At present the department has
a team of three working on these applications but it hopes
to build this to a group of 10. This would become a
dedicated aquaculture team.
The department also plans
to streamline the process by which these applications are
processed.
The National Party, the
official opposition, says the Marlborough, Tasman and
Golden Bay area has 70 outstanding applications that are
more than a year old. The department estimates that there
are more than 100 applications outstanding. Most of the
applications are for mussel farms. There are also some
applications for more exotic varieties and for other
shellfish.
This week the Resource
Management Amendment Act, (RMA) which will, amongst other
things, to streamline procedures for the applications for
marine farms was granted urgency so that it passes quickly
through all its final stages in
Parliament.
This bill first introduced
in July 1999 is designed to reduce duplication,
uncertainty and compliance costs in the 1991 act. It was a
result of the change in legislation as well as the numbers
of applications for marine farms that the moratorium on
these was introduced. This applied to resource consent
applications that were not notified on 28 November 2001.
Many of the applications that are currently held up were
probably notified before November 2001.
Today the Green Party has
called on Mfish not to rush through the huge backlog of
marine farm permit applications. Their spokesperson Ian
Ewen-Street said this would amount to rubber-stamping. He
added that the consideration of marine farm permit
applications was far from simple, as it involved a
delicate balancing of the interests of farmers,
recreational users of the sea, sustainability of the
nutrient supply and the environment.
"If you simply allow marine
farms to expand to fill the available water space, you get
to the point where you overstep the nutrient supply
available to the seafood you are farming," Mr Ewen-Street
said. "There are indications we are getting fairly close
to the limit now."
The Green MP was responding
to a call from National Party MP Dr Lynda Scott this
morning on National Radio for the ministry to clear the
backlog quickly.
By Jenny Haworth
FIS.com
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