Ōhiwa Harbour’s oyster farm: Growth and new tourism venture for aquaculture enterprise

A newly-acquired barge to be used on the FlipFarm was launched last Friday.

By Whakatane Beacon

Expansion and a new tourism venture are on the cards at Ōhiwa Harbour’s oyster farm.

New owners Wini and Simon Geddes are planning to transform the aquaculture enterprise into an innovative oyster growing system, called a FlipFarm, and start tourism cruises on the harbour.

The Ōhope oyster farm was taken over by the Geddes in June from long-time owner Rick York.

A newly-acquired barge that they will use on the FlipFarm was launched last Friday and a second tourism barge is to be delivered in the coming weeks.

Ōhiwa Oyster Farm has also had a name change and is now called Tio Ōhiwa, with tio meaning “oyster”.

They have grown the team from four to 14 and have started a cadetship programme.

“We have five rangatahi [youth] aquaculture cadets training and working. It is their introduction to the seafood industry,” the Geddes said.

“The day starts with the boys going out there and picking up the crates and cleaning and shucking the oysters, getting them ready for [the shop].”

Wini Geddes said they had more oysters to shuck and longer hours; their aim being to ensure the shop always had a good supply of oysters as they had a good customer base.

They are planning to expand, initially domestically to retailers and restaurants.

The barge was delivered by truck on Friday, lifted by crane into the water, and a karakia was said.

Simon and Wini Geddes are pleased the launch of the barge went well on Friday.

Wini said they were pleased to be able to show Ngāti Awa the development of the oyster farm “and the wonderful support for what we do here for our whānau, hapū and iwi, that is really important”.

Their first barge has been named Tio Waka 1.

“Several more will be coming as the farm develops,” she said.

“We have got four hectares here and only 10 per cent of the farm has been farmed over the last few years. We are looking at expanding and this is the first part of it.

“We are looking at putting in a FlipFarm and that will increase production.”

FlipFarm oyster farm technology has been designed and operated by Marlborough Oysters and FlipFarm Systems said on its website it was the world’s first semi-automated oyster-growing system.

“A FlipFarm provides an ideal environment for oyster growth, conditioning and hardening along with the ability to have complete control over fouling, pests and predators. The system is extremely easy and efficient to use and can be adapted to many growing environments,” the website said.

“It will increase production,” Wini said, “and we don’t have to repair all the racks and replace them, so we are going straight for that.

“We will do it in stages, our first line of crates will be coming probably in October.”

The second barge, for tourism, Tio Waka 2, will be arriving in about six weeks and the team will be launching its harbour cruises then.

The Geddes met this week with cruise operators in Tauranga to discuss this option for visitors to the region.

“We are getting ready for that. We will take them for cruises on the harbour; there is the farm and then they can call in for a kai... there are historical Māori sites around the harbour that we know of, and we talk about that and just let the kaumātua know what we are doing.

“At the launch we will probably have a tour director trained by then and the inaugural cruise in about six weeks.”

The Geddes also run Tane Mahuta Forestry, training and helping youth into the forestry workforce, and have been awarded a Māori Trades and Training contract for funding to support rangatahi to train in forestry, horticulture, agriculture, building and construction, and now aquaculture.