Tag Archives: New Zealand
Greymouth fishing company Westfleet loses multi-million dollar trawler for coral weighing ‘less than half a pound of butter’
A deep sea fishing company has lost its multi-million dollar trawler to the Crown in a case described by a judge as a “cavalier approach to the whole area of compliance”. Greymouth-based Westfleet Fishing Limited was sentenced in the Nelson District Court today on a charge of breaching a condition of a high seas permit and a representative charge of failing to provide a Non-Fish Protected Species (NFPS) Report. Along with losing its trawler Westfleet was also convicted and fined $56,250. Former skipper Stephen John Smith was separately convicted and fined $7500 for contravening a condition of a high seas permit, while first mate Nicholas Taikato was convicted and fined $6000 on a representative charge of failing to provide an NFPS report. >click to read< 09:10
Fishing tech all set to net the catch of the day and nothing else
Dom Talijancich has every available sensor technology on board his 24-meter trawler, FV Mako. Everything but a camera and AI system that identifies what type of species are entering his net during a tow. If the technology were available, the Nelson fisherman and businessman would have got it immediately. But there was gap in the market for a piece of equipment like that, and it led him to developing his own company and the technology to do the job. Talijancich’s tech company Advanced Conservation Solutions (ACS) have tech that can improve the sustainability of commercial fishing using artificial intelligence (AI). >click to read< 08:53
Locally built addition to fishing fleet launched at Careys Bay
A Dunedin commercial fisher has launched his newest vessel, F/V Elodie, amid fanfare at Careys Bay. Damon Cooper has been fishing commercially for 30 years and added a third boat to his fleet on Saturday, with the boat launch. Otago Rock Lobster Industry Association executive officer Chanel Gardner said her husband, Mr Cooper, was committed to and very passionate about the fishing industry in Otago. The boat was built in Dunedin to contribute to the local fishing industry, she said. The boat will mainly fish rock lobster and blue cod and its more efficient systems would enable Mr Cooper to get the rock lobster to market in excellent shape. >click to read< 15:36
Boats likely stuck ‘in the middle of nowhere’ for several days after storm
A boat that broke free and ran aground during a storm that left thousands without power could take up to two weeks to salvage, a harbourmaster says. The storm that battered the South Island on Tuesday whipped boats from their moorings and caused some damage to the power networks managed by PowerNet in Southland, leaving hundreds of customers without power overnight. On Wednesday afternoon, a 14-metre-long private boat bearing the name Liane could be seen half-submerged in the mudflats of Pourakino River in the Jacobs River Estuary, in front of the Aparima Restaurant and Bar. He said it was one of two boats that sank as a result of the storm. Photos, >click to read< 08:52
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
Dredging for Bluff oyster gold in Foveaux Strait
Just before 2am on Wednesday, oyster boat Daphne Kay left its dock at South Port. The crew is five family members. Three brothers, a brother-in-law, and a son. Ricky Ryan is the skipper, with brothers Lynn, Jason, brother-in-law Karl and Ricky’s son Ethan making up the oystermen crew of five. Some of the brothers have been involved in oystering for 44 years. Ethan, trained to be a heat pump installer and worked in refrigeration, but returned to the boat and is now in his second season. He says he actually regrets not getting into the family business earlier. The Daphne Kay, one of the first to leave in the mornings of oyster season, heads out early, so the crew can work out of the sunlight. Photos, >click to read< 09:48
Tauranga skipper Bert Aitken retires after 43 years in fishing industry
After 43 years working at sea, commercial skipper Robert ‘Bert’ Aitken has “never” been seasick. Aitken has been working in the fishing industry for 43 years, spending the majority of that time at commercial seafood company Sanford. Wednesday was his last day. He started his career as an unqualified deckhand, eventually working his way up to become a skipper. For a typical fishing trip, Aitken would travel from Tauranga to Auckland on a Wednesday. The boat would then leave Thursday morning and not return until the following Wednesday. Everything needed to be organised beforehand, including checking the weather, making a plan on where to fish and getting ice and bins, he said. He and his two crew members, Matangaro “Mat”’ Ben and Mike Jones, would then head out. Aitken said they fished on the East Coast, anywhere between Cape Brett in the Bay of Islands and Cape Runaway. Photos, >click to read< 19:21
Cawthron boss told he should have expressed himself better
