New use for salmon carcasses a 'win-win' for three trusts

By David Bruce 7 May 2010

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Sue Downton and Colin Wolverson feed a yellow-eyed penguin from Bushy Beach with salmon from a Rangitata River hatchery. They have authorisation from the Department of Conservation to catch, hold and release protected wildlife. Photo by David Bruce.

Spent salmon from a Rangitata River hatchery are being recycled into food for sick penguins at Katiki Point and Bushy Beach. The Riparian Support Trust is providing salmon from its McKinnon's Hatchery to the Katiki Point Penguin Charitable Trust and the New Friends of Bushy Beach in a "win-win" deal worked out when they were at the TrustPower Community Awards national final in Nelson last year.
"It's doing us a favour and we are doing them a favour; it's a win-win," riparian trust trustee Phil de Joux said.
The two penguin trusts have already collected 50 salmon, each weighing 6kg to 8kg, from the hatchery, sharing them evenly.
Rosalie Goldsworthy, of the Katiki Point Penguin Charitable Trust, said salmon was the best food for penguins, especially those that needed to put on weight quickly.
Her trust spends about $10,000 a year on food, which is difficult to fund because grants organisations prefer to fund capital projects.
She estimated the 25 free salmon would save about $1000.
The salmon have been frozen - half-filling her freezer - and will be thawed then filleted before being fed to the penguins.
New Friends of Bushy Beach trustee Colin Wolverson estimated his trust spent about $5000 last year on food for 65 penguins. It costs about $5 a day for the kilogram of salmon a penguin needs.
The McKinnon's Hatchery is based on McKinnon's Stream, a tributary of the Rangitata River. Managed by the riparian trust, volunteers strip salmon returning to the stream of their eggs, which are then hatched and raised for release back into the river.
Once stripped, the salmon die, as they do in the wild after spawning. Some of the bodies are returned to the stream as part of the salmon's life cycle, but usually, many more are left than are needed, Mr de Joux said.
At last year's TrustPower national awards, Mrs Goldsworthy showed a video of her feeding salmon fillets to penguins at the Moeraki lighthouse, which amazed the riparian trust's salmon-loving anglers.
So, she and Mr de Joux talked it over. A deal was struck, ratified by the Central South Island Fish and Game Council, for the Rangitata-based trust to freeze and supply salmon carcases for the penguins.
- david.bruce@odt.co.nz

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