Prior to the last election I tried to express and highlight my fears that Trout farming was being secretly planned and unfortunately I failed to raise any real concern amongst the angling fraternity and distinctly got the opinion that a new generation of anglers were not really concerned.

Sandfords Fishery is now calling for trout farming to allowed and the Chairman of the National Party is a substantial shareholder in Sandfords.

I fear the push to have it legalised has began.

The same concerns that we had last time Salminoid farming /  imports of fresh meat mooted by those who wanted to make money at the cost of our wild fisheries.
Some of those were.
Commercialisation of the resource.
Poached trout are sold now, with a legitimate market the pressure will increase dramatically.
The importation of foreign fish with the accompanying  diseases and possible genetic defects which have the potential to decimate our wild trout populations.
I understand  that NZs trout fishery has been self contained for very many years.
To the extent that our fish have no resistance to many of the diseases that are now common overseas.
PS I cant actually see what the fuss over trout is all about. They dont have much taste. Cant fight to save themselves & their pursuit is govened by a ridiculous amount of rules

Australia has had trout farms for years, and it hasn't ended civilisation there (though obviously, other things have!).

And NZ already has salmonid farms. I can't think of any diseases that impact trout that don't impact salmon, so that horse has well and truly bolted.

Though I am kind of disturbed that a politician who is a substantial shareholder in a company that wants to introduce farms is permitted to have a say or has influence in the decision making process.

Hell, I got a contract at the IRD and had to resign as treasurer of a club I belong to - as it breaches the IRDs potential conflict of interest rules. Politicians should be held to the same standard! (Tui).

I think you will find that this is more about tit for tat, Fed farmers get all pissed whenever F&G start making noises about water quality and run off. evertime they do , fed farmers roll out the trout farm issue

I will state outright that I draw my income (wage only) from fish farming. Therefore any thoughts I share here are open to arguement and as long as it is kept civil, I will attempt to answer any questions I can. If I have no knowledge of the issues raised around any questions asked I will say so.
From my point of view, I draw your attention to this thread.
http://www.fishnhunt.co.nz/forum/YaBB.cgi?num=1318114231

You will notice that the contributor threatens all kinds of world ending doom but the thread just stopped!
My point is that even the doom sayers have nothing to present some time after armageddon was predicted.

I have  nothing to gain out of this arguement beyond my sad weekly wage. However I have been involved in making small Salmon into big Salmon for the last ten years.
  I am happy that what we do has no affect on the wild fishery. I don't see that trout would be any different beyond the water use arguement.

Cheers Chris.

Totally agree on the water use issue Chris. Here in Canterbury we are ripping out all of our windbreak plantings and putting in more wells. It will be a bastard when milkfat doesn't pay anymore and nobody can afford to run pumps for irrigators to keep our land moist and the cows fat. I believe that most of the Canterbury Plains will end up in the Pacific Ocean. That aside, fish seem to grow better in a saltwater environment and certainly taste better. Hopefully further encroachment by exploiters on OUR freshwater resource will be shot down in flames.
Politically though, The national income from dairy is too good to ignore and is the only thing that separates New Zealand from Greece financially!

Well the current assurances from government are It wont happen... I think the idea was floated and the public response has put it back in cupboard....

I don't understand where you are coming from. When the president of the national party makes the play for it and he is a major shareholder in a huge fishing company that has dozens of mussel farms in the Marlborough sounds and he says they want to turn them into trout farms..you need to grandstand.. its the noise from anglers that has seen it countered... the only reason you are not surrounded by trout farms now is because of all the grandstanding done in the 1970's.... .