NZ firm to test water by farming prized gamefish

By KENT ATKINSON

A New Zealand company is launching a venture to farm a highly prized gamefish, the yellowtail kingfish, in sea cages near Nelson in a trade targeting high-value exports.

Island Aquafarms plans to buy yellowtail kingfish - scientifically known as seriola lalandi - as juveniles weighing only a few grammes and raise them to commercial size in the nation's first marine farm for kingfish.

At temperatures above 18C kingfish can be grown to 3kg in 12 months in sheltered coastal waters. For a wild kingfish to grow 1kg it needs to eat 10kg of small fish, such as pilchard, koheru, and jack mackerel, but it is expected farmed kingfish will be fed specially formulated pellets.

Kingfish sell for about $17/kg at the Sydney fish market, but large, very fresh specimens can sell for hundreds of dollars each in Japan, where they are sought after for sashimi dishes. Kingfish can weigh up to 50kg and grow to 2.5m long.

The kingfish farm was the idea of Pacifica Seafoods Group marketing manager Kent Inglis, who set up the Island Aquafarms company in 2001 and has since involved several other businesses in the venture.

The company has applied to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for a risk assessment on importing juvenile kingfish from a hatchery in Port Augusta, South Australia, run by Spencer Gulf Aquaculture, which bred Australia's first captive kingfish in 1998.

However, Inglis said the company did not yet know whether it would proceed with the imports.

"Our initial batch for the pilot scheme will come from Bream Bay," he said.

In March, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) dumped 7500 surplus young kingfish in the sea at its Bream Bay hatchery near Marsden Pt, south of Whangarei.

The fish were intended for the Nelson kingfish farm, but confusion between some of the participants led to some delays in the launch of the farm.

Niwa's $2 million Bream Bay aquaculture facility is understood to have since started breeding another 25,000 to 30,000 kingfish for the Nelson sea cages.

Another kingfish farm, planned by Maori-owned fishing company Moana Pacific at Peach Cove in Whangarei Harbour, was abandoned this year when the company decided to take its aquaculture venture overseas, because of the costs of seeking planning consents in New Zealand.



Farming kingfish is expected to spark a debate from recreational fishers, who regard kingfish as the most valuable New Zealand catch, partly because Japanese and other overseas anglers are willing to spend up to $10,000 on fishing safaris to catch them.

A 1999 report, Value of NZ Recreational Fishing, found that on average it cost a recreational fisher $29.83/kg for each kingfish caught.

- NZPA