issue 14 n koura farms - nzaquaculture.co.nz 14.pdf · august in thailand that the finite limit to...

ISSUE 14 n NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 $5.00

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spatEuropean

eels underthreat

KOURA FARMSneed freshwater


2 n NZ AQUACULTURE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 06

3 EDITORIALAre we soiling our own nest?

4 NEWSA look at what’s happening in the industry

6 KAIKOURA KOURA FARM in conflict with FonterraPoor land run-off controls are spoiling aquaculture sites

8 OCEAN LAW – strategies, policies and the lawAquaculture frameworks require further work

9 LEARNING CURVE AT CONFERENCEAdelaide trade show proves beneficial

10 SECURING OUR FUTURE – educating the nationPublic needs an integrated view of wider maritime picture

11 EUROPEAN EELS – farming is the only chanceContaminants are killing Europe’s wild eels

12 VIABILITY TESTING FOR MUSSEL SPATFast Green stain saves time and effort

EDITOR: Keith Ingram

ASSISTANT EDITOR:Mark Barratt-Boyes

CONTRIBUTORS:David Cooper, Kevin Heasman, Justine Inns, Andrew Morgan, Vince Scully, Steve Webb

MANAGER:Vivienne Ingram

ADVERTISING:Hamish Stewart

DESIGNER:Rachel Walker

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PRINTERS: Business Print Group

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An informative journal for the aquaculture industry

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General: Reproduction of articles and materials published in New Zealand Aquaculture in whole or part, is permitted provided the source and author(s) areacknowledged. However, all photographic material is copyright and written permission to reproduce in any shape or form is required. Contributions of a naturerelevant to the aquaculture industry are welcomed and industry participants are especially encouraged to contribute. Articles and information printed inNew Zealand Aquaculture do not necessarily reflect the opinions or formal position or the publishers unless otherwise indicated. All material published inNew Zealand Aquaculture is done so with all due care as regards to accuracy and factual content, however, the publishers cannot accept responsibilityfor any errors and omissions which may occur. New Zealand Aquaculture is produced bi-monthly.

CONTENTS

6 9

ISSN 1176-5402 ISSN 1176-8657 (web)

ON THE COVER:Koura farmingrequires cleanwater supplies

PHOTO BY: Vince Scully

ISSUE 14 n NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

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Quick test formusselspatEuropeaneels underthreat



12

How often do we promote our pristine marineenvironment as being a safe food source, and howoften do we say that the way to provide a quality

sustainable seafood source in the future is throughaquaculture?

If we believe in this as an industry or a nation, why are westruggling to get aquaculture space? Why are we constantly atodds with central and local government to get a fair access tospace, and for them to stop polluting our waters? Or worsestill, give tacit approval to others to pollute our waterways andcoastal marine areas.

Urban run-off is our greatest threat and probably the hardestto manage. But surely the discharge of raw, screened or filteredsewage into our rivers and coastal waters is no longeracceptable.Where are the greenies when you want them? Whyare these informed people not jumping up and down about thesewage discharges in the Far North, where the council’ssewage overflows have destroyed a thriving and developingaquaculture industry, and now they try and justify their actionsin the courts.

This costly process will only hurt the small farmers, as thebureaucrats are using ratepayers’ money to keep their ownbacksides clean.

Further south, we note a number of outfalls along the coast,which are still, with regular monotony, the culprit of rawsewage discharges. Hamilton and Huntly are still polluting themighty Waikato River, and Aucklanders are drinking it.

Even our capital city is guilty of destroying large tracts ofcoastline on either side of the discharge pipe that stops justout to sea.What happened to the idea of running the pipe amile out to sea? And it continues around the country.Weare now spraying dairy factory discharges onto paddocks inlarge amounts.This discharge is creeping into thegroundwater, which in turns ends up in our streams andfinally the coast.

Where are our environmentally concerned citizens? I’ll tellyou where they are.Watch the aquaculture industry! They aremaking sure that mussel doodoo is not going to pollute ourswimming water. Or they complain of visual impacts.

This aside, it would be nice if our powers that be stoppedlong enough to identify the problems of sewage discharges,

urban runoff and where all the liquid effluent being dumped onthe land will end up in our marine environment.

When these politicians recognise this, it will do New Zealanda lot of good if they realised the value to us all of having accessto healthy seafood at an affordable price.Take mussels for anexample.With the retail price of this affordable product, mostfolk now get their feed of mussels from the supermarket whenrequired and don’t have to walk the rocks.

While the aquaculture and seafood industry is totallycommitted to supplying a quality seafood product, it isimperative that our waterways and marine environmentremain the pristine habitat we always promote.

Failure to do this will see us in a very short time followingthe example of our northern hemisphere counterparts, wheremuch of their shellfish has to go through a de-purificationprocess before it can be exported.The writing is on the wall.

A Kaikoura koura farmer raises a further example in thisissue, where this venture, and many like it, may be stoppedfrom reaching its potential because we accept that it isacceptable to mess our own nest. It would seem that thepower of the corporate dollar seems to silence the vocalenvironmental accord when needs must. If this is the case, itwould appear that we can no longer rely on the independenceof our self-appointed watch dogs to look after the public’s bestinterests in marine environmental issues.We therefore mustaccept that our own professionals are far better able to judgewhat’s right or wrong and when to raise the alarm.

The aquaculture industry itself must take the responsibilityto those who make the rules that will ultimately affect whatwe do downstream.All too often we are being targeted as theprimary source of the problem, when in reality it is theauthorities who make the rules and give the approvals toothers to mess in our nest. It’s about time we all questionedtheir rights to do this.

