Company to farm kingfish in Sounds

New Zealand's first marine farm for kingfish will be sited in the Marlborough Sounds.

Island Aquafarms Ltd has converted four salmon farm cages in Crail Bay to raise juvenile yellowtail kingfish, scientifically known as Seriola lalandi.

Marlborough District Council resource consents officer Keith Heather said the kingfish would be farmed under mussel farmer Graeme Clarke's licence to farm salmon.

The Ministry of Fisheries (MFish) had deemed there to be no real difference between growing salmon and growing kingfish, so a new consent was not required.

However, Island Aquafarms had presented a management plan to the council, he said. It would have a marine biologist on site who would monitor the farm and report to the council.

He said that if successful, the project would add diversity to Marlborough's aquaculture industry.

The kingfish farm was the idea of Pacifica Seafoods Group marketing manager Kent Inglis, who set up the Island Aquafarms company in 2001.

The kingfish are being supplied by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) aquaculture facility at Bream Bay, which has been raising juvenile kingfish since May last year.

Facility manager Dr Simon Hooker said that while most kingfish operations were likely to be in the north, the aquaculture moratorium had stifled advances.

That meant the Marlborough project was an exciting development in kingfish farming - aquaculture's "best opportunity to create wealth".

Kingfish sell for about $17 a kg in Sydney, but some can sell for hundreds of dollars each in Japan.

Aquaculture programme leader Andrew Jeffs said Niwa was focused on increasing the value of aquaculture in New Zealand.

He said that while New Zealand aquaculture was worth about $1600 a tonne, Australian aquaculture was worth $30,000 a tonne.

- NZPA