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NEWS ALLTECH AND NOFIMA IN STRATEGIC RESEARCH ALLIANCE Global animal health and nutrition company Alltech and the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research, Nofi ma, have entered a strategic research alliance that will focus on optimising nutrition and management practices in the salmon industry. The research from this partnership will be conducted in six of Nofi ma's Norwegian research centres, including Tromsø, Bergen, Stavanger, Ås, Sunndalsøra and Averøy. The purpose of the research alliance is to further contribute to the understanding of microalgae in modern feed formulations and their role in health, performance and fl esh quality. Alltech Algae, a company based in Winchester, Kentucky, United States, is one of the largest algae production facilities in the world. The company is exploring the applications of algae in animal nutrition and aquaculture. Alltech's research alliance with Nofi ma is in line with the company's global sales strategy, which sees aquaculture as a signifi cant contributor to its US$4 billion dollar sales goal. This new partnership with Nofi ma follows the signing of another research alliance in March 2012 between Alltech and the University of Kentucky. The Alltech-UoK alliance is expected to generate research funding of US$2.5 million in the next year for collaborative projects in agriculture, medicine and basic biological sciences. KATIKATI FISH FARM IN COURT NZ Premium Aquaculture with Trevor Davidson listed as director, has been granted council consent to farm kingfi sh on their former kiwifruit and avocado orchard in Pukakura Road, Katikati. But local residents are appealing the decision in the Environment Court The farm has obtained a regional council consent to pipe seawater a kilometre across country and to discharge it again into the Uretara Estuary. The proposed fi sh farm involves up to a million fi sh intensively grown with fi ngerlings imported and grown to maturity in a range of highly controlled indoor saltwater tanks. The fi sh farm has been given consent by the Western BOP District Council for a building 7900 square metres in area and up to nine metres in height, or about 40 times larger than what is permitted under the district plan. NZ Premium Aquaculture propose that after the fi sh reach maturity they would be killed on site, put on ice and trucked to a processing plant. Solid fi sh waste would be stored and trucked off site. They predict a harvest rate of 10 tonnes per week and on site jobs for six people. While consent is not required for permitted activities including aquaculture, the associated activities may require consent. Real Estate agents describe the properties in Pukakura road that adjoin Tauranga Harbour using phrases such as: "beauty of a bygone era", "picturesque country manor". Pukakura road is also the location of Homewood Garden, and Katipatch. Local residents are objecting to NZ Premium Aquaculture's fi sh farm proposal in the Environment Court saying they don't want to live next door to one million kingfi sh kept in tanks housed in a building 4 ■ NZ AQUACULTURE ■ "the size of Bunnings", kept alive by pumps and ventilation fans running 24/7. NEW ZEALAND SALMON DEATHS NOT FROM SIGNIFICANT DISEASES NIWA research scientist Andrew Forsythe says New Zealand salmon are free of commercially signifi cant pathogens and parasites that caused disease in captive and wild salmon in other countries. His investigation follows the death of fi sh in unusually large numbers at New Zealand King Salmon's Waihinau farm in Pelorus Sound since last summer. Forsythe said fi sh farmed by King Salmon are chinook, also known as king or quinnat salmon, which are not susceptible to normal diseases of New Zealand native fi sh. The one exception was the discovery of Aeromonas salmonicida bacteria in dead kanakana or lamprey, in September, and later in trout at a hatchery in Otago. He also said that reports that chinook in Canada had tested positive for ISA have proven incorrect. New Zealand King Salmon sent samples from fi sh that died at Waihinau to the Ministry of Primary Industries to test for diseases including ISA and the vibrio species of bacteria. These tests came back negative. The ministry has since sent samples to laboratories in Canada and Norway with more experience in salmon disease The Ministry expect the test results will be made public when they are available. Danny Boulton and Sustain Our Sounds are fi ghting an application to develop nine new salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds, saying the risk of disease will increase if salmon farming expands. King Salmon aquaculture manager Mark Preece has signalled the possibility of antibiotics being used on their farms. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 KING SALMON HEARING DELAYED The Environmental Protection Authority hearing to decide whether NZ King Salmon should be granted resource consent to develop nine new fi sh farms in the Marlborough Sounds was delayed two weeks. The hearing will now begin in Blenheim on Monday August 27, at the Wisheart Room in the Floor Pride Marlborough Civic Theatre. The original start date was August 13. The EPA board of inquiry delayed the start of the hearing in response to three submitters asking that the July 27 deadline for evidence be extended by a month. An EPA spokeswoman said the board decided an extra month was not feasible because it must release a fi nal decision by December 31, nine months after King Salmon notifi ed its application. However, it recognised the time constraints for this and extended the deadline for evidence by two weeks, to August 10. Sustain Our Sounds chairman Danny Boulton said Sustain Our Sounds had met deadlines and did not request the delay, but members might have asked as individuals, who lived in remote areas of the Marlborough Sounds facing diffi culties such as unexpected power cuts. NZ King Salmon didn't request the delay and have met all the time requirements stipulated by the board of inquiry. The EPA board has until the end of November to write its draft report, to accommodate a 20 working day period for comments and end-of-year deadline. The original due date for the draft was October 26. The NZ King Salmon deadline for rebuttal evidence had been extended from August 8 until August 17 and its fi nal planning report is due by August 27. CAGED GRASS CARP FOR WATERWEED CONTROL A Ministry for Primary Industries-funded trial has shown that grass carp, a weed eating fi sh, could be used to eradicate early infestations of aquatic weeds in enclosures, doing away with the need to release large numbers of fi sh throughout a lake and preventing damage to other plant species in the water. Using grass carp to remove invasive weeds from waterways is an effective biological control, but it always comes at a cost. Large numbers of fi sh are required, they remain in the waterway until they die, and they indiscriminately remove all plants present including desirable non-target species. The study was carried out for MPI by NIWA scientists, and found that if an unwanted aquatic weed species is found at an early enough stage, there is potential to eradicate it using fi sh contained in a pen, applied to