As we go to print, we are advised that Environment Waikatois seeking a change to their existing aquaculture managementareas to facilitate other forms of aquaculture from sea cages tokelp and seaweeds.To ensure public support from the boatingcommunity, it is essential that the existing AMA use and anyfuture changes will not impede public access to “safehaven” anchorages, night or day.

ARE WE SOILING our own nest?BY KEITH INGRAM

EDITORIAL

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 06 NZ AQUACULTURE n 3

BILL MAY PROVIDE CERTAINTY TO INDUSTRYNational’s Fisheries spokesman, Phil Heatley,says the member’s bill he introduced onSeptember 1 will improve the legislativeframework for the aquaculture industry.

The Resource Management (Aquaculture)Amendment Bill would allow aquacultureresearch to occur outside aquaculturemanagement areas as a discretionary activity,as long as the research is confined to lessthan two hectares and is in association with arecognised research programme.

“It would ensure certainty for investors,encouragement for ongoing research andincentives so that the industry reaches itspotential,” Heatley said.

Not a single aquaculture management areahad been created in the last 18 months, andregional councils, who had had high hopes forthe legislation, no longer had the incentive ordirection to set up AMAs.

“Marine farmers can undertake a privateplan change, but the bureaucracy and costsare insurmountable, with any positive resultonly coming many years down the track,”Heatley said.

AQUACULTURE CENTRE ON HOLD A $2 million application for an aquacultureexcellence centre in Marlborough has failedto materialise, despite a positive shift in thegovernment’s attitude towards aquaculture.

It would be some time before the centrematerialised, if at all, as the government wascurrently reviewing all its fundingprogrammes,Tony Smale, the chief executiveof the Marlborough Regional DevelopmentTrust, said on August 14.The region wouldnot be eligible for funds from the regionalinitiative fund until March, he said.

Marlborough had benefited from the

government’s RIF fund twice before, with$1.8 million each being allocated to establishaviation and wine centres of excellence. Itwas frustrating that the application for anaquaculture excellence centre had to be puton the back burner for now.The centrewould become a focus for aquacultureresearch, education and training, and theexchange of ideas and networking.

GOVERNMENT PAYS UPTO KILL SEA SQUIRTSThe Minister of Biosecurity, Jim Anderton, isto divert $150,000 of his department’s budgetto kill colonies of Didemnum vexillum, anative sea squirt which mussel farms in theMarlborough Sounds see as a threat.

The chief executive of the Seafood IndustryCouncil, Owen Symmans, said the musselindustry was pleased with the funding, as theDidemnum vexillum threat was real andserious for marine farming in New Zealand.

Graeme Coates, the chairman of theMarine Farming Association, said a dozenaffected sites had received an initial clean-up,where infected structures or vessels hadeither been removed or wrapped in plastic.

Initial results looked promising, he said, butlocals would have to ensure boat hulls werefree of fouling and painted with anti-foul toprevent the organism from spreading.

EXPERTS ADVISE ONVIRUS OUTBREAKInternational experts were to investigate anoutbreak of gaglioneuritis virus among abalonein Victoria,Australia late in September.

Fisheries Victoria, introuced controls inAugust to reduce the chance of the diseasespreading around Port Fairy, and theTasmanian government had also introducedrestrictions on operations in some Tasmanianwaters.Two Victorian abalone farms closed as

a result of the outbreak.Southern Ocean Mariculture, which had to

destock, is trialing a 30kg batch of animals usingwater pumped from the Southern Ocean.Thefarm says it will lose about A$10 million overthree years as a consequence of destocking.

The virus first appeared in southwesternablalone farms, and then on animals in reefsnear Port Fairy.

FISHMEAL PRICES SOARFishmeal prices have exploded from US$600per tonne to $1500 per tonne, as Australianaquacultural scientists say they predicated adecade ago.

Kevin Williams, an Australian aquaculturenutritionist, told a meeting of feed experts inAugust in Thailand that the finite limit to theavailability of feed material sourced fromwildstock fish meal was reached more than10 years ago.Australian scientists had beenworking on alternatives since then, he said.

The meeting noted that most farmersneeded information on how to make bestuse of the available ingredients. Scientists atthe meeting provided information oncombining materials, pellet production andminimising waste during stock feeding.

It is hoped that the meeting will result inthe development of a three-day programmethat can be delivered to people in manyAsian regions.

OYSTER GRADERWORKS FASTAn Adelaide industrial designer, PeterJohannsen, has developed an oyster graderwhich uses lasers and cameras to makeaccurate assessments.

Oysters can be graded according to theirlength, width, thickness and volume at therate of 3.5 per second.The device canactually grade eight oysters per second at 98percent accuracy.

Johannsen says he has sold more than 30machines at A$50,000 each, but needs capitalto build a next-generation machine.

FOUL ORGANISMS MAYBE PUT TO GOOD USESponges, seaweeds, sea squirts and otherorganisms that foul mussel farms may have ause after all, as bio-active products.TheNational Institute for Water and AtmosphericResearch said it found 85 species growing oneight mussel farms in Pelorus Sound.

Seaweeds showed the most promise forproduct development, being abundant andrelatively easy to collect. Products derived


NEWS

MARINE FARM FOR JACKSON BAYThe Ministry of Fisheries has confirmed its preliminary decision to approve the first majormarine farm development on the West Coast of the South Island.The 45.5ha farm islocated about one kilometre offshore in Jackson Bay, south of Haast.

The decision to grant preliminary approval for the farm was announced on June 1, and thepublic had an opportunity to present submissions to MFish before a final decision was made.

