Dear All,
I fish out of Kaiaua quite a bit and have seen some other postings here as well from people who get down that way. I am canvassing for information and how to get more on the proposed spat farm.
     From the information I've been given the spat farm extends from the existing Mussel farm at Colonel Adams, out to about half way across the Firth, Down the middle of the firth to Wakatewai Point, just North of Kaiaua, then in to the Point. This seems to represent about 1/3 of the Firth!
     The only reason it doesn't go right across the Firth is that the ARC/Enviroment Waikato boundary is right down the middle!
     If any knows how to find out more about these things I would really appreciate it. The boat club I'm a member of has a ramp right in the middle of this and it will effectively restrict fishing to mussel farm fishing. Not bad for panny snaps but hopeless for Kings, decent snapper on light gear.
    Coromandel is only a hop away but this will add at least three miles to the trip from what I can understand and I don't think you'll be allowed to do 30 knots through the farm.
    I'll post any more information I can get and hopefully a map of the area.
     Please Help!!!!
        Cheers
            Dead Ant

This is the first Ive heard about it beeing that big DA, has It been in the local rag?? . The greenis will never let it get that big???. but who knows

OK, Thanks for the input so far. I've collected some more info from Ministry of Environment with a study of the effects of Spat farming on the Firth located at http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/resource/aquaculture/environmental-info/firth-of-thames-analysis.pdf. This is a huge scientific study but the most relevant bit I found was this segment copied verbatim:

"The Hauraki Gulf and Firth of Thames are home to New Zealand�s largest snapper fishery, and the Firth of Thames is the key spawning ground. If shellfish farming were to reduce the abundance of microzooplankton, this may adversely influence the survival of larval snapper (and other species).
Similarly, if shellfish are able to filter snapper eggs out of the water-column, this would reduce the number of fish recruiting to the population."

Sounds pretty serious to all recreational and commercial fishers who fish anywhere in the Gulf. I also found applications on the ARC website for a combined total of 6356 hectares of spat farm. I had heard (rumour) that these or some of these had been combined into a single farm which I described but I'll try and keep this to facts only.

The more I read, the more this scares me. Thanks for the input so far and I'll follow all those leads up. Barrie, any info from the Coromandel side would be interesting.
      Cheers
          DA

r

Fishoe - I missed a meeting about this last night.  Anyone heard any news?

any one heard any more about this farm. the sciencetist had a meeting in wellington the other week and couldn't answer any questions on the damage it could do to fish stocks.