Oyster farmers to discuss extraction

Thousands of tonnes of oysters are to be removed from Stewart Island's Big Glory Bay. Photo / ODT File

A meeting in Bluff today will hammer out more details of the plan to remove thousands of tonnes of oysters from Stewart Island's Big Glory Bay.

Oyster farmers from Stewart Island and Bluff, representatives from Southland's councils, MPI officials and ministry contractors would all gather to discuss the project, an MPI spokeswoman said yesterday.

The meeting was expected to last most of the day.

It would seek to confirm logistical details of ''how this whole operation is going to run'', the spokeswoman said.

''Then we can start getting ships, getting barges, getting trucks - getting all that equipment on site so that we can start doing this uplift.''

The aim was still to begin removing contaminated oysters from the bay early next week.

''That's what we're aiming for, but that's weather-dependent, obviously.''

MPI officials ended their talks with Stewart Island oyster farmers yesterday by meeting representatives from Sanford, which was involved in a joint-venture oyster farm in Big Glory Bay.

The company declined to comment yesterday.

Joe Cave, the managing director of Southern Seafoods, which also ran an oyster farm on Stewart Island, was reluctant to comment about today's meeting.

''We really want to know a little more about what's going on.

''There's some issues we're not very pleased about, but let's wait and see,'' he said.