MFish received two submissions, one from Jackson Bay Mussels Ltd supporting theirapplication and the other from Runganga O Makaawhio, stating their interest in ensuringthe farm would not affect the mussel beds at Neils Beach that are used by the runanga,said MFish’s aquaculture manager, Dan Lees.

“These submissions were considered carefully, along with all earlier informationreceived by the ministry, before the final decision was made,” said Lees.“We believe thefarm will not unduly affect the fishing in the area, or the marine environment andprotected species in the area.”

from seaweed include anti-inflammatorycreams, flavour-enhancing salts, and extractsto reduce cholesterol, lower blood pressureand boost the body’s immune system.

TINY METER MONITORSSPAT HEALTHTwo New Zealand organisations havedeveloped a simple way to identifyundernourished spat in the field as analternative to complex laboratory tests.

Carina Sim-Smith, a scientist with theNational Institute for Water andAtmospheric Research, is field-testing asmall, battery-powered blood-glucose metreused by diabetics to determine thenutritional condition of mussel sprat.Theresearch was undertaken with SealordShellfish Ltd.

Previous research has shown that poornutrition is a major cause of losses of wild-caught mussel spat from mussel ropes. Musselfarmers report that losses of 70 percent arecommon.

“We can test the spat in the field with themeter in just 15 minutes, reliablydifferentiating between well-fed spat andthose that have been poorly fed for as littleas four days.

“This technology will allow us to reducefinancial losses associated with harvesting andre-seeding poor quality spat,” said LanceSearle, science and research manager of theSealord Group.

FATTY FISH MAY CUTKIDNEY CANCER RISKSwedish women who eat fatty fish such assalmon, mackerel and herring at least once aweek have a significantly lower risk of kidneycancer compared with consumers of leanfish, says a new study.

The 15-year study found that those whoregularly eat fish containing lots of fish oilrich in omega-3 acids and vitamin D had a 74percent lower risk of getting kidney cancercompared with those who ate no fish at all.Lean varieties such as tuna, cod and fresh-water fish did not confer the same benefit.

Compared with lean fish, fatty fish have upto 30 times the amount of certain acids andup to five times the amount of vitamin D.Thefatty acids have been reported to slow

development of cancer, and people withkidney cancer often have low levels ofvitamin D.The report was published in theSeptember 20 issue of the Journal of theAmerican Medical Association.

Another study published by the AmericanInstitute for Cancer Research found thatnut and seed oils were no substitute for fishomega-3 fats. Omega-3 fats, the “good fat”found in fish, are turning out to be morecomplex than some may have expected.They may help protect people from heartdisease, dementia and inflammation that can lead to rheumatoid arthritis, diabetesand cancer. Researchers are now findingthat differences in the benefits seen instudies may reflect differences betweenomega-3 fats, as well as their interactionwith other fats.

TROUT DELIBERATELY KILLEDIntruders who broke into a hatchery in theAdelaide Hills on August 8 deliberately killed

about 250,000 rainbow and brown trout.Thefish at the South Australian Fly FishingAssociation’s hatchery in Millsbrook diedwhen the pumps were turned off and thetanks drained.They also caused more thanA$25,000 of damage.

Many organisations are believed to opposethe release of trout into Australian waterways,on the basis that they are an introducedspecies which preys on native marine life.

EELS GIVEN A LIFT Simple crane or winch-powered lifts at NewZealand dams are helping juvenile eelsprogress upstream from the sea to the creekbeds where they hatched.The NationalInstitute for Water and AtmosphericResearch, which has monitored theseoperations, says it transferred 4.4 millionelvers at 12 dams around New Zealand in2005-06.About 920,000 were longfins, thelargest number ever recorded, and the firstincrease since accurate records began10 years ago.

www.aquaculturehealth.com

SEA LICE TRAVEL MILES TO INFECT SALMONSea lice, the most harmful parasite in salmon farming, can travel up to 50km to infect ahost, according to research at the University of Auckland.

A paper published in September in Trends in Parasitology found that as few as five lice may result in thedeath of a salmonid (ie salmon, trout and char).The paperconcluded that sea lice on salmon disperse over distancesof 20km to 50km.

Sea lice skin parasites are the most harmful parasite insalmon farming, causing losses estimated at €170 to €270million per year globally.The abundance of salmon in farms in coastal waters hasincreased the number of available hosts, and epidemics have occurred in farmed and wildfish in Ireland, Scotland, Norway and British Columbia, Canada.

“One of the most challenging research questions has been how lice find new hosts,”says Dr Mark Costello of the university’s Leigh Marine Laboratory.“Lice from farms maybe infesting wild trout and salmon at fatal levels.As the growth and reproduction of bothsea lice and their hosts are strongly temperature-dependent, sea temperature warmingdue to climate change is likely to upset natural balances, with consequences for fisheries,farms and coastal ecosystems. Patterns of infestation on wild hosts suggest that lice mayalready be more harmful than previously appreciated.”

Sea lice were needed to infect a host, and each louse could travel up to 50km in openwater, Dr Costello said. Research had enabled better farm management practices tocontrol sea lice, including avoidance of infestations, use of parasiticides and biologicalcontrol using local cleaner-fish.

Further research may provide opportunities to breed more lice-resistant salmon andaid the natural host defences against sea lice.

Power has always required access to water, and Imean pristine water, and this is more significantnow than ever before. Concerns of the impact of

the dairy industry degrading water quality in streams andgroundwater throughout Canterbury prompted EnvironmentCanterbury to post large advertisements in The Press tocreate awareness.

To some this is just the greenies going on again and theydon’t take in the significance of the issue. But what if the issuewas put like this: clean, green prosperity – pollution poverty! Itmeans you can’t grow high value, renewable, sustainable cropsthat are in harmony with the environment, because someoneelse is getting away with being selfish, and spoiling it for otherend users, both now and in the future.

My wife and I are growing freshwater crayfish, or koura, inKaikoura. Our farm has suddenly come under threat fromFonterra’s proposed remedy to complaints from discharging itsnearby cheese factory waste into the ocean by a crude outfall.Instead, Fonterra will irrigate it with almost 20 percent of thevolume of water that the town uses, over land and intogroundwater, and hence degrade it, and onto our farm, with anadverse and unknown effect on the health of our extremelysensitive koura.We would prefer Fonterra to discharge

their waste into the town’s settling ponds.

Before we started farming we looked at two establishedkoura farms, whose owners gave us helpful advice, but we havestill made mistakes and are only surmising what we have donewrong.To stop us from having to reinvent the wheel, wedecided to investigate an advanced industry where themistakes have already been made - freshwater crayfish calledmarron in Western Australia.

Thanks to a week of heavy rain in Western Australia, ourplan of approaching growers for an hour of their time worked.It was the best thing we could have done.The first grower wemet we now consult with, as he had the experience, thescientific base and a top harvest of three tonnes per hectareto verify what he said.

“Yes, I will be happy to consult with you,” he said,“But youhave to do exactly as I say, otherwise it won’t work. I havebeen learning lots of different ways to kill marron over the last18 years.”

He and others with a science base and the practicalexperience have written procedures for someone who isinterested in farming a species that is sensitive to all kinds ofthings. I refer to a guidebook for another Australian freshwatercrayfish, The Australian Yabby Farmer, by John Mosig.There isnothing in that enlightening 200 pages that is beyond astudious 16-year-old.

Another farmer we spoke to in the rain described himself asa retired plumber who got absorbed, as we have, in being acrayfish farmer.With four years experience he said he wasimproving his harvest each year, and this year was expectingtwo tonnes/ha.We came away feeling that if we followedprocedures and eliminated predators completely, in our caseeels, cormorants and dragonfly nymphs, we would be on ourway to becoming koura farmers.

Interestingly, the industry-standard 25m by 40m ponds wesaw were built around having an emergency response plan.They were designed around the advantages and disadvantagesof the most efficient and most economical aerators: the paddlewheel. Mosig states the same commandment for crayfishfarmers over and over:“If in doubt, aerate.”

Water health was managed with aeration by paddlewheeland not by waterflow, as we were. I was intrigued by that, andthat marron farmers could then grow something separate tomarron.

They were building and monitoring an aquatic food chain forthe marron to eat, with the addition of manure and fertilisersupplements.

I likened it to the world-class trout fishing at Deans Bank,near the outlet of Lake Wanaka, where flooding does notdestroy the food in the river which the trout eat because the


KAIKOURA KOURA FARM in conflict with Fonterra

BY VINCE SCULLY

Cheesefactory

wastage willdegrade the

natural groundwater

flooding is absorbed, with the lake rising and buffering theflood threat.

Interestingly, the nearby Cardrona River, which is alsosusceptible to flooding, has little trout life. I was going to givethis concept a go, and by monitoring the building food chainwith the reduction in visibility with a ski pole converted to adepth gauge or sechi disk. Mosig’s advice on thiswas,“If in doubt, aerate.”

The marron were fed protein supplements aswell, as we were doing, and for which I hadstarted a worm farm.The problem was that proteinnot eaten decayed in the nitrogen cycle to toxic ammonia.That is: overfeeding is fatal, and underfeeding isn’t going togrow the equivalent of the big fish that could once be caughtnear the discharges of the meatworks into WellingtonHarbour.

To resolve this,Western Australia government fisheriesprovided the growers with tables on feeding ratios dependenton water temperature.The paddle wheel offered subtle signstoo, such as uneaten feed washed to the surface, and I waswarned to watch for the first en masse moult in spring withrising temperatures when crayfish don’t eat.

We also received strong advice to read and understand themanagement of water quality. Pristine water is paramount toour industry.

I came home to New Zealand disappointed. I walked under abright, government-sponsored banner in the immigration halls,prompting visitors before they even arrived that if they wereinterested in residing here, to go to a website.

Here was the government effectively poaching people tobuild a skills base to better New Zealand, and here was I, anunqualified grower, going overseas on my own funds to furthera primary industry that is worth $100,000 per hectare ofwater, and possibly $200,000 per hectare in the future, in anindustry billed in my aquaculture book as the growth industryin the next 30 years.

Or, in the words of the New Zealand Aquaculture Council:“to be on the same footing as the wine industry by 2025, andby 2030 to match the wild fisheries catch”.

I see the potential of fresh water aquaculture as exciting.There are two developments in New Zealand research thatwe will learn to become proud of. Eels, for the first time incenturies, have been induced to spawn in captivity. If we cangrow them from larvae to the elva stage, in captivity, we have ahuge industry.

Secondly, a food-safe microchip means that for the first timecrayfish, which because of their moulting process cannot betagged, now effectively can, so that a genetically fast-growingstrain can be developed.

We can now develop as agriculture, horticulture andviticulture have been doing for centuries.This, advises ourWestern Australian consultant, is the future of the industry.(The WA government fisheries has traced a genetic strain offaster-growing marron using the New Zealand microchip, andpassed them over to the farmers.)

