February 11, 2025 • 4 mins
Seafood New Zealand says new fishery proposals will keep workers safer.
Public consultation is open on loosening up on extending or reducing catch limits.
The reform would also restrict access to fishing vessel camera video - to officials and the courts.
Seafood NZ CEO, Lisa Futschek says the public has no need to access the footage.
"Unfortunately, we see some pretty bad behaviour and attitudes towards our fishers - who are bullied and verbally and sometimes physically abused."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
But first of our fishing industry is in for a shakeup,
with Fisheries Minister Shane Jones proposing a reform of the
Fisheries Act Now. The changes would see a loosening of
catch regulations and more frequent updates to catch limits. It
would also restrict people who can access the camera footage
from the fishing vessels, confining the surveillance to MPI and
(00:20):
the courts. So Seafood New Zealand says the reform is
a win and CEO Lisa Footcheck is joining me now.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello Lisa Cuder Andrew and thank you so much for
inviting me on.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
It's a pleasure. Why is this a win?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Oh? Look, this is a when largely for sustainability in
the broadest sense of the word, so sustainability for our
oceans that is woven throughout this consultation document, but also
importantly sustainability for our fishing businesses. How well, if you
look at the way that it's been framed up at
the outset, the MPI talks about focus on responsiveness, on certainty,
(00:58):
and on efficiency, and all of those things are really
really critical when you consider just how complicated the legislative
and regulatory environment is for our fitting industry.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Some critics would say they'd see the words loosening of
catch regulations and go, can we actually afford that for
our fish stocks?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Look, the focus on sustainability remains nothing about that. It's
going to change. So our Fishing Act it provides for
utilization of the resource, but ensuring sustainability, and that doesn't change.
As I say, so no one has to be concerned
about that. And reading through that document you'll see just
how big the focus is on sustainability. But what I
(01:40):
would say is that the changes in the setting of
PACs are total allowable catches is keeping pace with the technology,
so we have more information that we can input into
those decisions, and therefore we can make them more quickly
and in a more agile way.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
The proposals also say that boats can release unwanted fish
back into the sea rather than bring it to shore,
but only if they've got a camera on board or
an observer. Is this better because it doesn't it sounds counterintuitive.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
No, No, that is definitely better better for us, better
for the fish, and better for the environment. So the
situation there, of course is that at the moment, if
unwanted fish and there's only a small amount there. But
if there's unwanted fish that come on board at the moment,
the situation is that has to be taken back to
land where it is disposed of in the landfill. But
(02:34):
as you say, for those where where there's cameras on
board or there are observers, it's going to be possible
as the result of being able to verify that those
fish can be put back into the sea so that
they can be part of the ocean food web. But
I have to emphasize that they're not being jumped. These
fish are counting against the annual catch entitlement of the fishes,
(02:54):
so they have to pay for them. Of course, there's
no incentive to do anything other than minimize anything other
target catch.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
And that's why you have to have a camera on
board or an observer so we can actually count the
unwanted catch and make it count towards the fish's annual
consent entitlement. The whole camera thing, that's right, the whole
camera thing. At the moment, anyone can access camera footage
from fishing boats via THEIA Official Information Act. That's stopped.
Why was that a problem?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Look, that is a really, really big problem for privacy.
So just bear in mind that the boats are the
workplace of our fishes and our industry, but in many
cases they are also home for extended periods of time.
So there's a privacy issue here. But not only that.
Unfortunately we see some pretty bad behavior and attitudes towards
our fishes who are bullied and verbally and sometimes physically abused.
(03:45):
Now we don't see that there is any need for
camera footage to be available to public because our regulator
is the one that will check the camera footage and
if there has been a transgression then that will be
dealt with through the appropriate channels. Would you would be
public to have access?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Would you have wanted the cameras to be ditched completely?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Got cameras are here and what we would like to
see is that the information and the data that we
can derive from those cameras is used in a clever,
smart way to make our businesses more efficient and more sustainable.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Lisa futchick I, thank you so much. Lisa is the
Seafood New Zealand CEO.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
For more from Heather Duplessy, Allen Drive listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
But first of our fishing industry is in for a shakeup,
with Fisheries Minister Shane Jones proposing a reform of the
Fisheries Act Now. The changes would see a loosening of
catch regulations and more frequent updates to catch limits. It
would also restrict people who can access the camera footage
from the fishing vessels, confining the surveillance to MPI and
(00:20):
the courts. So Seafood New Zealand says the reform is
a win and CEO Lisa Footcheck is joining me now.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello Lisa Cuder Andrew and thank you so much for
inviting me on.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
It's a pleasure. Why is this a win?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Oh? Look, this is a when largely for sustainability in
the broadest sense of the word, so sustainability for our
oceans that is woven throughout this consultation document, but also
importantly sustainability for our fishing businesses. How well, if you
look at the way that it's been framed up at
the outset, the MPI talks about focus on responsiveness, on certainty,
(00:58):
and on efficiency, and all of those things are really
really critical when you consider just how complicated the legislative
and regulatory environment is for our fitting industry.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Some critics would say they'd see the words loosening of
catch regulations and go, can we actually afford that for
our fish stocks?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Look, the focus on sustainability remains nothing about that. It's
going to change. So our Fishing Act it provides for
utilization of the resource, but ensuring sustainability, and that doesn't change.
As I say, so no one has to be concerned
about that. And reading through that document you'll see just
how big the focus is on sustainability. But what I
(01:40):
would say is that the changes in the setting of
PACs are total allowable catches is keeping pace with the technology,
so we have more information that we can input into
those decisions, and therefore we can make them more quickly
and in a more agile way.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
The proposals also say that boats can release unwanted fish
back into the sea rather than bring it to shore,
but only if they've got a camera on board or
an observer. Is this better because it doesn't it sounds counterintuitive.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
No, No, that is definitely better better for us, better
for the fish, and better for the environment. So the
situation there, of course is that at the moment, if
unwanted fish and there's only a small amount there. But
if there's unwanted fish that come on board at the moment,
the situation is that has to be taken back to
land where it is disposed of in the landfill. But
(02:34):
as you say, for those where where there's cameras on
board or there are observers, it's going to be possible
as the result of being able to verify that those
fish can be put back into the sea so that
they can be part of the ocean food web. But
I have to emphasize that they're not being jumped. These
fish are counting against the annual catch entitlement of the fishes,
(02:54):
so they have to pay for them. Of course, there's
no incentive to do anything other than minimize anything other
target catch.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
And that's why you have to have a camera on
board or an observer so we can actually count the
unwanted catch and make it count towards the fish's annual
consent entitlement. The whole camera thing, that's right, the whole
camera thing. At the moment, anyone can access camera footage
from fishing boats via THEIA Official Information Act. That's stopped.
Why was that a problem?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Look, that is a really, really big problem for privacy.
So just bear in mind that the boats are the
workplace of our fishes and our industry, but in many
cases they are also home for extended periods of time.
So there's a privacy issue here. But not only that.
Unfortunately we see some pretty bad behavior and attitudes towards
our fishes who are bullied and verbally and sometimes physically abused.
(03:45):
Now we don't see that there is any need for
camera footage to be available to public because our regulator
is the one that will check the camera footage and
if there has been a transgression then that will be
dealt with through the appropriate channels. Would you would be
public to have access?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Would you have wanted the cameras to be ditched completely?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Got cameras are here and what we would like to
see is that the information and the data that we
can derive from those cameras is used in a clever,
smart way to make our businesses more efficient and more sustainable.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Lisa futchick I, thank you so much. Lisa is the
Seafood New Zealand CEO.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
For more from Heather Duplessy, Allen Drive listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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