Mt Cook Alpine Salmon general manager Janine Tulloch
(wearing red gloves) helps fill the bags and chilly bins of
eager salmon customers at Lake Pukaki over the weekend.
Photo by Mark Price.
At the start of the weekend Mt Cook Alpine Salmon, in the
Mackenzie Country, had a problem: 10,000 too many young salmon.
But by 4pm yesterday their problem was gone - snapped up by
people eager for a bargain.
Selling salmon at a remarkably cheap $40 for 10 fish, the
salmon company at times could barely keep up with demand.
General manager Janine Tulloch said about 1000 customers
queued for up to an hour and a-half as she and other staff
transferred fish by hand.
Some took just the 10 fish, others spoken to by the Otago
Daily Times took up to 150.
One man bought 100 for elderly people in Fairlie, a woman
bought fish for family in Franz Josef, a family from
Christchurch camped out overnight so as not to miss out, a
man drove from Oamaru for a chilly bin full and a group of
young Wanaka people took 50 for their freezer.
The company farms a million salmon at two sites, one in the
Tekapo canal, which is downstream of maintenance work being
carried out by Genesis Energy. The canal leaks, and over two
14-week stints this summer and next, sections will be
''dewatered'' while the canal is lined with PVC.
Ms Tulloch said the 1-year-old fish sold over the weekend
could have been moved to other sites, however, it had been
decided to hold the one-off public sale.
-mark.price@odt.co.nz
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