Cawthron Institute chief executive Volker Kuntzsch was expressing his personal opinion when he told an industry symposium that New Zealand had no future without fishing, the institute’s chair says. “I don’t think he’s expressed them in the way that he should have expressed them,” says Meg Matthews. “I think he was challenging the status quo. I think he was hoping to shift mindsets.” It comes amid concerns from academic leaders and environmental groups that Kuntzsch has undermined the independence and scientific credibility of the institute, with his claims about the sustainability of the seafood industry, and his criticism of the carbon emissions of farming and plant-based protein. >click to read< 19:24
Sanford Goes for Green with Maaskant Order
New Zealand seafood company Sanford Limited has placed an order with Damen Shipbuilding Maaskant for the design and build of a new scampi vessel for operation in the Southern Ocean. This new vessel is expected to contribute to Sanford’s target of reducing the carbon footprint from its direct operations by 25% between 2020 and 2030. The construction of the diesel-electric vessel will take place at the Damen Maaskant yard in the Netherlands, with a delivery date in 2025. Images, >click to read< 20:29
New Zealand fines Southland fishing company $40,000 – Boat and nets forfeited
Cando Fishing Limited and Campbell David McManaway, 59, were sentenced in the Invercargill District Court today on multiple charges under the Fisheries Act they earlier pleaded guilty to following a successful prosecution by Ministry for Primary Industries. “We believe this aspect of the sentence sends a strong message to all commercial fishers. For the Quota management system to be effective in managing sustainability, all fishing activity needs to be captured correctly or the system won’t account for that activity creating a real threat to the resource through overfishing or incorrect reporting,” says MPI regional manager fisheries compliance, Garreth Jay. As a result of the fisheries convictions the fishing vessel, F/V San Nicholas was forfeited to the Crown along with 32 set nets. >click to read< 07:59
New Zealand: Abandoned shipwreck finally removed from East Coast beach
An abandoned boat that proved a thorn in the side of both Gisborne District Council and the police has finally been removed from a remote East Coast beach – six months after it washed ashore. However the owner remained elusive, meaning the council has been left with an invoice of over $10,000 for the clean-up. On 9 April, the former fishing trawler San Rosa was abandoned at sea after its three crew members were winched to safety by helicopter. The boat was recently purchased in Tauranga and was just two days into its maiden voyage with its new owners when it ran into difficulty. Photos, >click to read< 09:14
Skipper fined after boat collides with 266m container ship
The 19.5-metre-long vessel collided with the Kota Lembah container ship in July 2021. Skipper Mike Te Pou was on board with two crew members and an MPI observer at around 3.15am when he saw the Kota Lembah on his radar. The crew were setting out longlines for fishing and Te Pou decided to help them, despite seeing the container ship on his radar. Investigations Manager Pete Dwen said: “He remained away from the wheelhouse for 40 minutes. Didn’t check on the location of the Kota Lembah and at 3.55am; the two vessels collided. >click to read< 11:15
Fisherman forfeits boat after entering guilty pleas
A fishing company and its director will forfeit a fishing boat after entering guilty pleas in court on Tuesday. A lawyer acting for Cando Fishing Ltd. and its director Campbell McManaway entered guilty pleas to Fisheries Act and Fisheries Regulations charges in the Invercargill District Court on Tuesday. The company admitted 11 charges related to exceedingly long set nets, selling fish contrary to law, and record keeping. McManaway pleaded guilty to five charges related to failing to provide reports and omitting information from reports. >click to read< 13:48
Rock lobster back on the menu
New Zealand’s rock lobster industry is catching up on a slow year thanks to the end of a Chinese lockdown and the conclusion of an unlucky spiritual festival. Shanghai is one of New Zealand’s biggest lobster importers, but the city was locked down from March to June. Fiordland Lobsters sales and marketing general manager Andrew Harvey said it had taken time for the industry to get back up to speed. That was combined with Ghost Month, a time dedicated to the spirits of the dead which spanned from late July to August. Australia banned exports of lobster to China in 2020, which had also increased the New Zealand share of the market and helped it through some of the slow patches. >click to read< 08:47
Fishing company fined $59,000, vessel seized after illegal bottom trawling
A deep sea fishing company has had its vessel seized and fined $59,000 after illegal bottom trawling by a skipper on his first high sea job. The Amaltal Fishing Company, a subsidiary of Talley’s Group Limited, and skipper Charles Shuttleworth, were convicted and sentenced in Nelson District Court on Thursday on 14 charges of bottom trawling in a protected area. In March, Amaltal and Shuttleworth were found guilty of the charges, which were brought by the Ministry for Primary Industries. Reading from court documents, Judge David Ruth described how Shuttleworth, despite his 40-year experience, had never worked on the high seas. >click to read< 09:10
Catch Shares Enable Wealthy Landlords to Gobble Up Local Fisheries
