With just one day left before the Fisheries Reform consultation closes, we're getting The Update out early and bringing in the big guns - commercial fisher Roger Rawlinson - to encourage anyone who hasn't had their say to do it now.
Many of you will know Roger, but for those who don't, he's the co-owner - along with his brothers Dan and Marcus, and their mother, Santy Maria - (also known as Nancy) and Managing Director of The Rawlinson Group, a large whānau-operated commercial fishing business based in Tauranga and the Far North.
Roger has been there and seen it all, having fished in the North for over 35 years. Today, The Rawlinson Group harvests high-quality, sustainable seafood exclusively for Moana New Zealand.
The proposed amendments are good, they're really good. I've sat in on a few sessions with industry to go through the ins and outs of what's being proposed, as there is quite a bit of detail. These changes are something we've needed for a long time.
My big thing is with the cameras.
Right now, we've got six trawlers and a longline boat operating in the North, about 24 cameras running all up. They're not quite running 24/7 but they're on more then off, and always on when we're fishing. We have no problems with cameras, we've had them for a long time now, but protecting the privacy of the 60 guys working for me is really important.
I know not everyone believes it, but we're always trying to do the right thing out there. There's no doubt in my mind that if people can access to the footage via the Official Information Act, they will try and find something that's not there to put us on the front page of the papers, on the news, or on social media - even if it's just us going about our legal business.
The fact is, it's the regulators job to watch that footage, and their job only. They know what to look for, they understand the rules we've got to follow. If they find someone has done something wrong, which does happen (same as in any industry), it's dealt with accordingly - you go to court and you pay the price.
The data from our cameras is all there for people to see, they don't need to see the images themselves. I have a responsibility and a professional courtesy to protect my people because they already get enough flack, even though they're doing honest work.
We support the introduction of monitored discards. This proposal is a good thing too.
Some anti-commercial fishing campaigners, are saying we'll now be dumping hordes of fish that we used to bring in. This narrative is inflammatory and quite frankly insulting. It's not massive volumes of fish. Fishers try really hard to only catch the species they're targeting.
It's hard to explain but what people don't understand is that yes, some of that fish does come in, but it doesn't end up anywhere good. It basically just gets binned anyway. Though the fisher has been compliant and responsibly reporting.
Examples of this are frost fish and ghost shark. We get nothing for them, but we've got to bring it in. It's just ridiculous - we're having to put ice on it, and that ice is actually more expensive than the fish that's in the bin. It makes much more sense to throw these fish back into the sea - where they will be recycled back into their natural ecosystem consumed by other marine wildlife. With monitored discards, we'll still have to weigh and record it, all in front of the cameras and, we still have to pay for it.
Us fishers are up against a fair bit right now - compliance, fuel costs, repairs and maintenance on our ageing fleet that's old as shit. I would love to build new boats, but it doesn't make economic sense right now. I see these changes as a good start, hopefully we can get things back to a place where a new boat isn't out of reach. One that will enable us to use new technology and do things even more sustainably.
Everyone in our sector, or who works alongside our sector, needs to make a submission. Even if it's just filling out the Seafood New Zealand form, which I've sent my sons to do.
With just one day left, you probably won't have time to read through all of the information but you've got time to pick up the phone and talk to people like Seafood New Zealand who can easily break it down for you (Editor's note: there are also some useful summaries of the proposed amendments on the Seafood New Zealand website).
I know there will be a lot of smaller guys out there saying, "oh man, this stuff doesn't affect me", but it will, it does. It affects everyone.
