According to Stuff news agency, Tara Bri Tamure, an unregistered company with links to Te Runanga o Whaingaroa, applied to the Northland Regional Council in 1996 for a resource consent to farm snapper east of Peach Island.
They say that the council put the application on hold while it awaited information, then froze the application when the government introduced a moratorium on new marine farms in 2001.
A group trying to ban new marine farms in the harbour worries that the company will try to go ahead with the marine farm now that council rules allow areas of the harbour to be zoned for new farms.
"I wrote to the council asking them if anything had changed on the file and they said no, but weve heard stories that the runanga have been out viewing the site," Whangaroa Maritime Recreational Park steering group spokesman David Keys told Stuff.
The steering group is trying to get the council to strike out Tara Bri Tamures consent application so that nothing is preordained or deemed to be in process, he says.
Old Fish Farm Proposal, Fresh Fears
NEW ZEALAND - Concerns over the possibility of a 29 hectare fin fish farm being established in Whangaroa Harbour have prompted fresh calls for a ban on new marine farms in the harbour.