So here am I, one of a handful of passionate koura farmersgrowing a boutique product, oddly without any governmentassistance, and possibly to be affected by the degradation ofground water which the government is allowing to happen.

I say to the government that the future prosperity of thiscountry is assisted not only by poaching screened visitors, butalso by supporting and protecting our valuable fledgingindustry. Please, make discharges of effluent everywhere gothrough settling ponds - as they do in other first worldcountries - and stop allowing pristine groundwater to becomea toilet. Our environment, health and prosperity depend on it.

Vince Scully is a master mariner and the author of Poles Apartwith Northanger.Vince and his wife, Mary Shanahan, have takenover the dream of the late deep-sea diver Peter Johnson todevelop Kaikoura’s first koura farm. It is expected to betwo years before the farm is in full production.


The launch by the New Zealand aquaculture industryof its Aquaculture Strategy marked a shift awayfrom the past few years, fixation on the legal regime

for aquaculture to an emphasis on the policy environmentwithin which the sector operates. However unsatisfactory thelegal regime might be, it seems that it will be with us for theforeseeable future. Rather than a further beating of headsagainst that particular brick wall, the industry strategy seemsto herald an era of just getting on with it.

Above all, the strategy emphasises the need for the industryto be more involved in aquaculture planning through theResource Management Act. In particular, a key priority will beto “work with, and assist councils to identify areas for andestablish environmentally sustainable new aquaculturemanagement areas, or AMAs.”

Local body planning through the Local Government Act hasalso been flagged as important.The LGA provides theframework for developing long-term council community plansand annual plans.These outline activities to be undertaken bycouncils, and how those activities will be funded. Given thelikelihood that councils will continue to seek to generaterevenue from aquaculture activities, whether through rating,coastal occupation charges or increasing resource consent fees,LGA planning processes will require attention from the industry.

Another suite of activities covered by the strategy relate toincreasing certainty of tenure for existing marine farmers,including identifying and promoting successful examples ofways councils have dealt with consent renewals.

Another innovative idea is to explore an “evergreen contracts”model, whereby consents might be renewed part way throughtheir term, so that incumbents always have a “buffer” of anumber of years of guaranteed tenure ahead of them.

The need to look at the “bankability” of marine farmingconsents is also highlighted.A common complaint of smallermarine farmers, in particular, is that banks won’t accept marinefarming consents as security for business loans, with the resultthat the family home often ends up being mortgaged to fundthe business.

The problem lies in section 122 of the RMA, which providesthat resource consents are not “real or personal property”,and that coastal permits do not give the holder “the samerights in relation to the use and occupation of the area (towhich it relates), as if he or she were a tenant or licensee”.

There are some exceptions to those general rules, but theimpression clearly remains that resource consents, particularlycoastal permits, are inferior to leases, licences and other formsof bankable property right.

The strategy does not ignore the fact that the aquaculture

reforms left much to be desired. It flags the need to “workwith the government to continually monitor and improve theaquaculture regulatory regime”. Implicit is a recognition thatanother major overhaul of the legal framework is unlikely inthe foreseeable future and that any further improvements willhave to be incremental.

Frameworks for experimental/educational aquaculture andfor freshwater/land-based aquaculture are highlighted asrequiring further work.There is little doubt that the post-reform framework presents huge hurdles to experimentalaquaculture activities, due to the practical difficulty ofdemonstrating the environmental effects that will result froman activity that has never been undertaken before.“Tweaking”of the framework to provide greater flexibility in this respectwould be a real boon to the whole industry.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSEThe ministerial response to the strategy has been positive.Thegovernment has accepted the invitation to develop a nationalstatement or policy,“that looks to maximise the value we getfrom aquaculture”, and that states that “aquaculture is alegitimate and valued use of our coastal space,” the Hon JimAnderton said on July 27.

This is not, however, to be the “national policy statement”provided for under the RMA. Such policy statements areprepared through a formal, public process and are binding onlocal authorities.The national policy on aquaculture is intendedto be a more political statement, recording the government’scommitment to the future of the industry, rather than havingany formal, legal effect.At the same time, it has been mootedthat the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement - a key RMAdocument that is binding on councils - could include guidancefor councils on aquaculture development.

In launching the industry strategy, the Minister of EconomicDevelopment, Hon Trevor Mallard, chose to emphasise theneed for industry improvement:“Rather than undertakingbusiness-as-usual activities on a greater scale, the growth ofthe industry will come through better use of existing space…the development of new value-added products and thediversification into new markets.”

While few would disagree with this sentiment, developmentwill be limited, and the reforms will ultimately fail, ifthere is not also access to new aquaculture space.

Justine Inns joined Oceanlaw as a senior associate. She previouslyspent more than a decade as an advisor to various iwi (tribes),including several years with Ngai Tahu, responsible forimplementing the iwi’s Treaty of Waitangi claim settlement


STRATEGIES, POLICIES and the law

BYJUSTINE

INNS

14 New Street, PO Box 921 Nelson. Phone 64 3 548 4136, Fax 64 3 548 4195, 0800 OCEANLAW Email [email protected] www.oceanlaw.co.nz

VIP.S40

The only law firm in the South Pacific dedicated to the sea

On August 23, a mob of happy aquaculturalistsfrom the Mahurangi Technical Institute consistingof myself,Adrian Paarman, Kim Pierce and Garth

Foote, jetted in to Adelaide to attend the Skretting AustralasiaAquaculture conference and trade show.

During a brief stopover at Sydney we visited MajesticAquariums, where the owner, Paul Talbot, kindly collected usfrom the airport.We were pleasantly surprised by the highquality and variety of livestock, and in particular the range andsheer number of yabbies on sale for aquarium use. NewZealand koura farmers take note!

