Looking back at a century of oyster farming

By Allan Barber allen@barberstrategic.co.nz

Oyster farming in the Mahurangi dates back nearly 100 years.

The first New Zealand trials of rock oyster cultivation were done in 1927 in the Mahurangi Harbour, Kawau Island and the Bay of Islands, when indigenous rock oysters attached to mangroves were transferred to galvanised wire trays. These were placed on wooden frames attached to wooden piles driven into intertidal mud. But it took nearly 40 years for these trials to progress to commercially viable oyster farming.

The first commercial farmers were a syndicate that operated in the Pukapuka inlet, off Mahurangi West Road. The son of a syndicate member, Wilf Berger, remembers it as being very hard work rather than particularly profitable. Berger still farms deer on 70 hectares in Kaipara Flats, but sold all his oyster farming interests to local company Biomarine in 2010. He set up an oyster farm at Huawai (food from the water) Bay in the late 1960s, which just preceded the arrival in the Mahurangi of the faster growing Pacific oyster. He recalls being told by Australian farmers to kill any Pacific interlopers, but after killing three the first year and 30 the next, he had to bow to the inevitable when they numbered over a thousand.

The other early pioneer was Les Curtin, an Australian oyster farmer, who came to New Zealand in the late 1960s on behalf of the old Marine Department to investigate the best areas to establish oyster farming as a commercial operation.

He immediately decided the logical areas to set up spat collection operations to supply the nascent industry were indeed the Pukapuka inlet of the Mahurangi Harbour, Bon Accord Harbour on Kawau and Orongo Bay near Russell, as well as the Coromandel Peninsula and the Pahi arm of the Kaipara.

However, despite its history, oyster cultivation is still very small in comparison to mussel and salmon farming, and unlikely to grow dramatically. It is managed through a consenting process which grants renewable 25 to 35 year leases subject to zoning conditions, although Wilf Berger says the main problem standing in the way of expansion is public (mainly boaties’) resistance to the establishment of any new farming areas. The Coromandel and Kaipara probably offer the largest potential for expansion.

Exports have formed an important part of oyster farming since the early days and Berger remembers selling most of his production to Kia Ora Seafoods, which secured good markets in New Caledonia and Tahiti for oysters as natural as possible, including the mud! The total Pacific oyster sales value now comes to $24 million, of which two-thirds is exported frozen, live or chilled to eight main destinations, with Australia, China, Hong Kong, French Polynesia and New Caledonia being the largest. About one-third of oysters are cultivated in the Auckland region, which includes the Mahurangi.

There is a relatively small number of oyster farming operations in the Mahurangi including Moana Fisheries and several local operators.

Biomarine, started in the 1970s by marine biologist Jim Dollimore and John Nicholson, has 40 hectares under lease in the Mahurangi, as well as 75 hectares at the mouth of the Kaipara, and access to other leases in the Bay of Islands. It produces about six million oysters annually – four million from the Mahurangi – of which 90 per cent are exported. The company employs up to 50 staff based at the packhouse in Woodcocks Road. Orata, started by Wilf Berger and Trevor Smith, is now wholly owned by Smith and his partner Lynette Dunne and can be found at Matakana Farmers Market, as well as many of Auckland’s top restaurants. Mahurangi Oysters, originally established by Andrew and Lisa Hay, is an important part of the Aitken family’s farming operation, which also comprises a 316 hectare deer farm in Central Hawkes Bay, winners of Champion of Champions in the Marks & Spencer Farming for the Future award.

Matakana Oysters started operating from the Green Shed on Leigh Road in 2006 without Council consent. It can still be found there, just over the hill from Matakana, fully consented and open to the public every day except when bad weather prevents collection.

If you want to find out more about oyster farming in the Mahurangi, Heritage Tours run trips on the harbour between two and four days a week throughout the year when your knowledgeable guide and instructor is Andrew Hay, previous owner of Mahurangi Oysters. On the tour, which operates from Scott’s Landing, you can spend an enjoyable and informative couple of hours learning how oysters are grown and how to shuck them before they slip deliciously down your throat.

