Raglan Tuesday 25th July

Orcas visit Raglan.

On Monday a pod of Orca were seen to be in the harbour monstering the local stingray population, so while we were looking at releasing the kingfish shortly we were all rather thankful they were still safely behind bars.

After the successful transport and delivery of the kingfish to the west coast port of Raglan our kingfish had been placed into a sea cage to allow them time to acclimatise to the colder waters. We expected some mortalities in amongst the weaker fish and having a cage was going to give a very good indication of this as any mort's would be able to be recovered from the bottom or as they floated to the top later.
An unexpected plus was the cage quickly attracted small bait fish a bit larger than white bait and while the crew were waiting for the fish to recover and feed they thought these fish were starting to feed on these small fish as the harbour is full of bait at present.

While we had fish food on offer we were not concerned about the fish on pellets as they can go without food for some weeks quite happily. However the strong currents off the end of the wharf flowing at up to 5 knots was of concern as these flows were greater that they the fish would have experienced in the farm, there was a need to allow the fish to acclimatise to these colder waters and then release them before they became stressed from the fighting the strong tidal flows. This was always going to be a balancing act of just how long do we keep them and when to release them.

Today was the day for decisions as the orca had gone and the stronger fish were coping well. Meanwhile the weaker fish were starting to struggle and show signs of stress. Local resident Graham Hubert who was tasked with being the keeper of the fish while in the cage was checking them several times a day and offering pellet food to see if they would start feeding. On each visit he monitored them closely to see how they were doing. Each day they looked to be doing fine but he could not see the bottom of the cage. On day four he reported some floating mort's and on investigation it would appear that these had died earlier and sunk to the bottom and were now floating as the gases inflated the bellies. While disappointing this was not unexpected and these things happen within the aquaculture industry from time to time. It is an accepted part of keeping fish in captivity. But no one likes to lose fish especially these fish.

On inspection by a diver he reported the fish in the cage were active and swimming. So on professional advice and given that these fish would have acclimatised by now, the decision was made to release the fish at high tide today where they can run with the tide and start feeding on the abundant bait fish available.

The Raglan kingfish, showing some signs of tiredness, are quick to swim away into a new life in the wild.

The lesson here that while we did every thing right, we did not appreciate the effect of the tidal flow at the wharf which was stronger than we expected, which in turn would have a direct effect on the weaker fish. In saying this it has been an excellent exercise and while we lost some we have also released the vast majority with over 30% of them tagged into the wild. These fish will help to improve our knowledge in the future.

In saying this again we have received the first to tag reports from anglers who have caught and released our tagged kingfish.

Name of angler: Peter Mount
Date: 19 Jul 06
Location where caught: Waihi Bay Whangaroa
Tag number: 1013
Length of fish nose to tail fork: 550mm approx
Caught by method. Hook and line.
General condition of fish when released. Healthy-quickly swam away.
Was released alive. Yes

Name of angler:  Che Dent
Date:  17th of July
Location where caught:  Whangaroa Harbour Entrance
Tag number:  0819
Length of fish nose to tail fork ?
Caught by method. ?
Was released alive.   Yes

This is great news and can only lead to further information.

So a special request if you catch a tagged fish please report it to Blue water Marine or fill out the tag form on this web site .

Finally as we get towards the end of the farm stock they are finding a good number of stragglers which are being rounded up and released locally. Unfortunately with all the drama I have had in recent weeks with two bereavements, two conferences and a raft of other issues I will be doing a summary when I have all the info to hand.

In the mean time I would like to thank all who have given of their time and resources and all who have made a valued contribution to this worthwhile project. We will continue to bring updates on tagged reports.

Well done all.

Regards Keith