Salmon smolt might once again be raised at Sawyers Bay for release into Otago Harbour, after the finalisation of a deal between a trust and the University of Otago.
The university has taken over the lease of the Dunedin City Council's former water treatment plant site and will initially use it as a base for sustainability projects such as composting and woodchip fuel production.
The facility was operated as a private salmon hatchery for seven years until it was mothballed in 2006.
Under the terms of the new lease, an agreement had been reached which allowed the Dunedin Community Salmon Trust to raise and release smolt there, university property services manager Barry MacKay said yesterday.
Tiny salmon smolt were released in the expectation they would return as adults to the waters where they were raised and provide sport for salmon anglers.
There are three tanks at Sawyers Bay which have the capacity to house up to 200,000 smolt.
Salmon Trust spokesman Roger Kan yesterday said the trust was "all keen to get going" on restocking, but before that, volunteers would be needed to look after the smolt and the site, plus help raise an estimated $50,000 to get going again.
"We've all been waiting in anticipation of a deal being agreed [with the university]. Now that has happened, we will call a public meeting and see where we go from there. . ."
Mr Kan hoped the trust would be able to buy up to 100,000 fertilised eggs in May, with a view to releasing them between December and May next year.
Mr MacKay said the university's lease was for three years and might be renewed.
Short-term site uses included composting green waste, storing and chipping wood waste into boiler-sized fuel stock, and possibly the small-scale production of biofuels from kitchen waste streams, he said.
Those projects would reduce waste going to landfill - and landfill costs - and reduce the university's carbon footprint.
Geology students might also make field trips to the old quarry on the site, and the department of botany might grow plants there, Mr MacKay said.
Eventually, the university hoped to use the site as a base for for marine science and zoology research projects, but he said that would depend on securing funding.
