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GUEST EDITORIAL Move over SUPERMAN! W BY SANDRA GORTER hat with doomsayers harping on about food shortages looming in the next decade or two, a fl ash new phrase has entered the vocabulary: Food Security. Whether its all just bluster or not, aquaculture has to be the next, 'big, up and coming thing', and those in the industry who take advantage of the opportunities available right now, will be able to look back one day and modestly say they were 'in the right place at the right time'. Tying in two related issues confronting the planet at the moment: the environment, and food supply, then an organic, environmentally sensitive aquaculture industry really does offer the most elegant of solutions to two major issues threatening mankind. And you thought you were just a fi sh farmer? Move over Superman! We hear how salmon farms in Scotland have been berated for the decline of sea trout stocks since the 1980's. That is, until The Scotsman ran a story on how the Government also lifted a 100-year ban on commercial fi shermen trawling and dredging with the three mile limit at the same time as the fi sh farms were starting out, which saw mackerel boats cleaning the Lochs of everything in sight, and just to put the fi nal touch on things they fi nished off by bottom dredging for scallops. And the loss of sea trout was because of sea lice from the fi sh farms?! Aquaculture got off to a bad PR start in Scotland, but the truth did come out – in the end. For those in the New Zealand industry, its a slog at the moment: salmon, mussels, oysters, fi nfi sh, you name it, if someone wants to do it then someone else is going to object to it. But what if, public perception was that the aquaculturalists were doing us all a favour by improving our environment as well as supplying a sustainable source of incredibly delicious food? The marketing line for all New Zealand's food exports is that we are "clean and green". What a tailor-made marketing opportunity for aquaculture! With international perception that our water quality is high, its time to turn perception into reality with a little science thrown in to back it up. Aquaculture farms need to maintain rigid biosecurity and biotoxin standards, backed up by weekly monitoring, to ensure that the products they sell are safe to eat. Why not use the science you have to produce anyway, and sell it on the line that a marine farm in your back yard ensures that your favourite recreational spot receives the added benefi t of weekly scientifi c monitoring of water quality? A marine farm in your back yard is a guarantee of water quality, stuff you can safely swim in and gather wild seafood from? Maybe even with information boards around the facility with weekly updates on water quality? Aquaculturalists can take heart from an unexpected boost to their work in science, that's arrived out of the blue from the Ministry of Primary Industries. Up until now fi sheries haven't been one of the enterprises eligible to apply for Sustainable Farming Fund grants, but because aquaculture and fi sheries now come under the new Ministry of Primary Industries, (along with everything from forestry, horticulture, and agriculture to beekeeping), aquaculturalists and fi shermen can now apply for the SFF grants. Four projects that received funding in the latest round are: The Blue Mussel Over-Settlement Project, by the Marine Farming Association Inc Oyster Industry Modernisation Project, by Aquaculture New Zealand and the New Zealand Oyster Industry Association Environmental Certification for New Zealand Aquaculture, by Aquaculture New Zealand The Kaitaia Spat Working Group Project, by the Marine Farming Association Inc With support from researchers and scientists to show better, cheaper and more effi cient ways to run our businesses, and aquaculturalists who want to address the negative effects their farms have on the environment, turning negative impacts to a positive, like say for example the visual effects of mussel farms, or feed waste and discharges, then aquaculture has to be, surely, the darling of food production – the: 'next big thing'? Keep calm and carry on Superman, play your cards right: sort out the environmental issues and Aquaculture's star will rise, your day in the sun will come! 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