Talbot has a very successful series of DVDs on the marketrelating to aquaria, and is currently filming a television serieson aquaria and aquarists.A more “fish crazy” person would behard to find!

After the obligatory wine tour of the Barossa Valley it wasdown to business.August 25 and 26 were taken up inattending the aquaculture recirculation technology shortcourse at the University of South Australia, which wasdelivered by Dr Thomas Losordo and Dennis DeLong, bothfrom the North Carolina State University.This workshop waspresented by the Inland Aquaculture Association of South


Australia. Seewww.iaasa.org.au

We had two days ofintense and technicallearning about allaspects of recirculatingaquaculture systems, orRAD, from components to economics.

The excellent presentation was supplemented by completenotes and a CD with all sorts of helpful tools, includingspreadsheets for working out the “mass balance”, aparticular crowd favourite!

LEARNING CURVE at conferenceBY DAVID COOPER, MAHURANGI TECHNICAL INSTITUTE

PHOTOS: ADRIAN PAARMAN AND KIM PIERCE

FROM LEFT:AdrianPaarman,David Cooperand KimPierce at theconference

Securing our marine farming future involves investingin an integrated strategy incorporating all end usersin the maritime sector.Although the maritime

industry abounds with many goings on, it seems at times thatmany different groups of people, both large and small, often keepto themselves.The following article discusses marine farming aspart of the wider issues facing the maritime sector.

Our exclusive economic zone has huge potential in terms ofprimary, value-added and energy production and mineralextraction. Furthermore, areas such as medicine, explorationand marine protection industries such as the Navy, customsand fisheries could be increasingly integrated in exploiting ourEEZ.All this has flow-on effects across the entire maritimesector, including marine farming.As technology progresses,these resources will become more accessible.Theopportunities for revenue and employment are enormous.

Jobs “up the food chain” cannot exist without a flourishingindustry of primary producers with a guaranteed future. Howcan the industry possibly attract or employ quality people in aknowledge-based economy and invest in its future developmentwhen they are limited by short-term contracts, questionableremuneration, limited research and development funding on arenewable basis and little job security.As a united maritimesector there is a need to start investing more in our people.

A glut in highly skilled labour across a number of maritimeindustries also exists. Is it training, recruitment or a lack ofawareness by people looking for work? Or is it pay parity,lifestyle, a lack of opportunities or a lack of job satisfaction.

Creating a diverse job environment comes from expansion andintegration of an at-times disparate maritime sector.

A fine example is the proposal put forward for controllingbottom trawling in the fishing industry.The benefits ofeducation self-management and taking responsibility byinvesting in an educated technology-based industry areevident. Public awareness of long-term sustainability isexemplified, and its wider implications for employment, lifestyleand job security are valued.

It is the public that effects change and a significantinvestment in human resources.This change comes throughdeveloping an awareness of opportunity for everyone in awider socio-economic context.This is achieved by educatingeveryone at all levels, at all ages and in all industries, includingdefence and educational centres, about the opportunities thatexist through changing attitudes about investing in andexploiting our maritime environment.

Eco-tourism provides a powerful link between people inthe maritime industry and those who move through it, thepublic. From whale watching to fishing in marine farms,aquarium displays and education centres, this area inparticular could further extol the value of marine farming ina wider context.

Issues such as the protection of whales, dolphins, penguins,bird life and seafloor habitat are prominent. Marine farming,like other industries, overlaps these areas, and a considerableamount of effort at a huge cost has gone into addressing this.

This is something that needs to be imparted to the publicthrough teaching and education. How manypeople on the street, the voters, really knowwhat goes into an assessment ofenvironmental effects and the outcomesimplemented from it.

Teaching and educational institutes andresearch and development centres aremoving towards sharing more with the publicto promote greater awareness of the marineenvironment, maritime industries and thework being carried out.

What may be lacking is an integrated viewof the wider maritime picture.An integratedstrategy at a national level across themaritime sector may change publicperceptions.

Fundamental to this is educating the nationabout the enormous opportunity there is atour doorstep, given our extensive coastline andEEZ relative to our land mass. New Zealand isa maritime nation, and marine farming isa significant part of that.


SECURING OUR FUTURE– educating the nation

BY DR ANDREW MORGAN

The MarineEducationCentre atPortobello

MarineLaboratory,

OtagoUniversity

Dioxin-like contaminants are having a devastatingeffect on European eel embryos, according to areport in the May issue of Fish Farming

International.Arjan Palstra, a scientist at the University of Leiden in The

Netherlands, says the only answer is to develop a completecycle of eel-farming techniques.

When Palstra and his team examined deformed embryoniceggs from eels spawned at the university, they discovered thatdioxin-like contaminants had a drastic effect on thedevelopment and survival of the embryos.

The European eel,Anguilla anguilla, isfound virtually everywhere around inlandEurope and along the Mediterraneancoasts of Europe and Africa, and most eelfarming takes place in The Netherlandsand Denmark. Eels can live for 20 yearsor more.

Farmers in Europe and Asia buy wild-caught young eels called glass eels andgrow them to maturity, and they are alsopopular with consumers, so demand isextremely high. But the number of glass eelscaught in Europe has declined dramatically from the 1980s by99 percent, and overfishing is the suspected cause.

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea saysthere is no single cause for the crash. Over-exploitation, inlandhabitat loss, changes in the climate and ocean currents, diseaseand pollution are all suspected.

