Another frustrating year of waiting looms for marine farmers

By IRENE CHAPPLE

If the previous year was bad, last year was surely aquaculture's annus horribilis.

And this year - until December anyway - is unlikely to bring much good cheer.

Last year the moratorium on new marine farms was extended and the bottom dropped out of the mussel market.

By year's end Graeme Coates, executive director of the New Zealand Marine Farming Association, was bemoaning the state of the industry.

Even if the moratorium was lifted, no one would want to enter the industry, he said, on holiday and ruminating glumly on the year over a glass of wine.

This year is likely to be one long story about waiting.

Aquaculture earns around $300 million a year and has a historical growth rate of around 7 per cent.

That growth has been stunted by a disastrous 2003 in which global factors such as Sars and the high New Zealand dollar scuttled the industry's success story.

The moratorium, which began in November 2001, is now due to be lifted in December this year.

It was set up to stop a rush of new marine farms being established while the Government overhauled the legislation.

The extension came despite previous promises from Fisheries Minister Pete Hodgson that it would be lifted on time.

Hodgson blamed the extension on the Government's needing to deal with the foreshore and seabed issues and Maori claims over marine water space.

The Aquaculture Reform Bill was due for its first reading mid last year but has still not appeared. It is now expected in the first half of this year.

Maori claims over aquaculture waterspace appear likely to be satisfied by a 20 per cent stake, a figure reflecting the fisheries settlements of the late 80s and early 90s.

Meanwhile, some regional councils which are required to set up Aquaculture Management Areas (AMAs), where new marine farms will be situated, are struggling with their obligations.

Marine farmers believe delays with creation of the areas will effectively lengthen the ban of new marine farms beyond the moratorium's expiry.

There will be considerable interest in the bill when it finally arrives. Details of its intentions have trickled out and marine farmers have battled to have their views recognised in the new law.

The farmers want certainty so they can invest with confidence. They will be hoping to get it by next Christmas.