The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/131029
EDITORIAL BY KEITH INGRAM BACKWATER street smarts F acing a bully is no time to be bashful. I grew up on the streets and I soon learned that if I did not stand up to bullies, I was doomed. Granted, I took a few hidings before I got the street smarts. I raise this point because with the debate around aquaculture in the Marlborough Sounds, it seems as if bullies are prepared to gang up against any marine farmer trying to get ahead. As a group, marine farmers appear to be too shy to step up. Old is the fear of not upsetting the public, especially the local public of an eco-environmental bent. When we look at the grief New Zealand King Salmon is enduring over its recent applications for new marine space to grow the business, is it any wonder that others will not want to rock the boat? However, now is not the time for the aquaculture industry stay under the radar. United the industry can prosper, divided it will fall. We need to learn some street smarts. Today's street smarts usually fall into the public relations category. From a PR perspective the aquaculture industry is failing. Even the media PR stuff coming out of King Salmon, although positive, lacks conviction because it sounds as if it is trying too hard. Meanwhile, the eco-ites, led by the Environmental Defence Society, are running a wellmanaged media campaign that is discrediting every move of the industry. Aquaculture New Zealand has a website, makes the odd media release and publishes its newsletter, but the general public is not likely to access these, so we see an opportunity lost. We fall down in promoting aquaculture benefits like local employment, which boosts the community economy, the benefits of water quality monitoring and the production of a sustainable and affordable seafood product. When listening to the green media machine you could be excused for thinking that the aquaculture industry is dark and dirty, already polluting hundreds of thousands of bays and yet wanting more. What is not said is that we have less than 10,000 hectares in production contributing many millions of dollars to the local economy. There is more space tied up in marine reserves on our coast than in aquaculture and in fact the areas excluded and protected under the submarine cables and pipelines zones far exceed current marine farming space. From a PR perspective we are a disaster.When as an industry did someone go out to the boaties to discuss issues surrounding access to safe anchorages? When did we last talk to the consumer who is potentially our greatest supporter? One of the news items in this month's issue comments on the "aquaculture revolution" needed for the Bay of Plenty region, but where else has this news item appeared other than in the local newspaper, education press and industry publications? Years ago I was at a conference with Marine Farming Association chief Graeme Coates. Graeme raised the issue of recreational fishers objecting to his members' mussel farms both in the Sounds and Coromandel. The table napkin solution developed resulted in fishermen being advised and encouraged to fish in the farms and being given permission to take a bag limit of mussels from the top of the ropes without damaging the farm structure. This was publicised and the objections from recreational fishermen disappeared. There were also farmers who shifted inside lines to the outside when harvesting, opening up the sheltered bay to safe boating access. Maybe it is timely to revisit some of these old informal policies and remind folk that there can be benefits when one cohabits. I am not suggesting that we have the solution, but at the very least this magazine, while small, does reach the retail public, it is available online and our political decision-makers are readers.Yet our aquaculture industry remains reluctant to support a valuable tool in getting to potential supporters and the consumer. When I look in the seafood section of any supermarket or fishmonger I see the shellfish cabinet full of mussels with the only product promotion being "mussels $2.95kg." An opportunity lost! What ever happened to signage stating "Green-shell or New Zealand Green-Lip mussels from the pristine waters of the Marlborough Sounds or Coromandel, or even Great Barrier Island" along with a pretty picture. We do not tell the consumer what sort of mussels or from where they were grown. For all they know, the mussels could come from Australia (joke). Seriously, too often we assume the consumer knows, and likewise we assume they know the benefits of aquaculture. Well they don't! Unless we tell the consumer, bullies will continue to give the alternative negative message. Is that what we want? SUBSCRIBE NOW TO Name ________________________________________________________________________________ ISSUE 52 Address _____________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ Postal code ______________ for 6 issues ■ Enclose a cheque for ________________ ■ Visa/Mastercard (only) _______________________ Card Number _________________________________________________________________________ Card Name __________________________________________________________________________ Signature __________________________________________________________ Expiry date ——/—— MARCH/APR IL 2013 ■ $30.00 Email _______________________________________________________________________________ ■ $5.00 ABALONE PAUA FARMING IN OZ GST No: 68-684-757 Post to: VIP Publications Ltd, 4 Prince Regent Drive, Half Moon Bay, Manukau, 2012 MAY/JUNE 2013 ■ DRUG FREE NEW ZEALA AQUACULTU ND RE THE THREAT ORNAMENTA OF LS THE INDEPE NDENT VOI CE OF NEW ZEALAN D AQUACULTU RE NZ AQUACULTURE ■ 3