KEY POINTS:
Bay of Islands oyster farmers who unsuccessfully sued the Far North District Council for $12 million after their marine farms became polluted with sewage now want to reopen their farms.
A meeting of all parties involved in the five-year-old oyster operation shutdown in the Waikare Inlet is expected
to be held in the next few weeks.
The oyster farmers have decided not to appeal a High Court judgment issued last month that cleared the council and its wastewater treatment plant at Kawakawa as a source of likely contamination.
Nine oyster farmers on 11 leased farms in Waikare Inlet took the council to court claiming loss of income, compensation and general damages.
Their operations were closed down by health authorities in 2001 following outbreaks of viral gastroenteritis in consumers that were traced back to oysters from Waikare.
The High Court rejected the farmers' claim that the council and its Kawakawa plant were responsible for allowing the inlet to become polluted with human sewage, a cause of the norovirus.
Ian Walker, president of Northland Federated Farmers, whose organisation strongly supported the oyster farmers in their court action, said a meeting would be arranged before Christmas to discuss what needed to be done before the oyster farms could reopen.
He expected representatives from the Ministry of Fisheries, which owns the farm leases, the NZ Food Safety Authority, Northland Health and Northland Regional Council would be involved.
The Far North District Council would also be invited to attend.
Mr Walker said all of the farmers but one wanted to reopen their farms after deciding "unanimously but reluctantly" not to appeal the High Court ruling.
At present, the affected oyster farms in the Waikare Inlet, which cover 61ha, cannot operate until they get Food Safety and health authority clearance.
The farmers do have the option, however, of transporting their oysters to clean water for a period before harvesting.
Waikare Inlet farms used to supply about 30 per cent of New Zealand's oysters for export and domestic consumption.
Mr Walker says a massive clean-up operation has to be undertaken before the farms can reopen.
There was also the issue of who would pay for the clean up, which Mr Walker estimated would cost between $2.7 and $3 million.
The oyster farmers were in no position to pay such a sum, he said.
Mr Walker estimated it would be a minimum of two more years before oyster production could resume in the inlet if the authorities gave the go-ahead.
