Power for marine profe ssional s
o
WHEN HEAVY
DUTY MEETS
THE FUTURE.
Foreign crew given right conditions prove to be loyal, happy workers
Do you think that advanced and electronically
controlled diesel engines are not heavy duty?
Think again.
This is the new Volvo Penta D13 MH:
RATING 1 (HEAVY DUTY) KW/HP: 294/400, 331/450, 370/503
RATING 2 (MEDIUM DUTY) KW/HP: 407/554, 441/600
ALSO AVAILABLE AS AUXILIARY ENGINE AND COMPLETE
MARINE GENSET.
VIP.S92
agent's fees. When they returned home after three months they
did so as very wealthy people and one would argue they were
better off than many Kiwi fishermen.
From talking with my peers still working in the industry, finding
a good crew is proving a major issue and while there are those
that would like to see FCVs and the use of foreign crews banned
entirely in New Zealand, I can only say that my experience with
foreign crews has been very, very positive.
I used to get the odd dig about my "Indos" or "Scruffs Ant
Army," as we called them, but it was never malicious. Most
skippers were genuinely interested in my experience and this
interest was not confined to the larger factory vessels. More than
a few skippers of inshore boats asked me if they could borrow a
few of them, "when you've finished with them Carefree."
I recently spoke with a local inshore fisherman who told me,
"I can't understand why it's so hard to attract good young people
into the fishing industry. That's the next challenge facing the
industry, it's not quotas or bureaucracy or regulations, it's finding
good young people with good intellects and the determination
and the drive to get involved to work their way up through the
system and become skippers."
He's dead right. But this issue isn't just one for the fishing
industry. Look at our viticulture, food service, horticulture and
agricultural sectors that despite local unemployment numbers
have to use overseas labour. We don't want foreign crews on our
boats but hey, we're happy to employ them in our factories, cafes,
in orchards and our farms. Why is that? With the hordes on the
dole bleating about lack of jobs you'd think they'd be banging
the door down of your HR department. Call me a cantankerous
old cynic but there's probably a very good reason why they're on
the dole.
I firmly believe in New Zealandisation; in an ideal world we
would have 100 percent New Zealand owned and crewed vessels
catching our fish. There isn't a fish in our Economic Exclusion
Zone that cannot be caught by Kiwis. We're very good at what
we do. However we don't live or work in an ideal world. Who
has more than $50 to $60 million to build a new 65m filleter or
the 14-16,000 tonnes of hoki quota to keep it working 24/7 year
in year out? And then again there's the whole bycatch issue and
associated compliance costs, but that's another story.
I still receive emails from a few of my "army." My bosun,
Sutikno, keeps asking if I can find him a job. I wish I could, I
really do. However the old cliché of one bad apple spoiling the
whole bunch ringing in my ear, I have tried to explain to him that
with the current climate, bad press and political point scoring by
some around the issue of foreign crews, finding 'Tikno a job
is unlikely.
