Hon Nathan Guy
Minister for Primary Industries

18 April 2013 Media Statement

Funding to help sustainable aquaculture projects

Five important projects focusing on aquaculture will benefit from the latest round of Sustainable Farming Fund grants, Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy has announced today.

“New Zealand seafood is a premium product and it’s great to see groups looking to improve their production and value by developing aquaculture,” says Mr Guy.

The projects with funding are:

• Koura Aquaculture, by Wai-Koura South: $119,420
• Farming Premium Salmon, by the Salmon Improvement Group: $600,000
• Management of the GLM9 Greenlipped Mussel Spat Resource, by GML9 Advisory Group: $20,000
• Tuna (Shortfin-eel) Aquaculture, by Te Ohu Tiaki o Rangitane Te Ika a Mauri Trust (MIO): $600,000
• Aquaculture custom bacterial vaccines, by Aquaculture New Zealand: $115,686.

“Addressing information gaps is a focus for four of these projects. They will investigate how to reduce skeletal deformities in farmed salmon, develop best-practice guides for raising freshwater crayfish and manage the wild greenlipped mussel spat resource.

“Importantly, the eel project will focus on learning more about young glass short-fin eels so we can raise them successfully and sustainably.

“The other will focus on developing New Zealand’s capability, in this case to manufacture vaccines for Chinook salmon.”

The projects will commence 1 July 2013 and run for one to three years.

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