The Ministry of Fisheries gave a tentative nod to new marine farms and this mark the end of a 13-year battle to put shellfish farms between Auckland and the Coromandel peninsula. The Ministry of Fisheries has made a preliminary decision to approve the 1783ha Wilson Bay Interim Aquaculture Management Area in the Firth of Thames. But the ministry is now inviting public comments before making a final decision in June.
It is expected that of the marine farm area is approved, a consortium of marine farmers whose application for 520ha of new marine farms has been sitting in the system for 13 years will be able to get a decision. It is told that the Government wants to grow New Zealand’s aquaculture industry and is investigating the possibility of more than 19 new marine farm areas in Northland.
Greenshell New Zealand managing director Peter Vitasovich opined that allowing new marine farms in the Firth of Thames would bring certainty to the local industry and new jobs to Thames and Coromandel. He also told that a common consortium of marine farmers applied to Environment Waikato more than a decade ago for permission to build new shellfish farms in the area.
But that application was put on hold in 2002, when the Government ordered a moratorium on all new marine farms until appropriate areas for fish farming – called Aquaculture Management Areas (AMAs) – had been identified. Ministry of Fisheries regulatory manager Russell Burnard opined that opposition to the AMA in the Firth of Thames had focused on detritus that could fall on the sea floor and the risk of farms getting in the way of fishing.
