The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
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LETTERS CHRISTMAS LETTERS Dear Sir I ���ew into Perth. I am at a hotel restaurant in Promenade Street. I���m overlooking imagery portraying a sensuous lifestyle that I once enjoyed��� about half a lifetime ago. Now my life is linked to the serenity prayer: Taking on what I can, as weather, time, funds, acquired skills, and my energy levels permit. I���m here because I���m part of the WA ���y-in ���y-out work culture. Tomorrow I will be breathalysed, and queue to go through other safety hoops that allow me to go to work. This time I���m off to a ship off Karratha that is surveying a gas pipeline on the sea ���oor. I am picking up work on a variety of ships, each on different job descriptions and ranks. However, all roads it seems, lead to Karratha. As do planes ��� crammed full of workers in yellow safety shirts. These promenading vistas remind me that such a life exists. I don���t see it while wearing red overalls at home. Or when having breaks from (read: ���tricks to ���nd energy for���) our cray���sh farm, or going out with our big dogs on the Kaikoura Peninsula. Or, with our smaller (fairweather) seadogs either out on our launch Astakos locally, or sailing in Marlborough Sounds with my favourite wife on our trailer yacht, Anae. My favourite mother-in-law was an earthquake refugee. We accommodated Joy in our home for a year. Under the circumstances I thought it was appropriate that I put my feelings on this to one side. We gave Joy a job, appointed her camp boss ��� but with the precedence of the dogs queuing up in the mornings, to lick the wok clean. The year with Joy went okay. We remain on teasing terms. We have been on our koura farm for eight years. We are making small sales but are not yet a commercial venture. Will we make it? And before I retire? I say yes. The Australian Fish Farmer says you have to be serious about predators. We have had to identify what they are. Not only cormorants and eels, which were stated, but also tadpoles and dragon���y larvae. How to effectively manage them, has meant learning from our mistakes. If something goes wrong on a ship surveying a gas pipeline the consequences can be serious, but in an experienced industry the risks are managed by a competent team. We don���t have that on our koura farm. An author of The Australian Fish Farmer quali���es this experience by saying that he has killed lots of ���sh, many different ways. A statement like that may sit well in our infant industry, but hardly, in the oil and gas industry. Favourite wife and I are too close to what we have achieved to give up now. With gardens now becoming established, and with the development of a nursery, and a heated hatchery, our skill levels, and with friends who visit and make supportive, elated comments: all in all, it���s not a bad rest home. Vince Scully, Kaikoura CHRISTMAS FARE RESEARCH, CONSULTING AND LABORATORY ANALYSIS Aquaculture research Aquaculture impact assessments and consents Biosecurity and pest management plans IANZ accredited seafood laboratory Fisheries assessments and management systems Adaptive management plans CAWTHRON INSTITUTE Ph +64 3 548 2319 info@cawthron.org.nz www.cawthron.org.nz 6 ��� NZ AQUACULTURE ��� MARCH/APRIL 2013 Dear Sir My choice of the generous seafood platter on Christmas day, was the smoked, sliced salmon. All the treats, including the lobster, bugs, shrimps and rock oysters, had been carefully preserved. But unlike the cold smoking of the salmon, which had not only preserved, but had enhanced the taste of the salmon, the rest had all been kept in the freezer and their subtle appeal was lost. Perhaps this was like mothers competing against daughters on the catwalk? Perhaps too, this was a victory for farming aquatic, omega 3 animals? But we are not seriously doing this. Neither in ponds on land, nor with other omega 3 species such as mullet and eels. Through history there is plenty of elated enthusiasm for the cuisine of these two species. There is also plenty of modern science that endorses an omega 3 diet, and if farming these two species in ponds on land, prevailed in our culture, the following would be different: ��� Rates of obesity and heart disease ��� Employment in the hinterland ��� The wealth of the nation ��� Export portfolio ��� Unit size of land to generate adequate income ��� Impact on the environment ��� Demand for renewable and non-renewable resources You would have thought we would have got on to that, instead we are loosing our offspring to the land of red dust and sheep jokes. Vince Scully, Kaikoura