KEY POINTS:
The Environment Court has cleared the way for an oyster farm to be set up in the remote Kaipara Harbour, with the prospect of eventually providing 100 jobs in Warkworth.
BioMarine director Jim Dollimore said yesterday the decision meant the company could fatten elite oysters in the pure water demanded by export clients.
"We and the industry need this area as a producer of New Zealand's signature clean green food safe oysters. Very few places in the world can compete with that."
Oyster farms on the Mahurangi Harbour, on the opposite coast, escaped this month's major diesel spill at Warkworth because of prompt placing of booms by the authorities.
But in 2002, as a precaution, 28 Warkworth oyster farms stopped harvesting for two months after raw sewage spilled into the river from the town's treatment plant. "It's good to get out into an area where there is no pressure on the catchment," said Mr Dollimore.
BioMarine has battled to get high water quality for growing oysters in the Mahurangi where there is silt and pollution run off from farms, earthworks and septic tanks, and sewage from boats in the summer.
It saw some relief in an idea to take partly grown oysters from other harbours to the remote Kaipara for fattening in baskets on the seabed.
In 2001 Biomarine applied to the Auckland Regional Council for consents for the Orongo Pt oyster farm and for a recommendation to the Environment Minister to allow use of 100 ha of seabed.
The bid became caught in the Government's moratorium on marine farming projects.
However, it was released by the minister for processing in December 2004 and was the first application to be heard. ARC commissioners turned it down in November 2005, saying it had a new report on sea bed life in the southern Kaipara, which said rare and unique marine life communities found there performed important ecological functions.
The communities were rare tube-building worms which stabilised sand and subtidal seagrass which sheltered baby snapper.
The company appealed to the Environment Court which last week decided to allow the farm to proceed if it occupies a lesser area, has a 20-year lease term and is cautiously developed.
Mr Dollimore said the consent condition approved by interested parties meant that development would be in five stages with monitoring of harmful affects to be completed before the next stage is started.
He was expecting consent soon from the minister for the farm to occupy the coastal marine area.
Mr Dollimore expected to start on the first stage early next year with the aim of harvesting 2.5 to 3 million oysters in a year, for processing in the company's Snells Beach factory.
The company now employs 25 people in its factory and Mahurangi farms. When the Kaipara farm is fully developed in a decade, it will need 25 staff just to run it.
When fully developed, the farm should produce 25 to 30 million oysters a year compared to the present New Zealand production of 36 million.
BioMarine plans to build a new factory in 2009 to process these oysters and steadily increase production over the next decade to result in 100 processing jobs.
Shelling out
* Kaipara Harbour covers 743 sq km
* BioMarine farm to cover 70 ha off Orongo Pt
* Partly grown oysters put in baskets to fatten
* Harvest every 10-12 weeks could yield 25-30 million oysters a year
* New Zealand now produces 36 million a year
* Biomarine oysters are mostly exported
