Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Keith Mawson: Egmont Seafoods owner says new fishing regulation proposals will reflect the leap in the industry's technology.

Transcript

Keith Mawson: Egmont Seafoods owner says new fishing regulation proposals will reflect the leap in the industry's technology. · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now the fishing industry is welcoming a proposed major shakeup
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of the Fisheries Act. It would see a loosening of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: catch regulations and restrict who can access camera footage from
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: fishing boats, meaning only MPI and the courts would have
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: access to the footage. Keith Morson as a fisherman and
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: owner of Eggmont Seafoods in New Plymouth, and he joins me, now,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for your time, Keith, Good morning.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Francesca Hey, is this a win for you? Look,
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  Speaker 2: this has been in the something that the industry has
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  Speaker 2: been wanting to get addressed for a long period of time.
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  Speaker 2: You know, they're quite a management system has been in
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  Speaker 2: force now for nearly forty years, but we've had a
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  Speaker 2: real change in technology on our vessels, the amount of
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  Speaker 2: transparency that we have, and you know, there's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of technology that the fishermen are dealing with these days.
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  Speaker 2: So the regulations of the Fisheries Act needs to take
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  Speaker 2: into account the changes that we've had within the industry.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, the changes that are being recommended or
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  Speaker 2: that are being addressed in this discussion paper are certainly
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  Speaker 2: things that we've been having to deal with for a long.
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  Speaker 1: Period of time, Keith, the catching regulations are they holding
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  Speaker 1: you back?
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  Speaker 2: Look, it's really complex. The catching regulations that we're having
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  Speaker 2: to deal with on a day to day basis make
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  Speaker 2: it really difficult for the guys on the water and
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  Speaker 2: also for the land based operators as well. So I
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  Speaker 2: think this will simplify and make it easier for both
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  Speaker 2: the harvesters on the water and the operators on land
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  Speaker 2: to be able to get on and do their business.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think about anyone being able to access
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  Speaker 1: footage from boats?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I know that people want and there's certainly
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  Speaker 2: been some bad press around the fresh fishing industry for
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  Speaker 2: a long period of time, but we're in a really
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  Speaker 2: heavily regulated environment and it's very transparent what we do
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  Speaker 2: on a day to day basis. A lot of these
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  Speaker 2: fishermen are out on the water for three, four or
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  Speaker 2: five days at a time, living on those vessels. To
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  Speaker 2: have footage of those operations available to the general public,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I just don't think that that should necessarily,
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  Speaker 2: you know, just just be as visible as people would
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  Speaker 2: like it to be. You know, the regulators certainly have
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  Speaker 2: access to that information and they can see what fishermen
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  Speaker 2: are doing, where they're doing it, how they're doing it,
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  Speaker 2: and I just don't know that that's something that should
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  Speaker 2: be available to the general public. It could be taken
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  Speaker 2: out of context if they clip or take certain parts
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  Speaker 2: of a fishing activity, and we've seen that play out
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  Speaker 2: in the past sometimes with NGOs. So no, I don't
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  Speaker 2: think that footage that our fishermen are supplying is necessarily
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  Speaker 2: something that should be in the public. Tonay, Okay, Can
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  Speaker 2: I just go.
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  Speaker 1: Back to catching regulations for a moment. Loosening the catch regulations?
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  Speaker 1: Would that be quite area specific?
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  Speaker 2: Look, it's like I said, it's really complex. For example,
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  Speaker 2: you have some fish species that have got minimum legal
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  Speaker 2: sizes snapper, tero key. You've got other species that haven't
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  Speaker 2: got minimum legal sizes. So if you have a small snapper,
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  Speaker 2: you can return that to the sea legally. If you
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  Speaker 2: have a small gernerd, you're required to bring that back in.
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  Speaker 2: So it's not necessarily a loosening of the regulations. It's
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  Speaker 2: just providing the ability for the fishermen to make some
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  Speaker 2: decisions around what species they should be bringing.
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  Speaker 3: In from an economic point of view. But whilst they
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  Speaker 3: are harvesting, they're still going to be recording all of
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  Speaker 3: their cats against quota, so there's not going to be
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  Speaker 3: a sustainability issue. It's just about simplifying their ability to
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  Speaker 3: operate and return tists to the sea. If it has
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  Speaker 3: no real economic value, there's no sense in bringing in
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  Speaker 3: small gerner that's just going to end up in landfill.
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  Speaker 3: It's father off to be returned to the sea and
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  Speaker 3: go back in the food chain.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, thank you very much for your time in talking
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  Speaker 1: us through that. That was Keith Morson. He's a fisherman
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  Speaker 1: and owner of Egorant Seafoods in New Plymouth. For more
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: It'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio