Looking for old (and young) salts
AFTER AN EXTENSIVE refit for survey purposes at the Norsand yard in Whangarei, the 24.3m topsail schooner Maggie was back in Auckland by mid-February to complete the refit in preparation to start her new life as a sail-training vessel.
Skippers, deckhands, cooks and general helpers are being sought to help run the Maggie as a floating classroom. She will be run by the Floating Classroom Academy with the aim of introducing adventure and learning to schoolchildren and other groups.
The Spirit of New Zealand Trust has been very helpful with the project and the Maggie will be berthed at the Spirit's pontoon on Princes Wharf on March 17 during the Volvo Ocean Race stopover
Anyone interested is welcome to come aboard for a look and a chat. Contact Mike Pignéguy at gannet61@yahoo.co.nz
Sealord stands by its FCV operations
THE SEALORD GROUP says it will staunchly defend its use of Ukrainian boats to fish within New Zealand's exclusive economic zone, despite allegations of human rights violations on foreign-chartered fishing vessels. A ministerial inquiry will report in February on the use of FCVs fishing within the EEZ and whether the fleet is harming our international reputation. The inquiry follows a major study by the University of Auckland Business School. Sealord's seafood enterprise harvest operations manager, Colin Williams, said
the issue was more about the objectionable behaviour of certain operators, rather than unsustainable marine life.
The company
says making a good economic return is not about "New Zealandisation" but making a profit.
All its FCVs now have at least one New Zealand-based company employee on board throughout each voyage. The company says its standards are the highest in the industry because it requires that health and safety, labour conditions and fishing practices for all FCVs are the same as for its New Zealand vessels.
MAUI'S DOLPHIN DEATH AVOIDABLE
THE "ENTIRELY AVOIDABLE" death of a Maui's dolphin in a fishing net has brought them closer to extinction, says Forest and Bird. "We are outraged this incredibly rare dolphin was killed in a set net in an area where calls for restrictions on set nets have been ignored," says the society's marine advocate, Katrina Subedar. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries said on February 28 it believed a dolphin reported accidentally killed by a set net off the coast of Taranaki was likely to have been a Maui's dolphin. There are fewer than 100 left. Subedar says the society and other advocates have been pressing for Taranaki to be included in areas along the western coast of the North Island where restrictions are in place to protect the dolphins.
"MAF claims this dolphin was caught outside its current known range but evidence of their existence in Taranaki – including video footage – has been around for some time."
She said the government must immediately expand the set net restrictions to include waters around and south of Taranaki, and also protect key foraging areas within harbours along the western coast of the North Island.
March/April 2012 Professional Skipper 45
VIP.S78
