Tag Archives: Sealord

It’s here – the future of commercial fishing

New trawling technology – billed as “the future of sustainable fishing” – has been unveiled to the New Zealand seafood industry at its annual conference in Auckland this afternoon. The system, which has been in development in this country for almost 10 years, uses a large, flexible PVC tube instead of a traditional mesh trawling net. New Zealand fishing companies Aotearoa Fisheries, Sanford and Sealord are investing $26 million into the commercialisation phase of the technology, called Precision Seafood Harvesting. The Government is matching industry investment and scientists from Plant & Food Research, a Crown Research Institute, are working with the three fishing firms to trial the system on commercial vessels. Photos, Video, >>click to read<< 07:33

Sealord convicted for endangering workers after asbestos found on fishing vessel Will Watch

A worker who found what he strongly suspected was asbestos on a fishing vessel has led to a conviction for seafood company Sealord on a charge linked to its failure to properly protect workers from harm. In 2021 the crew member was among several seconded to the 50-year-old fishing vessel Will Watch for a fishing trip in the southern Indian Ocean. He noticed a form of insulation in a locker room that he didn’t recognise and raised the alarm with the ship’s captain. Sealord did not believe there was any risk to the Will Watch crew from asbestos, believing it had been removed from the vessel before it arrived in New Zealand in the 1980s. >click to read< 13:36

NZ fishing companies employing Russian crews despite sanctions

Despite New Zealand implementing sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine – the fishing industry continues to bring in Russian crew. Figures from Immigration New Zealand show last year, 306 Critical Purpose visas were approved for Russian nationals who travelled here and identified as fishing crew. That compares to 238 in 2021 and 511 in 2020. One of the companies which employs them is Sealord. Its chief executive Doug Paulin said Sealord needed to employ Russians because one of its vessels was Russian built. “New Zealand has had a number of Russian built fishing vessels here for well over 20 years. And whilst the number of those vessels is slowly decreasing as Sealord looks to replace them, they are still fishing in New Zealand waters, and require Russian crew to man them given their mechanical expertise and how those boats run.” >click to read< 11:49

Hundreds of workers flown home to Pacific despite fishing firms’ pleas

Tongan, Samoan and ni-Vanuatu horticulture workers have been redeployed or flown home, to the disappointment of the country’s biggest fishing companies who had asked for help filling hundreds of jobs in their processing plants. Between 200 and 500 workers still had time left on their Recognised Seasonal Employer visas, at the end of fruit-picking season in Nelson and Marlborough. Sealord and Talley’ wrote to the immigration minister asking that workers be given the chance to transfer over to better-paid seafood jobs, to help address a big labour shortage at the start of New Zealand’s lucrative hoki season. >click to read< 09:32

Coronavirus: Covid-19 discovered in second group of Russian mariners

The 11 cases of Covid-19 were discovered in a group of 190 mariners who flew into the city from Russia on Wednesday to work on fishing boats in New Zealand waters. The group was originally scheduled to arrive in November, but was delayed after more than 30 Covid infections emerged in the first group of 137 Russian and Ukrainian mariners who arrived in October. The approximately $1.2 million isolation cost for the second group of mariners will be met by the fishing companies where they will work, which include Sealord and Independent Fisheries. >click to read< 11:16

New Zealand: A boost for training fishing recruits on the West Coast

The fishing industry is making a push to recruit more Kiwis into jobs by funding more scholarships. The industry was thrown a lifeline by the Government last year when it granted exemption for Russian and Ukrainian fishing crews to enter New Zealand to fill the shortage on deep sea fishing vessels because of Covid-19. A total of 440 Russian and Ukrainian fishermen were due to be flown to New Zealand on two flights chartered by fishing companies in an effort to save the local deep-sea fishing industry,,, To help boost the number of domestic fishermen, Westport Deep Sea Fishing School director Peter Maich said the fishing industry had increased the number of its industry-funded scholarships four-fold. >click to read< 16:22

Electronic Monitoring in New Zealand: “not excusable” some skippers are fishing in protected areas

It comes as data obtained under the Official Information Act shows the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is investigating a set netting vessel in the South Island. It alleges it fished in both a dolphin-protected area and a marine reserve. “It’s not excusable at all,” chief executive Dr Jeremy Helson says. “We will work with MPI and the companies to make sure skippers and crew understand their responsibilities.” In December last year, new electronic monitoring rules came into place for 860 commercial fishing vessels, meaning the movements of vessels were tracked by the Ministry for Primary Industries. >click to read< 09:16 – Commercial fishing vessel offences 10-times higher after Ministry for Primary Industries starts tracking location information>click to read<

‘Window dressing’: Sealord criticized for efforts to hire Kiwis

Sealord is being accused of not making a genuine effort to employ New Zealanders to work on the two Russian-owned trawlers it charters. An ad in October told prospective employees on the two Russian trawlers, they would be doing “the same repetitive task” the “entire time” they were out at sea. Compare that to an ad for a place on one of the seven trawlers it owned that were mostly crewed by New Zealanders. No monotonous work without end on these vessels. Instead it proclaimed “no two days are ever the same”, talked of fishing trips with the equivalent amount of time off, on full pay, once you got back to shore. There were “three delicious meals a day” (the Russian trawlers also supplied meals but there was no mention of how good they were), a free flu jab and free internet access while at sea. >click to read< 17:28

Salaries can be high, with lots of time off – so why can’t fishing boats hire Kiwis?