A recent investigative report has reignited public discussion over catch shares, a controversial approach to fisheries management that privatizes the rights to fish. The investigation exposed how Blue Harvest Fisheries, owned by a billionaire Dutch family, became the largest holder of commercial fishing rights in New England, benefiting from lax antitrust regulations and pilfering profits from the local fishermen who work under them. As a commercial fisherman in Mississippi, I know these dynamics go well beyond New England. Here in the Gulf of Mexico, private equity firms and other large investors have come in and gobbled up the rights to fish, driving up the cost of fishing access and making it prohibitively expensive for fishermen like me to harvest fish in our own backyards. >click to read< 07:55
Govt’s response to future of commercial fishing in NZ report released
“The report has already been influential in shaping this Government’s approach to oceans and fisheries management,” David Parker said. The report calls for immediate evidence-based action and identified the first steps to be taken towards some longer term recommendations. Significant action has already been taken by this Government that contribute towards a number of the recommendations. These include: Requiring cameras on up to 300 inshore commercial fishing vessels by 2024. This will cover up to 85 per cent of the total catch from inshore fisheries and focuses on those fisheries that pose the greatest risk to protected species. >click to read< 10:31
Rainstorm spells end for F/V Tiki
After 60 years at sea and a previous narrow escape from flooding, luck has run out for the fishing boat Tiki. Tiki was one of two boats swept from their moorings in Karitane on Tuesday during the downpour that caused disruption throughout the South. Both boats ended up on nearby Waikouaiti Beach. Retired fisherman Roger Bartlett said Tiki had “split open like a hard-boiled egg” and was beyond salvaging. During a flood in the same location in 1980, Tiki had been the only boat not swept out to sea. >click to read< 12:42
Trawler tanker fire; TAIC orders Talley’s to review its maintenance procedures
Languishing in the water off the West Coast, the boat had to be towed back to shore after suffering extensive heat and smoke damage despite a quick response from the crew to bring the blaze under control. Amaltal Enterprises crew were fishing near Hokitika on July 2, last year when the main engine was shut down to fix repairs to a low-pressure fuel pipe. About 50 minutes after being restarted, an accumulator installed in the engine unwound and dislodged from its pipe connector, spraying marine diesel “at 8 bar pressure to jet upwards” all over the hot engine exhaust, sparking the fire. >click to read< 08:03
Commercial Fisherman/Businessman Jared “Jerry” Trussler of New Zealand
Jared “Jerry” Trussler was born on August 21st, 1938 to Fern and Arthur Trussler in Paso Robles, California and passed away peacefully at his home in Kerikeri, New Zealand on June 24th, 2022. He grew up in San Luis Obispo and Santa Clara Counties and graduated from San Luis Obispo High School with the class of 1956. In 1957, Jerry went to Alaska to work on a commercial fishing boat in the Bering Sea, which he described as the most pivotal point in his career, and he continued to return to Alaska as a commercial fisherman for over 30 years. Jerry also became a commercial abalone diver and obtained his pilot instructor’s license. In 1965, Jerry started a welding company focused on building steel commercial fishing vessels, but later moved on to manufacturing steel water tanks up to 10 million gallons in size for municipalities all over California. >click to read< 21:45
Coroner to probe death of fisherman on Sealord vessel
A fisherman has died at sea on his first trip aboard the Sealord trawler Ocean Dawn. Nelson-based Sealord chief executive Doug Paulin said the 47-year-old man was found unresponsive outside his cabin in the early hours of Tuesday on the 64m factory trawler. Crew tried to resuscitate him but were unable to. Paulin said he could not comment on the cause of the man’s death as that would be determined by a coroner’s investigation. >click to read< 09:12
A skipper named ‘Crazy Horse’, a ‘dicky’ autopilot and a sailing trip that foundered on a beach
After hours of sailing a 14m fishing vessel on “an extremely erratic” course up the coast towards Christchurch, doubling back and then turning around again to head in the same direction closer to the shore, skipper David “Crazy Horse” Atkinson was lost. It was 9pm, he was not sure where he was, and he only had rudimentary knowledge of how to use the boat’s navigational equipment. His crew aboard the trawler, the F/V Debbie Jane, consisted of a 41-year-old woman and a 73-year-old retired school teacher who was living with him – neither of whom had any commercial fishing experience. >click to read< 08:03
Trawler skipper who got lost off Christchurch admits safety breaches
Shortly before a trawler skipper lost his bearings in gathering darkness off the Christchurch coast, one of his crew had rolled him a cannabis joint. Maritime New Zealand’s summary of facts does not say whether the skipper, 67-year-old David Anderson, actually smoked the joint, but the trawler ran aground on Waimairi Beach a few hours later. The F/V Debbie Jane’s disastrous trip from Akaroa to Nelson in December 2019 was detailed in the Christchurch District Court, when Anderson admitted two charges. >click to read< 07:48