Tough growing conditions

Well, what can we say about this summer that hasn’t already been said? It has truly been a shocker and the garden is showing the effects. Subtropical and tropical plants are generally loving it, with lots of warmth and lots of moisture no doubt making them feel right at home. My lotus plants are flowering most gorgeously, as if they are still in Bali or Vietnam. The sunshine hours deficit is having an impact though, as both the lotus and the frangipani are flowering about a month later than usual. The monsoon-like conditions are particularly hellish for temperate climate or root-rot sensitive plants though – my plum crop was minuscule, peaches were non-existent, the grapes are a soggy rotten mess, tomatoes are fast disintegrating into a blight-stricken disaster, the passionfruit have withered away and even my tough old fig tree appears to be suffering from root rot! The fig tree I’ll spray with a fungus spray based on Fosetyl-aluminium (there are several brands on the market). I’ll use this spray on the tomatoes also, in a vain attempt to save them as it has some effect on late blight and on anything else that suffers from the root disease Phytophthora, such as the avocado trees and the cherimoya which, despite being a tropical, is not liking its position right next to the perpetually full drain this year.

A lot of nutrients in the soil will have leached away in the heavy rains and most of the mulch has probably also washed downstream. To get the plants back on their feet, I’m planning to sprinkle some blood and bone, plus sulphate of potash, to replenish lost nutrients. If I do it just before the next rain I won’t even need to hose it off the plants. I can’t imagine there won’t be more rain! Replacing the lost mulch is vital, as root systems are struggling, and the mulch will help rebalance the root zone for them.

Although we are getting quite late to be planting summer crops, we gardeners are a hopeful bunch and I, for one, am counting on the warmer oceans this year prolonging our summer conditions (hopefully without so much rain) into the autumn. It’s probably too late to start melons, climbing beans, capsicum, eggplant, corn, and pumpkin, as these have quite lengthy growing seasons. But I’m putting in another batch of tomato, cucumber, zucchini and possibly some dwarf beans. Fingers crossed, the gamble will pay off and make up the shortfall from summer. Of course, there are plenty of other crops that are traditionally sown or transplanted now, such as leeks, beetroot, cabbage, broccoli, plus salad vegetables like lettuce, arugula (rocket), radish, mizuna, fennel and cress. With lettuce, it may pay to choose the more open varieties that don’t form a head, as the head forming types such as iceberg will be prone to rotting out if the rains keep coming.

Another crop of spuds can also go in, if they are protected from potato psyllid with either an insect-proof mesh or a regular insecticide spray programme. Speaking of psyllid, I have not seen much evidence of them this season and pest numbers, in general, seem to be lower than last year. I expect this is due to the weather conditions also, so I’m counting the small blessings!

Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood

Grace Adams is desperate. She’s trying to pick up a cake to take to her daughter’s birthday party. She’s also desperate because the traffic is grid-locked and time is slipping away. She’s desperate because she’s estranged from her daughter who is now living with her father, Grace’s ex-husband. Grace is desperate because she appears to be losing control of her once successful life. And so Grace has to make some decisions and they are pretty wild but to be honest, who hasn’t felt like walking away from a baking hot car surrounded by fumes and stressed drivers? As Grace unravels, we get snippets of her back story and we come to understand how she has been driven to this desperate state. The story is set in London and we are given a wee glimpse of inner city living and also the trials of parenting in this modern social media-driven age. At times sad, at times hilarious, and mostly deeply relatable.

No Less The Devil by Stuart MacBride

This latest Stuart MacBride novel doesn’t disappoint. Darkness abounds and Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh is trying to catch the ‘Bloodsmith’ while battling her own demons. The ‘Bloodsmith’ has been operating for over a year-and-a-half and yet no-one can seem to find the important leads that might lead to an arrest. Meanwhile, a convicted killer has been released from jail and he’s trying to tell DS McVeigh that ‘they’ are out to get him. Is he linked to the ‘Bloodsmith’ or is there something more sinister going on? DS McVeigh is the classic lead … she’s taciturn, has a very dark personal history, and is the classic lone wolf detective. This novel has quite a few twists and turns, and has a quite unexpected ending. Twisted and fabulous!