUL WHITEBAIT TRIAL NATIVE Inanga trials could lead to cashcrop AUSSIE FISH OFFER VALUABLE BLUEFIN LESSONS 15 MTI SAVE NATIVE GIANT KOKOPU FROM EXTINCTION TUNA – LOVE KIWI TAINTED OYSTERS Whitebait breeding now in third generation TUCKER REMAIN A THREAT
THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF NEW ZEALAND AQUACULTURE
ON THE COVER: A newly hatched Giant Kokopu
TM EDITOR: DESIGNER: Rachel Walker Keith Ingram CONTRIBUTORS: ASSISTANT EDITOR: Peter Hutchinson and Joe Kearns, ISSN 1176-5402 ISSN 1176-8657 (web) Sandra Gorter John Mosig, Dorothy-Jean McCoubrey, An informative journal Matthew Wylie and Dr Mark Lokman, for the aquaculture industry MANAGER: Dr John Walsby Vivienne Ingram Published by: PRINTER: GEON VIP PUBLICATIONS LTD ADVERTISING: 4 Prince Regent Drive, Hamish Stewart DISTRIBUTION: By subscription Half Moon Bay, Manukau 2012 Ph 09 533 4336 Fax 09 533 4337 General: Reproduction of articles and materials published in New Zealand Aquaculture in whole or part, is permitted provided the source and author(s) are acknowledged. However, all photographic material is copyright and written permission to reproduce in any shape or form is required. Contributions of a nature Email [email protected] relevant to the aquaculture industry are welcomed and industry participants are especially encouraged to contribute. Articles and information printed in [email protected] New Zealand Aquaculture do not necessarily reflect the opinions or formal position or the publishers unless otherwise indicated. All material published in New Zealand Aquaculture is done so with all due care as regards to accuracy and factual content, however, the publishers cannot accept responsibility www.nzaquaculture.co.nz for any errors and omissions which may occur. New Zealand Aquaculture is produced bi-monthly.
2 ■ NZ AQUACULTURE ■ SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 GUEST EDITORIAL
Lost investment opportunities?
BY KEITH INGRAM
he burning issues that face the aquaculture industry Raise this question with our politicians and the clucking always seem to settle on areas of security of investment, tut-tut brigade is soon revealed. Questions become all too Tand how to attract new investors with confi dence. hard and we are left with an ever increasing raft of platitudes The problems start at the top, with Government. While and excuses. Where is the commitment to deliver solutions, some of our politicians are talking the good talk, many marine I ask? No matter where I look within our hard working farmers are waiting for the day when these guys will start aquaculture industry, there is a constant threatening cloud of walking the talk and give the industry some real confi dence. gloom. Government, this must stop! The second problem is the age old RMA and compliance While I am not suggesting the situation is all bad, or that issue. No matter how hard a potential marine farmer tries, our politicians do not share our concerns when many do, or how much he spends on establishment costs and/or the talk remains cheap and action costs heaps: a cost that guarantees, some bloody newbie from town can pipe up that normally falls on the marine farmer. the farm will impact on his enjoyment of the marine vista, Meanwhile, Aquaculture New Zealand have been steadily supported by a heap of spurious claims, which they will working at a higher level, sometimes way up in the struggle to substantiate in the environment court, and yet stratosphere, above the heads and out of sight of most small could still win. marine farmers. Many are expressing concerns to me that Is this a recipe for sound investment when a third of your the small guys are not getting the support they would like establishment costs can be consumed in the legal process, from their national organisation working through the myriad with no guarantees, before you even consider putting a of obstacles they are expected to negotiate. Likewise, small foot near the water? Clearly from past bitter experience the potential new farmers or investors, are struggling to get past potential to successfully farm and raise fi n fi sh on land is the fi rst information post. It would appear that even the old very limited. While there are opportunities and successes to Ministry of Fisheries, now MPI, no longer provide any sort encourage the raising of species such as paua, they require of advice service to newcomers and as such, many potential access to clean seawater via a good sea pipe source and investors are being lost from the industry. existing sites are limited. Ironically, resolutions must start with Government But isn’t marine farming all about farming in the marine intervention by establishing an easier, environmentally environment, not on land, which adds another level of friendly process for dealing with marine farming applications. compliance and risk? One would have thought so. But The NIMBY objectors should be required to put up the what chance does a small guy have when even the mighty, facts, and when challenged, substantiate the facts at their own and proven King Salmon, have such a huge challenge cost, not that of the applicant. confronting the compliance process, just to get water space How often have we seen an application falter because the to expand their operation? applicant runs out of funds to sustain an ever increasing plethora Clearly marine farms are best suited to be in inshore, near of claims of perceived risks and threats, that he is required to coastal waters, where there is good tidal fl ushing and clean mitigate or prove as unsubstantiated, and while doing so, the water. The New Zealand marine environment is claimed to protagonists are busy dreaming up more, until the applicant’s be amongst the cleanest in the world. Sadly, it is no longer limited funds are exhausted and an opportunity is lost? the purest, as both urban and agriculture runoff have put Clearly Government intervention is required if we are paid to this. Yes, the backbone of the New Zealand economy, going to encourage investors and our young people to our farming community, have been quietly poisoning our develop and grow future aquaculture opportunities for the waterways and coastal waters for decades and it continues wider benefi t of our small coastal communities and the New today. Be it sedimentation carried in the water column, Zealand economy. fertilisers, high nutrients, bovine TB, brucellosis, or a raft of Is it time for political thought, commitment and action? Yes. other common nasties from the land, once in the sea have a Our politicians, both at central and local government devastating impact on our marine life and biodiversity. levels, must now walk the talk.
