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Robert Hutton releases one of 26 grass carp at the Warkworth Golf Club.
The Warkworth Golf Club welcomed 26 grass carp to its course on April 19 after fish farm co-operative Aquatic Weed Management donated the fish to clean up the ponds.The carp are herbivores and eat weeds that grow in a freshwater environment.
Warkworth Golf Club member Athalie McHardy says the club was keen to clean up their ponds to improve the appearance of the course.
The club had to wait a year to get Department of Conservation approval for the carp to be used, a process costing $2000.
Members raised $3000 to help cover the costs by holding second hand clothing sales, and an individual member donated a further $1000. The excess funds will go towards course landscaping.
Aquatic Weed Management is a fish farm co-operative run between Paul Decker, Robert Hutton and Peter Wilcox, with fish farms in Warkworth and Nelson. Their grass carp are sold for both environmental purposes and restaurant food.
Paul says they’ve had a successful season breeding 200,000 grass carp in January, which will be distributed nationwide via the co-operative.
He says while the use of grass carp in New Zealand is controversial, as they are an introduced species, they pose no threat as the climate means they are unable to breed.
