Professional Skipper Magazine from VIP Publications

GUEST EDITORIAL Lost investment opportunities? T BY KEITH INGRAM he burning issues that face the aquaculture industry always seem to settle on areas of security of investment, and how to attract new investors with confi dence. The problems start at the top, with Government. While some of our politicians are talking the good talk, many marine farmers are waiting for the day when these guys will start walking the talk and give the industry some real confi dence. The second problem is the age old RMA and compliance issue. No matter how hard a potential marine farmer tries, or how much he spends on establishment costs and/or guarantees, some bloody newbie from town can pipe up that the farm will impact on his enjoyment of the marine vista, supported by a heap of spurious claims, which they will struggle to substantiate in the environment court, and yet could still win. Is this a recipe for sound investment when a third of your establishment costs can be consumed in the legal process, with no guarantees, before you even consider putting a foot near the water? Clearly from past bitter experience the potential to successfully farm and raise fi n fi sh on land is very limited. While there are opportunities and successes to encourage the raising of species such as paua, they require access to clean seawater via a good sea pipe source and existing sites are limited. But isn't marine farming all about farming in the marine environment, not on land, which adds another level of compliance and risk? One would have thought so. But what chance does a small guy have when even the mighty, and proven King Salmon, have such a huge challenge confronting the compliance process, just to get water space to expand their operation? Clearly marine farms are best suited to be in inshore, near coastal waters, where there is good tidal fl ushing and clean water. The New Zealand marine environment is claimed to be amongst the cleanest in the world. Sadly, it is no longer the purest, as both urban and agriculture runoff have put paid to this. Yes, the backbone of the New Zealand economy, our farming community, have been quietly poisoning our waterways and coastal waters for decades and it continues today. Be it sedimentation carried in the water column, fertilisers, high nutrients, bovine TB, brucellosis, or a raft of other common nasties from the land, once in the sea have a devastating impact on our marine life and biodiversity. Raise this question with our politicians and the clucking tut-tut brigade is soon revealed. Questions become all too hard and we are left with an ever increasing raft of platitudes and excuses. Where is the commitment to deliver solutions, I ask? No matter where I look within our hard working aquaculture industry, there is a constant threatening cloud of gloom. Government, this must stop! While I am not suggesting the situation is all bad, or that our politicians do not share our concerns when many do, the talk remains cheap and action costs heaps: a cost that normally falls on the marine farmer. Meanwhile, Aquaculture New Zealand have been steadily working at a higher level, sometimes way up in the stratosphere, above the heads and out of sight of most small marine farmers. Many are expressing concerns to me that the small guys are not getting the support they would like from their national organisation working through the myriad of obstacles they are expected to negotiate. Likewise, small potential new farmers or investors, are struggling to get past the fi rst information post. It would appear that even the old Ministry of Fisheries, now MPI, no longer provide any sort of advice service to newcomers and as such, many potential investors are being lost from the industry. Ironically, resolutions must start with Government intervention by establishing an easier, environmentally friendly process for dealing with marine farming applications. The NIMBY objectors should be required to put up the facts, and when challenged, substantiate the facts at their own cost, not that of the applicant. How often have we seen an application falter because the applicant runs out of funds to sustain an ever increasing plethora of claims of perceived risks and threats, that he is required to mitigate or prove as unsubstantiated, and while doing so, the protagonists are busy dreaming up more, until the applicant's limited funds are exhausted and an opportunity is lost? Clearly Government intervention is required if we are going to encourage investors and our young people to develop and grow future aquaculture opportunities for the wider benefi t of our small coastal communities and the New Zealand economy. Is it time for political thought, commitment and action? Yes. Our politicians, both at central and local government levels, must now walk the talk. 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