Otago shellfish company Southern Clams expects sandbanks in the middle of Dunedin's harbour to soon be officially certified as suitable for harvesting native littleneck clams, known as tuaki.
The "growing area approval" by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority is required before the shellfish can be harvested for sale.
The approval process required a 27-month sanitation survey.
Public consultation on Southern Clams application is set to start, but the Ministry of Fisheries has already called for submissions on a competing mataitai or Maori customary fishing reserve in the harbour.
Southern Clams director Roger Belton has previously said a mataitai covering the harbour could prevent commercial harvesting of the clams, which are also known as New Zealand cockles.
Mr Belton said the Dunedin City Council had done a huge amount of work over the past nine years removing all sewage outfalls from harbour.
"Otago Harbour would now be one of the cleaner inshore shellfish growing areas in the country," he said in statement.
An independent survey of 180 hectares in the middle banks, an area less than 4 percent of the entire harbour, measured the clam biomass at 13,500 tonnes.
The middle banks are rarely visited by the public.
"The size of the resource is such that it can cater for everyone; recreational and customary users and provide for a sustainable fishery that contributes to the local economy," said Mr Belton.
He was prepared to invest in the research fishing even though there would be no assurance that Southern Clams would subsequently gain commercial harvest rights.
"The findings of the research will be there for whoever has the right to commercially harvest," he said.
If the mataitai application was successful, then the research could be used by the local runanga if it later chose to allow a commercial fishery.
