Sometimes idyllic conditions lead to the trickiest situations. It’s a kayaking truism that’s now being applied to the entire Marlborough Sounds thanks to a multi-national backed aquaculture expansion. Mark Banham reports
In a kayak two kilometres off Cape Jackson in the Marlborough Sounds things become very simple. In my case last year it looked like this: you have 20km to paddle, past 10km of sheer sea cliffs with no place to land, with a northerly front predicted to arrive in the afternoon and the tide turning unfavourably in four hours. If you don’t make it past the cliffs before the tide turns and the storm front arrives, then there’s a good chance you’ll get driven onto the cliffs. It’d probably be a survivable experience, but it’d mean scrambling up the rocks and radioing for a rescue while watching the kayak and its contents being masticated into oblivion by the relentless waves. Not exactly an enticing option. In those circumstances, your perception of the world changes a lot; your to-do list shrinks drastically and staying afloat and making headway become the top and only priorities. But simultaneously you’re afflicted by a crippling tunnel vision; things like listening for radio broadcasts, stopping for food and looking after the blistering case of sunburn you’re developing simply fall outside of your attention. It seems when things get a little desperate, the first thing you lose is your perspective. I didn’t realise at the time but coincidentally, in the very stretch of water I’d just paddled an environmental stoush was brewing between conservationists and the aquaculture industry with both sides struggling to make headway under difficult circumstances and each accusing the other of failing to see the bigger picture. So what’s going on down in the Sounds? New Zealand King Salmon (NZKS), the owners of the Regal Salmon brand, which is 51 per cent owned by the Rimbunan Hijau Group, a multi-national corporation based in Malaysia, is proposing to install nine new salmon farms, occupying an area of 206ha (about the same area as 294 rugby fields) in the Marlborough Sounds, eight of which would be in areas where marine farming is prohibited by the Marlborough Sounds Council’s Resource Management Plan – including a 90ha allocation in Port Gore. NZKS hopes to claim the spaces for a period of 35 years. In return, the company says there are huge benefits to be had for New Zealand and for Marlborough. According to a report prepared for the company by an external economics consultancy, the new fish farms should create $194 million of ‘total value added’ (basically GDP) annually and sustain 1600 additional jobs in the New Zealand economy from 2021. Although the expansion will mean over-ruling the Marlborough Sounds Council’s Resource Management Plan, they say the plan was designed to manage mussel leases and has left no room for finfish farms, which need deep, swift-flowing and cool waters – basically they’ve been left with no alternative. King Salmon say their operation is ‘sustainable and renewable’ and claim that in 25 years of operation they’ve never had a credible environmental issue reported. The company says most of the additional production will be destined for overseas markets, so it will bring in desperately needed export dollars and go a long way towards the aquaculture industry’s government-supported goal to become a billion-dollar export industry by 2025. NZKS maintains that the ‘silent majority’ supports their proposal. A claim they back up by market research consultancy BUZZ Channel which showed 54 per cent of people in Marlborough support the company’s plans while only 14 per cent oppose. Late last year the Minister for Conservation, Kate Wilkinson, deemed the proposal to be of national significance and referred it to an Environmental Protection Agency Board of Enquiry – a fast-tracked nine-month process that leaves no avenue for appeal except on a point of law. [caption id="attachment_20528" align="aligncenter" width="900"]