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 ■ NZ AQUACULTURE ■ 3 NEWS
KING SALMON HEARING ALLTECH AND NOFIMA IN STRATEGIC RESEARCH ALLIANCE DELAYED Global animal health and nutrition company Alltech and the Norwegian Institute of The Environmental Protection Authority Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research, Nofi ma, have entered a strategic research hearing to decide whether NZ King alliance that will focus on optimising nutrition and management practices in the Salmon should be granted resource consent salmon industry. to develop nine new fi sh farms in the The research from this partnership will be conducted in six of Nofi ma’s Norwegian Marlborough Sounds was delayed two weeks. research centres, including Tromsø, Bergen, Stavanger, Ås, Sunndalsøra and Averøy. The hearing will now begin in Blenheim The purpose of the research alliance is to further contribute to the understanding on Monday August 27, at the Wisheart of microalgae in modern feed formulations and their role in health, performance and Room in the Floor Pride Marlborough fl esh quality. Civic Theatre. The original start date was Alltech Algae, a company based in Winchester, Kentucky, United States, is one of August 13. the largest algae production facilities in the world. The company is exploring the The EPA board of inquiry delayed the applications of algae in animal nutrition and aquaculture. Alltech’s research alliance start of the hearing in response to three with Nofi ma is in line with the company’s global sales strategy, which sees aquaculture submitters asking that the July 27 deadline as a signifi cant contributor to its US$4 billion dollar sales goal. for evidence be extended by a month. An This new partnership with Nofi ma follows the signing of another research alliance EPA spokeswoman said the board decided in March 2012 between Alltech and the University of Kentucky. The Alltech-UoK an extra month was not feasible because it alliance is expected to generate research funding of US$2.5 million in the next year must release a fi nal decision by December for collaborative projects in agriculture, medicine and basic biological sciences. 31, nine months after King Salmon notifi ed its application. However, it recognised the time constraints for this and extended the deadline for evidence by two weeks, to KATIKATI FISH FARM IN COURT “the size of Bunnings”, kept alive by pumps August 10. NZ Premium Aquaculture with Trevor and ventilation fans running 24/7. Sustain Our Sounds chairman Danny Davidson listed as director, has been granted Boulton said Sustain Our Sounds had council consent to farm kingfi sh on their NEW ZEALAND SALMON met deadlines and did not request the former kiwifruit and avocado orchard DEATHS NOT FROM delay, but members might have asked as in Pukakura Road, Katikati. But local SIGNIFICANT DISEASES individuals, who lived in remote areas of the residents are appealing the decision in the NIWA research scientist Andrew Forsythe Marlborough Sounds facing diffi culties such Environment Court says New Zealand salmon are free of as unexpected power cuts. The farm has obtained a regional council commercially signifi cant pathogens and NZ King Salmon didn’t request the consent to pipe seawater a kilometre across parasites that caused disease in captive delay and have met all the time requirements country and to discharge it again into the and wild salmon in other countries. His stipulated by the board of inquiry. Uretara Estuary. investigation follows the death of fi sh in The EPA board has until the end of The proposed fi sh farm involves up unusually large numbers at New Zealand November to write its draft report, to to a million fi sh intensively grown with King Salmon’s Waihinau farm in Pelorus accommodate a 20 working day period for fi ngerlings imported and grown to maturity Sound since last summer. comments and end-of-year deadline. The in a range of highly controlled indoor Forsythe said fi sh farmed by King Salmon original due date for the draft was October saltwater tanks. The fi sh farm has been are chinook, also known as king or quinnat 26. The NZ King Salmon deadline for given consent by the Western BOP District salmon, which are not susceptible to normal rebuttal evidence had been extended from Council for a building 7900 square metres diseases of New Zealand native fi sh. The one August 8 until August 17 and its fi nal in area and up to nine metres in height, or exception was the discovery of Aeromonas planning report is due by August 27. about 40 times larger than what is permitted salmonicida bacteria in dead kanakana or under the district plan. lamprey, in September, and later in trout at a CAGED GRASS CARP FOR NZ Premium Aquaculture propose that hatchery in Otago. He also said that reports WATERWEED CONTROL after the fi sh reach maturity they would be that chinook in Canada had tested positive A Ministry for Primary Industries-funded killed on site, put on ice and trucked to a for ISA have proven incorrect. trial has shown that grass carp, a weed processing plant. Solid fi sh waste would be New Zealand King Salmon sent samples eating fi sh, could be used to eradicate early stored and trucked off site. They predict a from fi sh that died at Waihinau to the infestations of aquatic weeds in enclosures, harvest rate of 10 tonnes per week and on Ministry of Primary Industries to test doing away with the need to release large site jobs for six people. for diseases including ISA and the vibrio numbers of fi sh throughout a lake