First salmon smolt release in four years

Volunteer Andrew Parker transfers a net full of salmon smolt from a pond at the Sawyers Bay Salmon Hatchery to a container so they can be transported for release at Careys Bay. Photo by Peter McIntosh.

Salmon reared at the bay's salmon hatchery were to be released into Dunedin waters for the first time in four years.

Members of the Dunedin Community Salmon Trust, Salmon Anglers Association, Fish and Game and trust support group the Hens, Jacks and Sprats Club spent the morning transferring 10,000 locally reared smolt from the hatchery, to the Water of Leith and Careys Bay.

The salmon fry were brought in from Canterbury last year at a few days old and weighing just 0.5gm, and have been reared in a concrete pond for a year.

They now weigh about 100gm, but after three or four years at sea they should return for spawning weighing between between 7kg and 13kg.

New Zealand Salmon Anglers Association Otago Branch chairman Wayne Olsen said the association had not been able to release smolt into the Water of Leith, from where the fish would go out to sea, for several years because there had not been enough water in it.

But the water was back and the fish had previously returned to the stream, so it was hoped the same would happen again.

The other 10,000 smolt in the tank will be released at the same spots in mid-June, and also at Thomsons Creek in Sawyers Bay, while another 15,000 brought down from Canterbury will be released into Otago Harbour later.

Dunedin Community Salmon Trust member Brett Benseman said it was exciting to see the fish reared at Sawyers Bay released because volunteers had put so much into them.

The fish-growing programme had also had support from the Dunedin City Council and the University of Otago.

Dunedin and Vancouver were the only two places in the world where an angler could catch a salmon off a city wharf.

It was hoped the trust would create a self-supporting salmon-rearing facility and release about 35,000 smolt annually, which would create a lot of educational, recreational, and tourism opportunities, Mr Benseman said.

"There are a whole range of opportunities created by having your own city hatchery."

Hens, Jacks and Sprats Club member Betty Mason-Parker had been feeding and weighing the salmon since last July.

Seeing them transferred to the sea was exciting, she said.

"They are all my babies - they are just so beautiful."

She said the club was set up to educate the community about salmon and raise some money for the trust.

Mr Benseman said the operation would not have got off the ground without the efforts of trust chairman Roger Kan, who was not at the release on Saturday.

"It's a credit to him."

- debbie.porteous@odt.co.nz