Nelson scallop harvest lowest in seven years

1.00pm

Nelson's multi-million dollar scallop industry is counting the cost after the lowest commercial harvest in nearly 15 years.

Challenger Scallop Enhancement Company chief executive Russell Mincher said just 206 tonnes were harvested in the 2003-04 season, down from 471 tonnes the previous year.

The total allowable commercial catch for scallop area seven, which stretches from Cape Farewell to the west head of Tory Channel, is 747 tonnes.

Mr Mincher said the season's poor catch was forecast in the company's annual biomass survey last year and was due to a combination of environmental factors.

One was a scallop spat explosion in the area in about 1998 and the other was a lean food supply during recent seasons.

This meant not enough scallops grew to the legal 90mm size, or reached the adequate meat weight demanded by lucrative export markets, Mr Mincher said.

"It's not a lack of scallops out there, it's a lack of harvestable scallops. They weren't fat enough."

Mr Mincher had previously estimated that a good scallop season pumped about $60 million into the Nelson economy.

He declined to speculate what the region stood to lose as a result of this year's poor yield.

"It will have an impact on the economy.

"It's been a difficult season for everyone involved. It has meant that fishermen have not earned as well as they would have liked to. But you get years like this, I'm afraid."

Recreational scallop fishers reported a reasonable season in Tasman Bay but they had difficulty making quota in Golden Bay.

Mr Mincher said the company had already begun reseeding the fishery with juvenile scallop spat for next season.

He said the spat looked healthy which indicated a good amount of phytoplankton in the water.

But it was too early to make predictions about next season, he said.

It would depend on the results of the next biomass survey, due to be carried out in May-June.

The average harvest in scallop area seven over the last 20 years was about 450 tonnes, Mr Mincher said.

- NZPA