Feeding a growing industry
A new multimillion-dollar mussel harvester has been specifically built to handle the challenging weather conditions of Tasman and Golden bays.
West Coast-Tasman MP and Associate Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor, whose electorate includes much of where the Vanguard will be operating, recently launched the vessel with Nelsonbased MacLab’s directors Jim and Andrew Broadbent at a ceremony in Nelson.
Built over 12 months by Whanganui company Q-West, the 30.6-metre vessel is able to harvest 80 tonnes of mussels a day – equal to two days of factory production – and will work across all aspects of mussel farming, from seeding to harvesting.
MacLab’s marine farming manager Scott Gillanders said Vanguard was a key project for the company as it looked to significantly boost its production of mussels, with a particular focus on the high-value nutraceutical industry.
Gillanders said the new craft was designed to handle the often challenging weather conditions that Golden Bay and Tasman Bay could present, compared to the sheltered waters of the Marlborough Sounds, where most of the company’s mussels were sourced from.
‘‘We wanted it to be safe and comfortable for our crew, so there are spacious, insulated, airconditioned accommodation areas. She is a very stable platform, with ballast tanks to reduce motion when working on the farm or when empty.’’
Vanguard has a colour sorter for visually scanning harvested material, separating greenshell and blue mussels and rejecting any waste.
It is also fitted with a removable size grader than can separate nutraceutical and half shell-grade mussels to maximise value.
The company farms and procures green-lipped mussels for manufacturing into high-quality mussel powder, which is then skipper
sold for further processing into market-leading marine oils including Lyprinol and Antinol.
MacLab sources about 7000 tonnes of mussels – about 7 per cent of national production – from farms in the Sounds and Tasman and Golden bays which it owns or leases, as well as buying mussels from other supply partners.
A 34-year veteran of the mussel industry, Vanguard skipper Michael ‘‘Stoney’’ Bourke is the owner of Tasman Bay Aquaculture,which is in a joint venture with MacLab Tasman.
He said the layout of the new vessel provided a higher level of crew safety and efficiency, while its bridge made it easier to pass on knowledge to younger members of the crew.
‘‘If you get a young fella who you just keep on the deck, he’s going to leave. But if you show some interest in what they could become and put them in the seat, they’re going to stick around.’’
One trip had been conducted prior to last Thursday’s launch, which Bourke said had gone well in yielding a good haul of mussels while pinpointing some minor adjustments to the operation.
‘‘It’s a great sea boat, and we will certainly get more sea days out in Tasman Bay.’’
Bourke and his crew look after 150 mostly underwater lines of mussels in Tasman and Golden bays, holding an average of 40 tonnes each, which he said represented a large increase in production in recent times.
‘‘A couple of years ago, they were probably only doing about seven or eight tonne.
‘‘We treat it like our front yard, and I like to think because we’re there all the time, we do keep ours the tidiest – the crew put in a lot of effort to ensure that.’’
MacLab financial controller Gary Rountree said Vanguard was another milestone in the company’s development since it started in 1973. In the last two years alone, it had invested $13 million to lift production, excluding the cost of the new vessel.
‘‘It’s a great sea boat, and we will certainly get more sea days out in Tasman Bay.’’ Michael ‘‘Stoney’’ Bourke,