Indications from fishermen and scientists who inspected oyster beds said they looked reasonably good, with little sign of the devastating bonamia disease, Barnes Oysters manager Graeme Wright said.
Bonamia ostreae, a blood-cell parasite also affecting connective tissues, saps oysters' energy and prevents them from keeping their shells together, exposing them to predators. It is estimated to have killed about 1 billion Bluff oysters between 2000 and 2003. Since 2006, oyster mortality from bonamia has been relatively low.
Mr Wright said the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research was completing a survey of the oyster beds and the results were due next month.
Eleven oyster boats would head out, weather permitting, on March 1 with the aim of harvesting up to 9.3 million oysters in this year's catch.
The harvest remained lower than the 15 million agreed quota but higher than the industry-agreed level of 7.5 million after the last bonamia outbreak.
Any movement on the 9.3 million quota would be reviewed after the fleet had spent about a month in the fishery and survey data was available.
The good quality of last year's oysters meant demand for this year's crop was as strong as ever, he said.
"The phone has been running hot all the past week or 10 days."
All going well with the weather, oysters would be available on the Wednesday in Southland and distributed from Dunedin north on Thursday, he said.
Ministry of Fisheries inshore fisheries team leader Allen Frazer said it was a bit early to tell how clear the fishery was from bonamia, but there was no evidence anything had changed since the previous season.
"At this stage it is continuing to rebuild, but we need to wait for the survey to make sure."
