Marine farms are the orchards of the sea and are no more offensive than sheep or pine trees on the hillside, an advocate of marine farming in Northland says.
Two public meetings were held in the Far North last week to debate Northland Regional Council's proposed Aquaculture Management Areas (AMAs) forthe Bay of Islands.
The council has identified 204ha within the Bay of Islands for possible future mussel and oyster farms, in addition to 177ha already used in the Bay for marine farming.
The proposed areas include Kerikeri Inlet, Te Puna Inlet, near Marsden Cross and Whale Bay, just south of Moturoa Island, Oronga Bay, Paroa Bay and Manawaora Bay.
The draft AMAs have met with widespread opposition from residents.
However, Mike Fabish, Mussels Far North Ltd's (MFN) managing director, said the benefits of marine farms, the orchards of the sea, to the entire Northland community vastly outweighed any real or perceived negatives.
MFN had been working in partnership with Ngatirehia Fisheries Ltd -- a commercial arm of the Ngatirehia runanga -- based in the Bay of Islands since 1999.
The joint venture lodged an application for resource consents for a total of 112 hectares of mussel farming water in March 2000.
Mr Fabish conceded few jobs were generated by mussel farming but the on-shore processing was labour intensive and would require a workforce of between 120-150 people.
"This is a considerable number of extra paid jobs for the Bay, and would make this venture one of the largest employers in Northland," Mr Fabish said.
Ngatirehia had commissioned an independent feasibility study on the venture which showed it was realistic and viable, he said.
Visual effects from the farms would be minimal and modern farming methods allowed for removal of the farms without leaving any discernible effects on the environment, Mr Fabish said.
Save the Bay of Islands action group spokesman Frank de Vries said a lot of people were concerned about further marine farms being established in the Bay of Islands.
Residents were concerned further AMAs would jeopardise the $541 million tourism industry, Mr de Vries said.
"This is a fantastic tourism destination -- why kill the goose that laid the golden egg?" he said.
