My Account
Oyster farming in the Mahurangi dates back nearly 100 years.
The first New Zealand trials of rock oyster cultivation were done in 1927 in the Mahurangi Harbour, Kawau Island and the Bay of Islands, when indigenous rock oysters attached to mangroves were transferred to galvanised wire trays. These were placed on wooden frames attached to wooden piles driven into intertidal mud.
But it took nearly 40 years for these trials to progress to commercially viable oyster farming.
The first commercial farmers were a syndicate that operated in the Pukapuka inlet, off Mahurangi West Road. The son of a syndicate member, Wilf Berger, remembers it as being very hard work rather than particularly profitable. Berger still farms deer on 70 hectares in Kaipara Flats, but sold all his oyster farming interests to local company Biomarine in 2010.
He set up an oyster farm at Huawai (food from the water) Bay in the late 1960s, which just preceded the arrival in the Mahurangi of the faster growing Pacific oyster. He recalls being told by Australian farmers to kill any Pacific interlopers, but after killing three the first year and 30 the next, he had to bow to the inevitable when they numbered over a thousand.
The other early pioneer was Les Curtin, an Australian oyster farmer, who came to New Zealand in the late 1960s on behalf of the old Marine Department to investigate the best areas to establish oyster farming as a commercial operation.
He immediately decided the logical areas to set up spat collection operations to supply the nascent industry were indeed the Pukapuka inlet of the Mahurangi Harbour, Bon Accord Harbour on Kawau and Orongo Bay near Russell, as well as the Coromandel Peninsula and the Pahi arm of the Kaipara.
However, despite its history, oyster cultivation is still very small in comparison to mussel and salmon farming, and unlikely to grow dramatically. It is managed through a consenting process which grants renewable 25 to 35 year leases subject to zoning conditions, although Wilf Berger says the main problem standing in the way of expansion is public (mainly boaties’) resistance to the establishment of any new farming areas. The Coromandel and Kaipara probably offer the largest potential for expansion.
Exports have formed an important part of oyster farming since the early days and Berger remembers selling most of his production to Kia Ora Seafoods, which secured good markets in New Caledonia and Tahiti for oysters as natural as possible, including the mud! The total Pacific oyster sales value now comes to $24 million, of which two-thirds is exported frozen, live or chilled to eight main destinations, with Australia, China, Hong Kong, French Polynesia and New Caledonia being the largest. About one-third of oysters are cultivated in the Auckland region, which includes the Mahurangi.
There is a relatively small number of oyster farming operations in the Mahurangi including Moana Fisheries and several local operators.
Biomarine, started in the 1970s by marine biologist Jim Dollimore and John Nicholson, has 40 hectares under lease in the Mahurangi, as well as 75 hectares at the mouth of the Kaipara, and access to other leases in the Bay of Islands. It produces about six million oysters annually – four million from the Mahurangi – of which 90 per cent are exported. The company employs up to 50 staff based at the packhouse in Woodcocks Road.
Orata, started by Wilf Berger and Trevor Smith, is now wholly owned by Smith and his partner Lynette Dunne and can be found at Matakana Farmers Market, as well as many of Auckland’s top restaurants.
Mahurangi Oysters, originally established by Andrew and Lisa Hay, is an important part of the Aitken family’s farming operation, which also comprises a 316 hectare deer farm in Central Hawkes Bay, winners of Champion of Champions in the Marks & Spencer Farming for the Future award.
Matakana Oysters started operating from the Green Shed on Leigh Road in 2006 without Council consent. It can still be found there, just over the hill from Matakana, fully consented and open to the public every day except when bad weather prevents collection.
If you want to find out more about oyster farming in the Mahurangi, Heritage Tours run trips on the harbour between two and four days a week throughout the year when your knowledgeable guide and instructor is Andrew Hay, previous owner of Mahurangi Oysters. On the tour, which operates from Scott’s Landing, you can spend an enjoyable and informative couple of hours learning how oysters are grown and how to shuck them before they slip deliciously down your throat.
