Oyster commercial catch to be halved

12.00pm

Commercial catch for the Bluff oyster fishery will be halved when the season starts on Sunday, Fisheries Minister Pete Hodgson said today.

Oyster quota holders had agreed to reduce their catch from 14.95 to 7.5 million oysters, Mr Hodgson said.

That came after surveys of oyster beds showed numbers had been halved in the past year by the disease bonamia.

The surveys showed the percentage of oysters infected may be dropping, Mr Hodgson said.

"With the fishery hopefully entering a recovery phase, it is important that remaining oyster beds are carefully managed to allow the fishery to quickly rebuild," he said.

"Numbers of small oysters remain high, and the fishery rebuilt quickly under similar circumstances in the early 1990s."

Monitoring over the season would continue to see if further protection was required.

The commercial season runs until August 31.

The recreational oyster take of 50 oysters per day remained unchanged.

The commercial quota was now a quarter of what it was two years ago.

Estimated oyster numbers had more than halved from 295 million in 2001 to 144 million in 2002 and the density was reduced to a third of last year.

- NZPA