But around 2002, researchers began to suspect thatcontaminants were the most likely cause. Eels do not feedduring their 5000km to 6000km journey from Europe to theirspawning grounds, thought to be the Sargasso Sea, south ofBermuda, and live on their stored body fat. Internalconcentrations of lipophilic pollutants rise with fatconsumption, thus increasing the chance for toxic effects.

Almost all long-lived fish contain dioxin, and eels often spendmost of their life in rivers and streams contaminated with highlevels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and otherresidues that have an adverse affect on fertility.

Because nobody knows where eels spawn or lay their eggs,until recently it was impossible to examine their eggs or newlyhatched eel larvae to determine if there was anycontamination.

Palstra and his team caught 25 female and 50 male silver eelsin the wild during the eels’ seaward migration.After killing 12females as controls, the remaining females were injectedweekly with carp pituitary extract and not fed during theexperiment.

They discovered that they could induce ovulation in thefemale eels by injecting a special solution, after which theireggs were stripped by hand.The males were injected weekly


with human chorionic gonadotropinfor at least seven weeks, and theirsperm used to fertilise the eggs.

According to Palstra, embryonicmalformations observed in thestudy were typical for eggsexposed to PCB. Dioxin-likecompounds were determined in

the eel eggs using a reporter gene assay.“Our study suggests that current gonadal levels of dioxin-like

contaminants, including PCBs, in eels from most Europeanlocations impair normal embryonic development,” said Palstra.

“The conclusion is further strengthened by the fact that theemission of PCBs in the environment coincides with thedecline of eel populations.Therefore, we consider it likely thatdioxin-like PCBs contributed to the current collapse ofEuropean eel populations.”

Although PCBs are now banned in Europe and levels arefalling, there is strong speculation that it may be too late forthe European eel. Palstra says that only eels from lessindustrialised areas may still be capable of reproducing.“We think the only answer is farming.”

Farming is the only chance forEUROPEAN EELS

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These NewZealand eelsdon’t sufferthe Europeanproblem. Anopportunityawaits

Aquick and simple test indicates whether musselspat are fit or weak.The test can giveforewarning to allow remedial action and reversal

of decline in spat condition.Mussel spat are not cheap, yet the industry currently

tolerates significant losses where only a few percent of spatseeded onto grow-out ropes remain at harvest. Clearly, anyimprovement in retention would be a worthwhile goal, andmonitoring spat health is a good first step in that direction.

Wild spat can have a rough time - after washing ashore onseaweed, they need prompt collection, otherwise overheatingand desiccation can take their toll.

On top of this, the journey to the grow-out site can stretchfrom a few hours to a day or more.Again, temperature andhumidity may deviate from the optimum. Stress andconsequent mortalities can be minimised by appropriatehandling of the spat, and a test of fitness can help identifycritical points in the process. Such a test needs to be quick,easy and inexpensive.

This test exploits a reflex of marine bivalves to sealthemselves off from fresh water - if they don’t, they die. Healthyspat are good at sealing, but dead spat don’t seal at all, and spat

between these extremes have shown intermediate ability.Movement of water into spat is difficult to track, but it

becomes obvious if there is stain in the water. Not just anystain will do - it must be of low toxicity to the mussels (andthe user), and must also effectively stain any exposed tissues.

Several stains were evaluated before Fast Green wasselected. See Webb & Heasman [Aquaculture Vol. 252, pp305-316, 2006] for details of the test.

OTHER HEALTH CRITERIATo be sure that staining actually indicated ill health, wecompared staining results with spat activity that is a morefundamental indicator of health.Activities of healthy spat inseawater include extension and movement of the mantle,beating of cilia or heart, movement of the foot and shellvalves, and normal orientation of the shell with the hingeplane being held vertically.

Experiments showed that highly active spat groups had fewstainers (spat that take up the dye), whereas inactive spat hadmany stainers and intermediate groups stained pro rata.

Activity, in turn, varied with the prior treatment of the spat.Spat exposed to increasingly hostile conditions such as


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VIABILITY TESTING for mussel spatBY STEVE WEBB AND KEVIN HEASMAN, CAWTHRON INSTITUTE

desiccation, poor quality water and noxious chemicals showeda proportionate decrease in activity that corresponded closelywith an increase in staining.

Furthermore, staining and activity levels in a range of spatsamples from controls to lethal exposures showed a significantrelationship where one parameter was mirrored by the other.Thus, staining can be taken as a good surrogate for activityand, therefore, as an indicator of health.

Why not assess activity directly? Stain testing saves muchtime and effort. Spat sometimes require extended observationunder the microscope to detect activity.This is time-consuming, especially when each of a sample of 50 spat requirescrutiny until a decision can be made.With the Fast Greentest, all you have to do is count the stained spat. Outcomesusing the stain test are quicker and much more clearly defined.

TEST SIGNSA range of spat conditions caused by exposure to air(emersion), ethanol and nutrient-loaded (hypoxic) water weredetectable with normal health, sub-lethal and lethal conditionsbeing statistically distinguishable.

Although staining increased significantly with more severeexposure to these agents, spat tested after return to normalseawater showed significant recovery (ie a lowering of stainingproportions).The test thus gave warning while the spatcondition was reversible - minimal mortalities during the testperiod confirmed this.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTSAlthough the validity of the test in laboratory and hatcherytrials has been established, its usefulness during commercialtransport remains to be confirmed. Once the test has beenproved as informative, an on-site spat grading service will bemade available to mussel farmers in the form of self-containedtest kits for them to test spat as required.

Quality-based pricing of spat is possible.The spat fitness testcan be used to optimise handling throughout the supply chain,thus extending the spat resource.

