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results throughout aquaculture farming operations, including diffi cult areas to clean, such as pipelines, Crawford said. It was also safe and cost-effective to transport to remote areas of farming activity. See www.aquatic.no VIRUS COULD HAVE CAUSED SALMON FISHERY SLUMP A newly discovered virus could be the "smoking gun" behind the collapse of Canada's Fraser River sockeye salmon fi shery in 2009, a federal fi sheries biologist Kristi Miller said on August 26. She was appearing as an expert witness at the Cohen Commission, a public inquiry investigating the collapse of the 2009 sockeye run. Miller, who works at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans at Nanaimo, British Columbia, said the parvovirus was similar to one that has been found in humans, dogs, sea lions, shrimp, ducks, geese and snakes. However, it was the fi rst time a parvovirus has been found in a fi sh. She said the virus, discovered in late February, had potentially been matched to a genetic signature linked to the increased die-off of sockeye returning to the Fraser River. The virus discovery furthers work published by Miller and her colleagues in the journal Science which showed evidence that many sockeye were entering the Fraser River in a compromised state, possibly because of viral infections. "If we demonstrate that when fi sh are entering the ocean and they become stressed in the ocean (due to the environment), and they carry a high load of this virus, and that we see signifi cantly enhanced mortality, there certainly is the potential that this virus could have a major impact on salmon declines," Miller told the inquiry. She agreed with a comment from anti-fi sh- farming lawyer Gregory McDade that the virus "could be the smoking gun." McDade pointed to work done two decades ago that suggested there might be a virus causing leukaemia in salmon, and asked Miller if it could be the same virus that was recently discovered. She said the leukaemia virus had not been ruled out, but noted it had never been isolated. A fellow DFO scientist, Kyle Garver, called for a more cautious approach and said that without more research it was purely speculative to say the new parvovirus was a signifi cant factor in the 2009 collapse. "We don't have a link to mortality. We don't know how it is transmitted. We don't know if it causes disease," said Garver, who added he was uncomfortable with the speculation. The DFO is investigating if the newly discovered virus is infectious and causes disease in Fraser River sockeye. The work began in late August and is expected to take at least several months, Garver told the inquiry. CONFERENCE PROMOTES OPPORTUNITIES Unlocking the potential of aquaculture through genomics, feed nutrition, selective breeding and innovations will be the theme of an address by Professor Neil Gemmell at the New Zealand Aquaculture Conference in November. Professor Gemmell, who holds the AgResearch Chair in Reproduction and Genomics at the University of Otago, is the inaugural director of the Centre for Reproduction and Genomics, a collaborative venture between the university and AgResearch. It is working with NIWA, the Cawthron Institute and Sanford to help enhance aquaculture programmes spanning mussels, paua, salmon, and other fi nfi sh. The conference will celebrate New Zealand's marine farming sector, which produces some of the world's best seafood and generates over $380 million in annual revenue. It will bring together New Zealand's aquaculture companies and experts along with international specialists to discuss the issues and opportunities facing the sector, including new legislation, market development, sustainability, global trends, innovations and health. It will be held in Nelson on November 9-10 at the Rutherford Hotel. Dr Rhys Hauler, marketing manager at Skretting Australia, will speak on the company's sustainable economic NEW LAW SUPPORTS SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE The successful passage of the Aquaculture Amendment Act set the legal framework needed to support growth in the aquaculture sector, says Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Phil Heatley. From October 1, changes will be made to the Aquaculture Reform (Repeals and Transitional Provisions) Act 2004, the Fisheries Act 1996, the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act 2004 and the Resource Management Act 1991. The act removes the need to establish aquaculture management areas. "These changes will support the aquaculture industry to fulfi l its potential while maintaining essential protections for the environment. It balances aquaculture development with other uses of the coastal space," Heatley said. "Aquaculture needs only a small fraction of our coastal space and has the potential to be a $1 billion industry by 2025. This potential was fettered by the unintended consequences of former regulations that saw aquaculture applications held back by moratoria." aquafeeds programme. Dr Hauler will describe how Skretting develops and produces products to deliver sustainability in feeds. Advances in fi sh nutrition, selection of raw materials and life cycle analysis of fi sh feeds will be described. Other notable speakers are expected to include Dr Richard Smullen, technical manager at Ridley Aqua Feed, and Nick King, the cultured shellfi sh programme leader and senior aquaculture scientist at the Cawthron Institute. King's expertise is combining biology with industrial automation. His improvements range from high-density larval tank design through to entire hatchery monitoring and control systems. Others who will present their views to the conference include: • the chief executive offi cer of the Fonterra Co-operative Group, Andrew Ferrier • the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Hon Phil Heatley • the chief executive of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Chris Ninnes • Maori trustee Jamie Tuuta, who has a keen interest in innovation and increasing the performance of our primary industries, in particular the Maori pastoral and fi shing sectors, and • cook, writer and broadcaster Peta Mathias. Aquaculture would now be on the same footing as other coastal activities and enable local councils to plan new aquaculture ventures in a similar way, with proposed developments going through consent processes under the Resource Management Act. The legislation specifi cally assists aquaculture development in Tasman and Waikato by amending both regional coastal plans to enable applications to farm a wider range of species, including fi nfi sh, in areas where aquaculture is already established. "Before the introduction of this legislation, these two plans contained the greatest barriers to developing aquaculture. The government recognised there was a great opportunity to stimulate investment and growth in these regions, within acceptable environmental limits," he said. The Waikato coastal plan has also been amended to establish the Coromandel Marine Farm Zone. Heatley said the government was committed to ensuring the Crown continued to uphold the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement, and the new law included a delivery mechanism for the settlement. See www.fi sh.govt.nz. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 ■ NZ AQUACULTURE ■ 5