Oyster farmers issued default notices

By TONY GEE

Some Bay of Islands oyster farmers whose harvests were stopped 18 months ago when a virus was found in their shellfish have now been issued with notices of default by the Ministry of Fisheries.

The notices, served on 20 oyster farms in the Waikare Inlet, allege leaseholders are breaching conditions of their marine farm leases in 17 cases by failing to ensure the oysters are fit for human consumption.

Default notices give the farmers three months to remedy specified breaches, but leaseholders can elect to sell their leases to someone able to bring the farms back into operation.

Eighteen oyster farms in the Waikare Inlet were effectively shut out of harvesting for domestic and export markets in August 2001 after traces of a virus causing gastroenteritis and diarrhoea were found in their shellfish.

The Norwalk-like virus is carried in human sewage and was said by health authorities to be responsible for a gastroenteritis outbreak among diners at an Auckland restaurant in 2001.

Eleven farmers, supported by Northland Federated Farmers, are suing the Far North District Council for at least $10 million in compensation and other costs, blaming what they claim has been "consistent" pollution of their marine farm areas by the council's Kawakawa sewerage system.

The council strongly denies the claim and maintains it has no case to answer.

Health authorities stopped sampling water in the inlet last October after many leaseholders, with little or no income from their oyster farms, withdrew from the programme, which they were expected to help pay for.

The ministry's default notices were posted to farmers last Friday after a ministry inspection of the marine farm lease areas in the Waikare Inlet on January 16.

Scott Williamson, a senior fisheries management adviser with the ministry in Nelson, said yesterday that 17 leases had been voluntarily withdrawn from the shellfish sanitation programme.

By doing this, leaseholders were not taking all steps to ensure their oysters were fit for human consumption as required by the terms of their lease, he said.

This was the only breach in 10 cases.

In the remaining 10, seven had also voluntarily withdrawn from the sanitation programme, and together with the remaining three were responsible for other breaches such as inappropriate leased area marking and broken-down structures, Mr Williamson said.

"There's nothing really onerous, but the farms need to be tidied up.

"They're a valuable asset and this is the first step to get them back into production.

"We're not trying to punish anyone. We want to get the farms back into operation as quickly as possible."

Marine farm leases run for 14 years. If a leaseholder does not remedy breaches or does not apply to the ministry to sell the lease to someone who will fix up a farm, the lease may be forfeited to the Crown.

There are 25 marine farming leases in the inlet.

Four still in the shellfish sanitation programme are classified as conditionally approved for domestic or export oyster sales.

Another four also still in the programme are operating under restricted conditions. Their shellfish must be moved to approved waters for up to eight weeks before oysters are sold.

Northland Federated Farmers operations director Bill Guest said it was ironic that the ministry was telling the oyster farmers they had to stop pollution on their farms when that pollution was being caused by the Kawakawa sewage treatment system.

Mr Guest said Auckland QC Colin Pidgeon, who is acting for the farmers, would respond to the default notices this week.

He said the oyster farmers' $10 million claim against the district council would be lodged in the High Court at Whangarei this month.