Freeze on marine farms extended

By IRENE CHAPPLE


The moratorium on new marine farms has been extended for a further nine months as the Government grapples with Maori claims over waterspace.

The extension, announced yesterday by Fisheries Minister Pete Hodgson, was tipped in the Business Herald a month ago.

Policy papers given to the minister are understood to have recommended an extension of between six and nine months. The moratorium, which began in November 2001 and was due to finish next March, will now last until December next year.

Yesterday, Hodgson said the hold-up was largely due to the foreshore and seabed debate and the Aquaculture Reform Bill would come in its "slipstream".

He said the bill would not be introduced before legislation on the foreshore and seabed issue.

The foreshore and seabed issue was "big and broad" and was clearly "first in the queue", said Hodgson.

The Government is also negotiating iwi claims, backed by a Waitangi Tribunal report, over marine farming waterspace.

Negotiations on those claims are understood to centre on a guaranteed access right to 20 per cent of new Aquaculture Management Areas being established under the new regime.

An intervention clause being worked into the aquaculture legislation may be used as an 'out' should further customary rights be established.

A bill to extend the moratorium will be introduced to Parliament before Christmas, while legislation implementing the aquaculture reforms will not see daylight until about March next year.

The reforms are to clarify the industry's ad hoc legislative framework and the moratorium was implemented to stop a rush for marine farms before they were introduced.

Hodgson said the Government had made "strenuous efforts" to meet the original goal but it had not proved possible.

Hodgson said he was confident the moratorium would be lifted in December: "Let me put it this way: why would I run the risk of having two moratorium dates come and go?"

The reassurances echo those made leading up to August, the original deadline for introduction of the bill, and were greeted with some scepticism.

Graeme Coates of the Aquaculture Council said the industry, "would be absolutely bitterly disappointed if [the moratorium] were to go on longer".

Aquaculture

* Includes the farming of fish and shellfish such as greenshell mussels, oysters, salmon and paua. Species with potential for aquaculture include kingfish, rock lobster, sea horses and eels.

* Earns about $312 million a year. By some estimates, could earn $1 billion a year by 2020.

* Moratorium on new marine farms introduced in November 2001 to prevent "gold rush" while Government reforms law. Moratorium was due to expire next March.

* Government yesterday extended the moratorium to December next year.