The stain test has also revealed a relationship between the

pre-seeding fitness level of spat and the proportion of spatremaining on ropes 48 hours after seeding. Furtherdevelopment is needed, but this relationship is being exploredwith the intention of producing a practical means of predictingspat retention on seeded ropes. Predictable retention rateswill allow more accurate estimation of required spatseeding number, with savings in spat and labour.


Heat-stressed 2mm mussel spat (left) andcontrol (right) after staining with Fast Green

Cawthron mollusc physiologist Dr Norman Ragg uses the stain

test to assess the toxicity ofammonia to mussel spat

THE JULY/AUGUST ISSUE of New Zealand Aquaculture featuredthe article Koi Ponds and Algae Don’t Mix.We also outlined someof the topics covered in a seminar for koi enthusiasts that tookplace in June in the North American state of Georgia. Notethat this seminar was in the United States.

In a letter to the magazine from the Department ofConservation, the chief technical officer - conservation, GeoffHicks, points out that koi carp, or Cyrpinus carpio, are one ofNew Zealand’s least desirable species. It was declared a noxiousfish in 1983 and an unwanted organism in 1993.

The articles had caused significant concern, as the species wasnot at all desirable in waterways, said Hicks. “We haveexpended significant effort in educating the public with regard tothe risk that this species poses to our freshwater environment.”

Koi root up vegetation and stir up sediment when they feed.This makes the water murky, and increases nutrient levels andalgal concentrations.Their feeding pattern also contributes tobank erosion in at-risk areas.They are opportunistic omnivores,preying on invertebrates, native fish and aquatic plants, he said.

Female koi lay up to 1.5 million eggs at a time, and since theywere accidentally released into the wild in the 1960s they havecaused significant detrimental impact on the environment, asthey rapidly colonise new areas and expand their range.

They are nearly impossible to eradicate from bigger riversystems and interconnected waterways, and DoC is continuingto eradicate koi carp from private ponds.

“The department has successfully eradicated all known koi


KOI CARP IN NZ – A NOXIOUS PEST carp populations in the South Island, and hopes to maintain thisarea free of this pest.”

It is illegal to possess, rear, raise or consign koi carp withoutthe authorisation of the director-general of the Department ofConservation. It is also illegal to knowingly communicate(including transferring or moving), breed, sell or exhibit carpwith an exemption from the chief technical officer -conservation. Penalties for persons convicted of these activitiesinclude fines of up to $100,000 and/or five years’ imprisonmentfor individuals, and much higher penalties for corporations.Theprohibitions also include advertising or endorsements that couldresult in this illegal activity.

“I realise that the article is likely to have been sourced via anAmerican syndication network and that it contents may beappropriate in its country of origin,” says Hicks.“It is, however,not appropriate to promote koi carp as a desirable pondspecies in New Zealand.” See www.doc-govt.nz

NOTE:We acknowledge that the article was based on Americaninformation, and are mindful that koi carp have establishedthemselves within certain New Zealand waterways. So much so,that the only way to manage these invaders is to create a meansof sustainable utilisation of this unwanted resource.

Clearly, DoC does not have the means or the resources toeradicate this pest.Therefore, the logical answer would be toencourage business initiatives that will harvest and control itsfuture spread. ...Ed

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infection would play to the strengths of fish immunity, Sunyersaid.“In the long term, farming is a better, moreenvironmentally sound approach to fishing, so better vaccinesmay make the practice more financially attractive to fishermanand less destructive to fish populations.

“Here we have a clear picture of where one part of theimmune system, primitive phagocytes, adapted over time toserve a more complex role as part of the immunesystem that humans enjoy today,” Sunyer said.

RESEARCHERS HAVE FOUND that a primitive version of Bcells, the white blood cells of the immune system, known askiller B cells, are an evolutionary link between the immunesystems of fish and mammals.

The researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Schoolof Veterinary Medicine found that the study linked the evolutionof the adaptive immune system in mammals to the moreprimitive innate immunity in fish.The finding, published in theOctober online version of Nature Immunology, represent asizeable evolutionary step for the mammalian immune system,and offer a potential new strategy for developing fish vaccines.

“When examining fish B cells we see them actively attacking andeating foreign bodies,which is a behaviour that, according to thecurrent dogma, just shouldn’t happen in B cells,” said Professor JOriol Sunyer, of Penn Vet’s Department of Pathobiology.

“I believe it is evidence for a very real connection betweenthe most primitive forms of immunological defence which hassurvived in fish, and the more advanced, adaptive immuneresponse seen in humans and other mammals.”

Their findings also have an agricultural implication.Thecurrent vaccines given to farmed salmon, for example, appealto the fish’s adaptive immune response, which this research hasnow shown to be a smaller part of the overall fish immunesystem than previously thought.

Vaccines that encouraged phagocytic B cell to respond to

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LINK FOUND BETWEEN FISH AND MAMMAL IMMUNE SYSTEMS

INNOVATIVE FOODPROCESSINGAs markets move toward ready-to-eat,“guaranteed fresh” conveniencefoods, growers need more modern equipment to process theirproduce, Donald Napier Ltd, or DNL, can supply innovative, advancedfood processing and packaging systems, including machinery foraquaculture produce.The company can wash, grade, slice and dice, washand dry, weigh or bag, and even integrate food with a ready-mix salad.

Delicate, soft-handling features in the systems ensure an attractiveend-product that DNL says it can integrate into a company’s processingto provide a competitive advantage.The DNL team can also provideengineering services from concept to system installation, and draws ona comprehensive stock of spare parts.

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