and While consent is not required for species of bacteria. These tests came back preventing damage to other plant species in permitted activities including aquaculture, negative. The ministry has since sent the water. the associated activities may require consent. samples to laboratories in Canada and Using grass carp to remove invasive weeds Real Estate agents describe the properties Norway with more experience in salmon from waterways is an effective biological in Pukakura road that adjoin Tauranga disease The Ministry expect the test results control, but it always comes at a cost. Large Harbour using phrases such as: “beauty will be made public when they are available. numbers of fi sh are required, they remain of a bygone era”, “picturesque country Danny Boulton and Sustain Our Sounds in the waterway until they die, and they manor”. Pukakura road is also the location are fi ghting an application to develop nine indiscriminately remove all plants present of Homewood Garden, and Katipatch. new salmon farms in the Marlborough including desirable non-target species. The Local residents are objecting to NZ Sounds, saying the risk of disease will study was carried out for MPI by NIWA Premium Aquaculture’s fi sh farm proposal increase if salmon farming expands. scientists, and found that if an unwanted in the Environment Court saying they King Salmon aquaculture manager Mark aquatic weed species is found at an early don’t want to live next door to one million Preece has signalled the possibility of enough stage, there is potential to eradicate kingfi sh kept in tanks housed in a building antibiotics being used on their farms. it using fi sh contained in a pen, applied to
4 ■ NZ AQUACULTURE ■ SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 the area of weed infestation. They and their numbers of fi sh in order to establish the ate more, grew better and had a lower feed enclosure can be removed once the target most effective stocking rate required for rapid conversion ratio. invasive weed has been eradicated. removal of nuisance weed within the enclosed Skretting translated the results into MPI Senior Science Adviser Andrew Bell area. Three to fi ve fi sh per enclosure were commercial grower feeds for salmon in says the recent successful trial was carried found to be effective and very fast, with weed Norway and Tasmania. They found that the out at Waikato’s Lake Karapiro treating the in the enclosed areas removed in nine weeks.” high protein formulations conventionally widespread pest weed hornwort. “This novel Designing enclosures that were escape- used over summer in the Australian salmon approach was so effective that MPI now has it proof was particularly challenging for the industry led to higher excretion of nitrogen. in the toolbox for use should the “unwanted NIWA team, but Dr Clayton says the end Diet modifi cations to counteract the loss organism” hornwort be found in South Island result was an innovative design that has of anti-oxidants by adding an appropriate lakes. Local iwi supported the project and are animal ethics committee approval. anti-oxidant to the feed, with lower protein interested in the results and the potential to levels, was tested in high temperature trials use grass carp as a biological control tool. They NEW DIETS TO COUNTER and scientists found that fi sh were healthier, recognise that grass carp may have a role not GLOBAL WARMING ate more, grew better and had a lower feed only in biosecurity responses when hornwort Research by Skretting in Norway and conversion ratio and lower nitrogen outputs. occurs in new locations, but also as a potential Tasmania anticipates the problems that invasive weed management tool in hydro dams climate change will bring with warmer NAMIBIAN FISH FARMERS’ and other sites in their areas.” waters to the coast especially in summer. PLEA FOR EQUIPMENT Grass carp have been used successfully Work began in 2010, investigating the effects Aquaculture farmers at the Karovho Fish for the control of large infestations of other of high temperature on gut integrity. Farm in the Kavango Region have put out a invasive weeds in New Zealand lakes since Previous investigations had demonstrated call for equipment and transport vehicles for they were introduced in the late 1960s from that the gut wall is more permeable at higher their underperforming fi sh farm. Malaysia. They are a natural aquatic weed temperatures, making the fi sh more vulnerable Employees at the farm say they are in controller and are unable to breed in the to invasion by pathogens, faster metabolism of dire need of a range of equipment to help wild in New Zealand, unlike koi carp which anti-oxidants and that disruption of the gut them operate and monitor water quality breed well and have become a pest species. wall leads to loss of appetite. in the fi shponds. They are also calling for The team built six large enclosures 2.5m Diet modifi cations to counteract the loss insecticides and pesticides, and would like to deep and 6m wide, and placed them within of anti-oxidants by adding an appropriate upgrade the quality of the feed used. hornwort beds in Lake Karapiro. NIWA anti-oxidant to the feed to help stabilse the Several fi sh breeds such as Tilapia, and principal scientist aquatic plants, Dr John gut, was tested in high temperature trials Three Spot and sometimes Catfi sh Clayton says, “The cages contained different and scientists fount that fi sh were healthier, are bred at the farm. 45 4 P.AC 0AUL $EACON VIP.AC Marine Artist &INE