Okiwi Bay, New Zealand residents are planning to protest this weekend about Skretting’s plans to set up a feed testing facility in seawater tanks in the heart of a small Marlborough Sounds community.
The company wants to source and return water from the bay, on the grounds that the water quality will not be affected but local residents and boat owners are not convinced.
Protest organiser Paula Holder said the bay\'s population swelled on holiday weekends and her goal was to get as many as possible to link arms on the foreshore to reinforce their \"Hands off Okiwi Bay\" message.
According to Holder, the outfall pipe for the planned experimental fish farm is \"right in the swimming area\" and she didn\'t know anybody who wanted it to go ahead.
She objects to a multi-national company being able to have such a project, which raises questions about other small Sounds bays.
With most of New Zealand\'s salmon farms situated in the Sounds, and the fish food imported, \"it doesn\'t take rocket science to see what the next step\'s going to be,” said Holder.
Skretting\'s application says Okiwi Bay has a large tidal exchange and will be unaffected by a small quantity of discharged nutrients, with no adverse effect on water quality. The project will have major benefits for the aquaculture industry, it says.
Source: Source: Bill Moore, NZFarmer.co.nz Read the full story here.
