The west coast turned the sunshine on.

We are now under a lot of pressure to clear the farm as the owners need to shut down the plant. One of the inherent design faults unknown to the owners when the plant was built was that the farm was designed as a continuous system and there was no way you could isolate a raceway for R&M. And if something serious happened the whole plant had to be shut down. We have to acknowledge the farm staff and owners for keeping the farm going as we continued to shift fish from it in to the wild.

What a great day, Saturday July 22 turned out to be. The day was a cracker, clear skies and a bright sun to fight off the winter chills. This was to be the only west coast release and scheduled to be at Raglan. Because of the water temp difference with Raglan harbour sitting around 10.5 degrees we needed to put in place a system that would allow the fish time to adjust to the cooler waters and their new surroundings.

On Friday just over 400 fish were tagged by Steve and Damian from NIWA with the assistance of the staff at Parengarenga fish farm. The support from these folk has just been fantastic. The kingfish suitable for release have to be selected and those to be tagged anaesthetised, tagged and put into a recovery tank. I am told we only lost two fish in the tagging process, an indication of the professional skills of those involved from NIWA and the farm staff. The fish then have to be purged so that all their poos and wees does not pollute the transport water and kill them.

At midnight some 1300 kingfish were loaded into the NIWA transport tanks fitted on Lawson Cartage truck. This rig is an eight wheeler and the whole fish life support rig is designed to fit this truck. There is a gen set for power and all the monitoring gauges are on a panel in the cab. Water flow and temp, oxygen and CO2 content is constantly being monitored by the NIWA scientist who travels with the fish. The Lawson Brothers take it in turns with one doing the north leg and it's a long way to Parengarenga and back for the swap at 6am in Whangarei. The truck was through Auckland by 8.30 on its way to Raglan. Andrew Bond from Sanford Limited who had given us the anchor money to ensure we could make the delivery all happen was on hand again to assist as he shadowed the kingfish south to Raglan.


Meanwhile the Raglan community were on the case as a sea cage had to be built. Fishing advocate and weigh master Sheryl Hart had just returned from holidays overseas and was not aware what her friends on the NZRFC had done and when she found out from her fishing mates that there was a chance to get some kingfish to Raglan, she responded what are we waiting for and was on the case to raise money to fund part of the enormous cost of shifting large live fish such distances.

Buying the fish was the easy part. Shifting them is the costly bit. Like to do Raglan the true cost was some $16,000 effort of which the locals have raised half and built a cage. When transporting large live kingfish, they are not like eels and its not just a tank and a truck, its all the life support system plus the doctor and nurse and the driver, aesthetic, tagging and the list goes on. Even the northland releases were expensive not forgetting all the local support in kind. But the fruit was in the pudding when our mortalities have been minimal. In fact we know of nine to date and two were caught in a set net and another was seen to be spirited away by a fellow whose belly had got the better of him. To put it into reality a 100grm fingerling about the size of your finger delivered to an aquaculture farm from the hatchery costs around $4 each.

So yes when I started this project it was a case of transmitting when I should have been receiving, but I was not going to let the enormity of the cost sink in and stop me until I had at least tried. The other option for the fish at that time was cray bait or worse still disposal into a pit and buried. I saw this was a one off opportunity for the fishing community to contribute and to be seen to put something back. A one off opportunity to release a large number of tagged fish into the wild so that we might all learn from them.

Now back to the sea cage, Fletcher steel supplied the steel and mesh and Decoro Nets the netting. The local Raglan engineering firm said lets do it and its staff turned to with many willing hands and the cage quickly materialised. Ropes and mussel buoys appeared and a team of 20 guys to lift it onto a trailer for transport to the wharf. A sea cage measuring 5m diameter by 3m high fully lined with small netting over the galvanised steel, complete with sun shade is no mean feat when built in two days. Meanwhile the local copper an understanding local was noticeable by his absence. Something about he did not want to know any thing about over width loads even if it only had to go a kilometre down the road. A large digger arrived by truck to act as a crane as the cage was lifted into the water by the Raglan wharf.

This is an example of the same spirit of cooperation we have been getting from all agencies who needed to give approval along the way. These include but are not restricted to Mfish, Biosecurity, Regional Councils, Environment Waikato for the sea cage permit and the quiet acknowledgement from local iwi. All of these folk have just got in and pushed the kingfish go wild project through the red tape and its restrictively slow process. All recognised that fishes lives were dependant on fast action and it happened.

You know it never ceases to amaze me what a community group of fishers can do when they pull together. This sort of support has been repeated up and down the coast. We have had strong support from clubs who were not getting any fish because they just wanted to help to put something back. To be seen to be helping others. I am sure there is a lesson here somewhere that we can all learn from.

Meanwhile the Mayor and local Councillors were on hand with half of Raglan's fishing community to welcome these kingfish to the wonderful west coast.

The sea cage was in position with local commercial fishermen helping with the mooring systems. The fish transporter was driven carefully onto the wharf and the NIWA staff made ready for the release. A few quick speeches to acknowledge all who have assisted and the first tank full travelled the short steep hydro slide pipe into the cage to the welcoming cheers of the locals.

Tank after tank followed until there were some 1300 fish acclimatising to the chillier west coast waters. The cage was then positioned and secured as the tide started to flood. The fish on entering the cage started to swim round and round and as the current started to flow they slowly turned to all swim into the current. Not one mortality although a couple of weaker fish were having to work a bit. All these fish would now be monitored for a few days and fed before final release into the wild when this chapter will close.

A great effort by all concerned.

Keith Ingram

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