Season ends early to give baby oysters ‘best chance'
Barnes Wild Bluff Oysters will wrap up its oyster season this Friday — nearly two months earlier than usual — in a move aimed at protecting millions of juvenile oysters discovered in Foveaux Strait.
The Bluff oyster season typically runs from March 1 to August 31, but the company has chosen to finish early after harvesting only about half of its allocated quota.
Barnes Wild holds about 60% of the 7.5million Bluff oyster quota.
General manager Graeme Wright said the decision was influenced by both environmental and sustainability concerns.
"There are millions of baby Bluff oysters out there.
"It's one of the biggest reasons we've decided to stop early — we want to give them the best chance to grow and strengthen the wild fishery."
The season had been difficult on several fronts, Mr Wright said.
Unfavourable weather conditions and inconsistent oyster quality further complicated operations.
The presence of oyster larvae on the backs of the adults caught showed the oysters were reproducing well but this also contributed to the supply problem.
About 90% of oyster larvae attach themselves to the shell of an adult and one oyster could carry up to 70 larvae, he said.
During the process of sorting the catch at sea, any oysters with larvae on board were thrown back.
This year "huge amounts" had been returned to the sea.
Records showed there were sometimes gaps of between six and eight years where there was little or no reproduction.
"All of a sudden it's game on and ... we're seeing millions of little baby oysters everywhere.
"Things for the future look really positive."
It took between six and nine years for oysters to reach maturity, Mr Wright said.
It was hard to know why the oysters were in poorer condition, but it could be because they were reproducing, their plankton food supply was not as plentiful or the increased presence of the parasite Bonamia exitiosa.
The history of the fishery showed the oyster harvest was cyclic.
"It's a wild fishery.
"It has its ups and downs."
While it was not an easy decision to make it was a sensible thing to do, he said.
sandy.eggleston@odt.co.nz
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