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
Hull tipped over for fishing boat build
An important stage in the construction of a new $6 million fishing vessel in Nelson has been reached, with the boat’s hull lowered and turned over in the water. The longline vessel Te Runanga is being built for Westfleet by Nelson-based Aimex Service Group and on Friday the hull was lowered into Nelson Harbour so the next stage of the build can begin. The hull had been built upside down at Aimex’s workshop, and because of its weight, rolling it over on the water was the easiest way to turn it up the right way for the vessel build to be finished while it was in the water, Video, photos, >click to read< 08:47
Details Needed about Cameras on Vessels Announcement – Cameras hailed, with caveat
In response to Minister David Parker’s announcement on 25 May about the national roll-out of cameras on commercial inshore fishing vessels, Seafood New Zealand (SNZ) Chief Executive Jeremy Helson says the most important questions still remain unanswered. “We now know a couple more details, and it is good to see progress, but we are still very much in the dark about the important things. >click to read<
Fishing cameras hailed, with caveat – While environmental protection organisations have welcomed the Government’s imminent introduction of cameras on commercial inshore fishing vessels, Port Chalmers fishermen are not convinced it is viable. Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker said up to 300 inshore fishing vessels would be fitted with the technology by the end of 2024, providing independent, accurate information about fishing activity and better evidence for decision-making. >click to read< 08:50
Safetytech Accelerator collaborates with FISH Safety Foundation to explore safety technology in fishing
Safetytech Accelerator has collaborated with FISH Safety Foundation to explore how technologies can improve the safety of the fishing industry. Fishing is one of the world’s most dangerous professions. New research by the FISH Safety Foundation suggests fisher mortality rates are significantly higher than the earlier estimates of 24,000 per year, on top of which we can assume a far higher rate of injuries. FISH Safety Foundation is focused on helping countries and organisations with training and advisory services, as well as assistance with the practical application of systems, legislative requirements and guidelines. >click to read< 10:57
New Zealand: Rollout of camera monitoring on commercial fishing vessels confirmed
Up to 300 inshore fishing vessels will be fitted with the technology by the end of 2024, providing independent, accurate information about fishing activity and better evidence for decision-making,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker said. “It will be supported by cutting-edge artificial intelligence software that will help put New Zealand at the forefront of camera monitoring technology. The introduction of on-board cameras is a key component of the Government’s fisheries reforms. It follows the 2019 roll out of cameras on vessels operating in core Māui dolphin habitat, and builds on work initiated in 2017 by the then-Minister, Nathan Guy. >click to read< 10:25
Search net widens for owner of San Rosa as boat’s history emerges
Authorities are struggling to contact the owners of a shipwrecked boat almost six weeks after the vessel got into difficulty in rough seas off the East Coast. On April 9, the crew of ex-fishing trawler San Rosa sent out a mayday about 10 nautical miles off Tokomaru Bay, after encountering four-metre swells en route to Marlborough. The boat’s three crew members, plus a dog, were winched to safety by helicopter. San Rosa then drifted unattended 
for six days before beaching on April 15 at a remote section of beach near Tikitiki, two hours north of Gisborne. Thirty-five days later, Gisborne District Council harbourmaster Peter Buell says he still hasn’t been able to reach the owners, despite numerous attempts. “We’re trying every way we can to get in touch with this guy. But no response so far, and I doubt we’ll get any,” Buell said. >click to read< 15:23
Far North iwi creating fishery pathways for rangatahi in South Island
The fisheries sector in Te Waipounamu (South Island) has a number of career opportunities for both rangatahi (young people) and those with more experience. Two Far North iwi have travelled to Te Waipounamu (South Island) to help establish employment pathways for rangatahi (youth) in the fisheries sector. An iwi delegation comprising Whangaroa and Te Aupōuri members was busy touring Nelson and Motueka last week, exploring opportunities for mahi (work) in both deep-sea fishing and shore-based factory processing. Sealord and Talley’s hosted the group, who were shown around each of the company’s different facilities, including Talley’s Motueka accommodation for shore-based northern workers and a deep-sea fishing school at Westport. Te Aupōuri commercial manager Penetaui Kleskovic said feedback from the sector was there was dire a shortage of workers for New Zealand’s deep-sea fishing fleets. >click to read< 16:22