The worker shortage in the deep-sea fishing industry is almost at crisis point as it struggles to attract new workers, industry leaders say. The issue has been highlighted this week by nearly 240 Russian and Ukrainian fishermen now quarantining in Christchurch’s Siduma Hotel after 11 of them tested positive for Covid-19. But this recent dilemma was only exacerbating a problem the industry had with recruiting new workers. >click to read, or listen to audio report< 19:05

Russians jet in to save New Zealand’s beleaguered deep-sea fishing industry

Hundreds of Russian and Ukrainian seamen will fly into Christchurch in the coming weeks to save the country’s beleaguered deep-sea fishing industry, which has been haemorrhaging cash and is on the brink of mass layoffs. About 440 fishermen will arrive on two flights chartered by fishing companies – the first of which touches down from Moscow via Singapore on Friday. New Zealand’s deep-sea fishing industry, largely reliant on overseas workers, has been crippled by Covid travel restrictions that have left operators unable to crew their boats, costing tens of millions of dollars.>click to read< 09:21

Sealord ordered to forfeit $24 million vessel

The company was also ordered to pay a $24,000 fine in Nelson District Court for trawling in a Benthic Protected Area.  Sealord vessel master Bolen Terric Goomes was fined $7500 and first mate Thomas Adrian Pope was fined $5000, MPI reports. They were convicted on one representative charge each, relating to five trawls for the company, three trawls for the skipper and two trawls for the first mate. In addition to the vessel Ocean Dawn being forfeit, the proceeds from the sale of the entire catch taken in the five offending trawls is also forfeit which amounts to $1,12294.13. >click to read< 08:05

Nelson-based fishing crews adrift from Coronavirus during lockdown

The crew of Nelson-based fishing vessel Ocean Pioneer has spent the last nine weeks in a boat bubble, catching scampi on the Chatham Rise as the world was changed by Covid-19. Skipper Blair Alderson and his crew of five deckhands and a chief engineer departed Nelson two weeks’ prior to the March 26 level 4 lockdown.,, Damage to the boat’s television dome on the second day of the first trip restricted their news updates to emails from home and chatter with other boats in the vicinity. The crew were able to truly grasp the lockdown situation when they unloaded their first catch at Port Nelson in the midst of level 4 lockdown. >click to read< 07:52

Sealord crew member missing near Cape Palliser

A Sealord crew member is missing and a search under way in the Pacific Ocean near the coast of Cape Palliser. The crew member did not report for duty on one of the company’s fishing vessels, the Otakou, on Thursday morning. A “full muster” was conducted to confirm he was missing before a search commenced and authorities were notified, a statement from Sealord said. >click to read<10:11

New Sealord fishing vessel Totaku soon to head for Nelson

Sealord’s brand new $70m fishing vessel has been given a name as it nears completion in Norway. The Nelson-based fishing company has named its new 82.9m factory trawler Tokatu. Translated from Māori, Toka means rock and Tu means stand, and relates to the phrase “he tokatu moana” – a rock that withstands the ravages of the sea. It is said of a person who can withstand the test of time. A delivery crew is due to travel to Norway soon in preparation for her maiden voyage down to NZ. Tokatu will then embark on a 40-day voyage to NZ, by way of the Panama Canal.>click to read<13:31

Fishing company eyes up Timaru workforce to crew new vessel

Competition for South Canterbury’s fishing expertise looks set to intensify, with national firm Sealord looking to Timaru to help staff its soon-to-be launched $70 million factory fishing vessel. Sealord public affairs and communications manager Julie North said the company expected to put its advanced new fishing trawler, which includes an highly-automated on-board fish factory, to sea in May. North said advertisements for crew to man the trawler, which would be based out of Nelson but would fish down both coasts of the South Island and as far south as the sub-Antarctic, had reached as far as Timaru. >click to read< 21:52

New Zealand: Sealord’s new $70m freezer trawler will shortly be recruiting staff

Sealord’s new $70million freezer stern trawler will be making regular appearances in Dunedin next year, sharing its port calls equally with its home port, Nelson. The 81.7m-long stern trawler is barely into week 20 of its build in Norway. The first few of eight “blocks” that will be joined together to make the hull have recently been delivered from Poland. The new vessel will expand Sealord’s overall fleet to six owned vessels and two leased and is expected to be operational from May next year. Once finished, it would complete sea trials in Norway by March next year, then would be partially rigged during its 40-day delivery passage to Nelson.,, Gillanders said unemployment in the fishing industry was at present quite low and filling vacancies was “challenging”. click here to read the story 13:17