This week we have fisheries specialist and industry stalwart Richard Wells writing about his recent interactions with rangatahi from the seafood sector.
The recent and laudable Seafood Sustainability & Innovation Awards provided me with more than just a window into the current fantastic work and achievements occurring within the seafood sector. Some very thoughtful and far-seeing person (and credit to them) chose to include in the programme the bringing together of selected young individuals from the seafood sector to Wellington, the Awards ceremony and a special meeting with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, Jenny Marcroft.
It was my privilege and pleasure to be a part of the Awards judging panel this year and thus I also received an invite to the rangatahi event at Jenny's office in the Beehive, which I gladly accepted. Thank you, Jenny for hosting.
Rangatahi - the young generation or, as I like to think of them, the next generation. True sustainability in the seafood sector depends on all of us: protecting our oceans and their inhabitants, shaping knowledge and policy for wise use, and supporting the people who harvest, grow, manage and ultimately enjoy the bounty of the sea.
The veterans amongst us need to pay more than passing interest in the next generation as they will inherit our successes and failures and need to be able to flex with the issues of their day. They have a real interest.
The group of rangatahi, so wisely invited to be seen and involved during the Awards, was diverse. A young man fresh from the Westport Deep Sea Fishing School and frankly announcing, "I'm looking for a job at sea!" As an individual who supported that fine school way back in the formative years, with Mickey Ryan at the helm, it was wonderful to see it still producing crew eager for the opportunities available at sea.
Another young guest was from overseas, under an MPI scholarship and involved in statistical modelling work at Dragonfly, another institution I have had the pleasure of being involved with over many years of mathematical analysis of fish and protected species, a great "intellectual hub" based in Wellington.
There were up and comers from fishing and seafood companies, students at universities, people in the shellfish aquaculture business, policy development and more.
Time was too short to engage with them all but to see this cross-section of the industry, young, talented and keen gave me good feelings for the future, and I hope you now have these too!
Being inspired is usually easy in a set piece like this. But the challenge is how to make it stick. Walking out of the room punching the air and fuelled with energy is great. What next? Well, it was very pleasing to see these rangatahi so well acknowledged by our Minister, Shane Jones, and other speakers, as well as the attendees at the Awards ceremony itself. They can go home feeling relevant and valued, as they should be.
How do we maintain this momentum? In hindsight, most of my tenure in the seafood industry consisted of identifying good ideas or processes (usually someone else's!) and then trying to make them stick. And I mean really stick, so they become an enduring part of an improving world.
So, I finish this editorial with some suggestions to help empower and enable the next generation on which our seafood future depends.
Firstly, do it again! Make this invitation to rangatahi happen every year and perhaps add a few hours so that the group can visit for example Fishserve, Fisheries New Zealand, Seafood New Zealand and Earth Sciences New Zealand (NIWA).
Secondly, let's stay with the group who attended this year - let's find a way via whatever comms platform suits best to keep the group (as willing participants of course) talking and connecting with each other. There will be synergy and encouragement from within, one might suspect, after their collective introduction in Wellington. Perhaps they would appreciate mentors as well?
Lastly, promote and support groups already in this space such as YoungFish amongst your colleagues, staff and crew.
This year the Seafood Sustainability & Innovation Awards took another step forward in its programme, and long may it continue. The Awards themselves? Well, the range and calibre of people, projects and initiatives was wonderful, making the judging process no easy task.
Congratulations to all who were nominated, finalists, and winners. Obviously also, a congratulations and thank you to all the others out there doing great work for seafood sustainability who didn't come up on the radar - we know you are there!
Richard has worked in the commercial fishing industry for over 30 years, with the past 15 focused on developing risk mitigation tools and processes to reduce the impacts of fishing on protected species such as seabirds, marine mammals and sharks. He regularly delivers Fisheries 101 training to people new to the industry, or to anyone curious about how it all works. If you're interested in attending a future workshop with Richard, register here.
