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
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1 23 4 NZFCF ANNUAL CONFERENCE T BY R LEA CLOUGH he New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen held its annual conference and AGM at Sopheze On the Bay, Caroline Bay, Timaru from May 17 to 19. President Doug Saunders-Loder welcomed delegates and the deputy Mayor of Timaru, Michael Oliver opened with a talk on Timaru's whaling and fishing heritage. The speakers were: Restaurateur Fleur Sullivan's talk was both hilarious and poignant. She described her choice of Moeraki as a pleasant place to recover from ill-health, her subsequent redemption after going fishing, and being moved to do something about the by-product waste. She worked her way through a range of experiments from fish stock through to smoked fish, and her pastime became a business that grew despite some opposition and hostility, particularly from processing companies. She now turns over $1.5 million per year, and local fishermen are proud to say, "I fish for Fleur." Karin Kos, Communications manager for the New Zealand Seafood Industry Council, spoke on "Getting our story out there – profile, perception and PR." She quoted Prince Charles, "Not only are New Zealand's fisheries profitable without subsidies, they are also environmentally sustainable." It was a marked contrast with the generally bad PR the industry tends to get every day. It was comforting to hear that other industries also get stick: dairying and pork being two notable examples. She forecast that food security is going be a big issue in 10 years time. SEAFIC has a Communications Forum to facilitate industry input to public debate about issues. The Seafood New Zealand magazine editor, Sid Pickering, stung by a YouTube video on sealion mortalities, spent a weekend with his wife producing a simple, effective response video explaining the functioning of SLEDs – Sealion Exclusion Devices. The principal speaker was the Hon David Carter, Minister for Primary Industries, the new "Super-Ministry" that now includes biosecurity, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, although the terms MAF and MFish will no doubt around for some time. He spoke about the importance of the New Zealand fishing industry's reputation, particularly in marketing, sustainability and safety of non-fish mortality. The Minister said that increases to TACC will be made on the basis of good science, as will decisions on the Maui dolphin/setnet issue. He said there will be no compensation in the setnet issue. During question time NZFCF President Doug asked why we 22 Professional Skipper July/August 2012 are not getting our message across in the super ministry. The Minister replied that he will now insist on information from fishermen getting to him. The main discussion was around the Foreign Charter Vessel issue, the inquest into the Oyang 70 fatalities, and the latest revelations of alleged dumping by Oyang 77. Of the 15 recommendations by the Ministerial Inquiry, six have been adopted and more are under consideration. James Stevenson-Wallace from Fisheries Management MPI, told how the Fisheries section had shrunk by 10 percent in the MPI restructure. As the industry pays for the functioning of Fisheries Management the obvious question is, will the benefits come back to the sector? Stevenson-Wallace also introduced Strategy 2030 which encourages input from the contributing industries. He heard calls to investigate the opening of the Wellington south coast to commercial paua diving, as it currently supports a large black-market trade. He was told that the presence of commercial divers would be a major deterrent for the fish-thieves. A number of delegates commented on the slowness of getting changes acted on by Fisheries Management even when information was in place. Tony Stallard, of Stallard Law, spoke on Aquaculture legislation and rights protection, discussing the Undue Adverse Effects problem. UAE is a principle whereby commercial fishermen can oppose an aquaculture project on the grounds of the effect it will have on their operation. Adverse effects must be undue, and the complainant must be able to show that they will suffer serious loss of earnings from a proposed aquaculture project. Even then, Mr Stallard advises that, under the current rules, compensation may well be inadequate. Another lawyer and spokesman for crew members, Peter Dawson, spoke on FCVs. One anecdotal item he relayed was that, consequent to the detention of several FCVs in Timaru and Lyttelton, inshore fishermen had their best season for years. Maritime New Zealand has moved from bringing prosecutions under the Maritime Act to doing so under the Health and Safety in Employment Act. ACC Relationship manager Noah Heath spoke on the functioning of the ACC system. In the last year, 187,300 New Zealanders made 209,700 claims, of which 31,100 were for agriculture and fishing workers. He advised that levies for fishing were dropping, having been reduced 25 percent from this year to next year. There was some discussion on injuries