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the shots. Aksel headed two of these convoys and eventually, Bob Brebner from Sanfords asked Aksel if he wanted to take their newly built San Josephine to the Chathams to run her on a catch percentage basis. So he did and was part of all the action down there. Aksel said it reminded him of "the wild west", and there are endless stories associated with these boom years. He did two seasons down there and could see that this sort of fishing was not sustainable, so he thought it was time to come home to something more stable. Good skippers like Aksel always attract vessel owners or investors, the next one of these was a man called Rex Sly. He had had a nice 45 foot Jerry Breekveldt designed seiner built and was about to fulfil one of his dreams and go commercial fishing. One problem, he did not have a lot of experience and he could see that Aksel could make his dreams come true a lot sooner than he thought. So he asked Aksel to skipper his boat with him as crew. Aksel had been down this path before and his immediate answer to Rex was a simple no! So Rex let Aksel take the boat and choose his own crew. It was a decision Rex did not regret. Aksel and the crews he chose were a huge success. Towards the end of each trip a call would be made to Rex and he would have the catch sold for the highest price before Diana berthed. Everyone was a winner. In 1976 Rex wanted out of the boat so Aksel spoke to Svend about them raising the money to buy Rex out. They did this and over the years caught a good amount of fish positioning themselves well, with a good catch history for the time when the quota management system came into force. Apart from seining and fishing the Hauraki Gulf, Aksel and Diana also had some cracker spots on the West Coast where they seined and lined for hapuka. Trolling for tuna was another activity as well. One day while steaming north up the west coast Aksel saw this rock on the sounder so they stopped and put five down lines down, each one had thirty hooks on it. In a short time they hauled them up. Each one loaded with huge hapukas, Aksel can't remember fishing ever being as good as this. After a few hours they had five tones of fish on board. He returned to the spot about eighteen months later, set the same lines and nothing was there. This was a message of how one good fishing session could ruin a habitat and this really scared Aksel. Another good day when seining off Houhora they pulled in the bag and it was so full the winch gear groaned with the weight. They filled the fish room and stowed eighty baskets on deck. That was not all; he estimates that they let what could have been 300 baskets go back over the side and most of them swum away to Aksel's relief. Being a North Sea fisherman distance was no big deal for Aksel and Diana. During the hapuka season they often steamed up to the North Cape, set a course for Norfolk Island and kept going. Even now Aksel is reluctant to tell anyone about this haven of hapuka. All he says is that it was a long way from home and it is highly unlikely that any fisherman on the New Zealand coast would venture so far. Every trip was worth the long steam as they would fill the fish room and stow the rest on deck. Then they would hurry back home with the catch before it went bad. Later on, Svend wanted to retire so he sold out to Aksel. Aksel kept fishing up until the early 1990's and retired when he was 65, stating that he was not sick of fishing, "that was just the thing you did then", in his Danish accent! He sold his quota out to the Government for a well deserved price and then thought "what now?" Shag Gibbs had bought a 43 metre deep water trawler in Norway named Kap Farvel and was looking for a suitable master to bring her back to New Zealand. Aksel put his hand up for the job and they flew to Norway to take delivery of this big trawler. I would imagine he had lots of thoughts running through his mind as they started their long trip home, steaming over many of the old fishing grounds he fished all those years ago when he was just a lad. They steamed across the Atlantic through the Panama Cannel and across the Pacific to Auckland. Aksel could not help himself, his old sextant came out a few times every day and made sure the GPS was telling them the truth. "Just another trip" comments Aksel, "no big deal!" I met Aksel through our close family friend Jack Taylor who over the years got to know every fisherman in the Auckland area. Even now, Jack says that Aksel would have to be the most professional operator he has ever known in the fishing industry and a bloody good bloke and mate as well. During one of our discussions to enable me to write this little story I drove Aksel down to the Viaduct. It is not hard to recognise that the smell of salt water and the sight of a few good looking fishing boat gets him fired up. His eyes start scanning the horizon, and you can see a look on his face that says, "let's go fishing". Keep the Oceans CLEAN Oily Water Separators Type SKIT/S DEB Complies with IMO Resolution MEPC 107 (49) Economical Skid mounted Easy to install Compact footprint Automatic operation More than 13,000 units sold worldwide Capacities from 100 - 10,000 litres per hour New Zealand Service & Support Antelope Engineering NZ Ltd Email : info@antelopenz.co.nz Phone : 03 482 2505 www.antelope.com.au VIP.S89 November/December 2012 Professional Skipper 27 Hauling from the starboard side of Ingas Riis