a modified Japanese longline system, where mussel spat is packed into stockings and suspended from parallel rows of looped ropes, supported by buoys. In 1981 the first specially designed mussel-processing factory started operations at Havelock, at the head of the sounds. Havelock has become the main centre for landing harvested mussels, with other smaller processing plants at French Pass, Elaine Bay, Okiwi Bay and Rai Valley. People are needed to manage and work the farms, and to harvest and transport the mussels to the processing plants. As a result, the mussel-farming industry has become closely linked to several local communities. Heavy rain can result in high sediment-levels in rivers and land runoff, and can contain bacterial contamination from livestock. This can result in mussel-farming areas being closed to harvesting. Applications to increase mussel farms in Admiralty Bay have been successfully opposed on the grounds that the area is a special feeding site for the dusky dolphin. A claim has been made, and a study carried out in New Zealand, that marine farms may affect the feeding ability of Dusky dolphins which round up shoals of schooling fish such as pilchard. The farming of Chinook Salmon also occurs in the outer Pelorus, with sites at Bulwer and the Waitata Reach. Salmon farming in the sounds is likely to expand in future years into the Cook Strait. Pine forestry Since the 1970s, large areas of exotic (pine) forest have been planted around the sounds. Bulk timber is exported from a deep-water berth in Shakespeare Bay to the west of Picton. Māori The indigenous people of New Zealand are the Māori. The local iwi, Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Koata and Ngāti Toa have engaged in marine farming with the aim of supplying better employment for their people. They are concerned about protecting their sacred sites, and about the environmental effects of industrial scale marine farming. They have objected to some development projects, such as a mussel farm in an area where their people are starting to return to the land, and a proposed harbour development at Havelock, where the local dump was located near sites and a waterway sacred to Ngati Kuia. Māori groups are becoming better resourced through settlements and income from fisheries quotas. They are more active at looking after their interests. Community tensions have increased, with some interests feeling Māori hold up development. Tides and currents There have been several hydrographic