New clam fishery expects $30m annual harvest

Surfco's Tony Craig (left) and Craggy Range Winery chef Stephen Tindall try some clam and wine combinations. Picture / Warren Buckland

Tuatua and six other species of "surf clams" will be harvested from the Hawke's Bay seabed from next year as a new multimillion-dollar fishery is established.

A consortium of fishing companies, Surfco, which owns the quota for seven species of clam in Hawke's Bay, has estimated each kilometre of the coastline could yield 16 tonnes of clams a year.

The clams are buried in sand, 2m to 6m below the low-tide line.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research will begin three months of research next month, from Westshore to Bay View and from Marine Parade to Haumoana.

The results of the study into the surf clam populations in Hawke's Bay will be presented at a public meeting.

Surfco chairman Tony Craig said all the sandy beaches were to be investigated but the company had decided to start in the bay because the seabed was ideal.

He was keen to keep the local community informed of the fishery plans and from next month people could see a 13m research catamaran working in the Napier surf zone.

"Early indications suggest the long-term sustainable fishery will be worth at least $30 million a year."

Ngati Kahungunu has a share in Surfco through its share in Aotearoa Fisheries and Te Ohu Kai Moana Trustee which, with New Zealand Surf Clams and Armitage Fisheries, are part of the consortium.

The Government introduced seven species of surf clams into the quota management system last year and Surfco has all of the 20 tonnes of quota assigned to the area from East Cape to Wellington.

Mr Craig said that was set as a development level to allow research into what fishery existed.

Aquaculture consultant John Cranfield said a survey of the Nuhaka seabed in 1991 found 64 tonnes of the seven varieties of surf clam in an area that ran 350m along the beach and 450m out to sea.

Dr Cranfield said the clams would be harvested by pumping water into the sand, to float the clams into a catch bag.

The environmentally friendly method was developed at New Zealand's only existing commercial clam fishery in Marlborough, he said.

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY