June 18, 2024 • 35 mins
Unlock the secrets of top-quality southern bluefin tuna preservation as we explore Japanese techniques with Tony Walker, aka TK from TK's Offshore Fishing. Discover the meticulous ikijime method and the critical steps for rapidly cooling the tuna's core temperature to avoid internal cooking. Learn why handling the fish on foam mattresses and using ice slurries can mean the difference between a premium catch and a wasted effort. We also discuss the high standards set by Japanese buyers and the financial benefits of maintaining these quality practices.
Get expert tips from Toby Barkla and Christine Elminger on preserving and processing tuna to ensure it remains in prime condition. We delve into the importance of using ample ice and proper bleeding techniques, as well as the benefits of vacuum packing. Learn why joining local fishing clubs can support marine research and conservation efforts while offering a platform for competitions. We also highlight practical and safety considerations for weighing and gutting fish in tournaments, stressing the importance of careful handling to avoid accidents.
Celebrate the success of Southern Bluefin tuna fishing tournaments with us. Hear about the unique cooperation between commercial and recreational fishers and the diverse tactics used in bluefin fishing. John Holdsworth shares insights on sustainable practices, including tagging and releasing fish, to ensure future populations. Finally, we examine the unexpected high turnout at the Whakatane winter tuna tournament and how a creative eating competition led to a surge in club membership. Don't miss these innovative ideas and valuable insights—subscribe to stay updated with our latest episodes!
Find out more on looking after your Bluefin Tuna catch here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah well, they're a cold water tuna and they have
high fat content, particularlyif they've been feeding well and
good condition, and I guess theJapanese have lauded their
praises for a long time.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome back to the Pot and Reel podcast.
I'm Mike Plant, and this isepisode four, where we continue
to learn about southern bluefintuna.
And we heard in episode threeabout looking after the fish.
One of the ways is ikijimi.
It's a method of killing fishwhich maintains its quality of
its meat, originating in japan.
(00:36):
Now there's some irony in thefact that, as we've heard before
, the japanese were somewhatblamed for depleting this
fishery and now it's on thebounce back.
But we are taking learningsfrom the Japanese on how to best
preserve the fish.
So we return to Tony Walker orTK from TK's Offshore Fishing to
(00:57):
explain more about how theJapanese have influenced how we
look after fish.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Oh, it's totally dictated by that.
So so when we harvest a bluefin, it's dragged onto a foam
mattress and the whole idea isthat there's not a scale missing
.
And the big thing for us, mike,and it's also for the
recreational guys, is gettingthat core temperature down as
quickly as you can.
So we drag it onto a mattressso that we essentially don't
want a scale missing off thatfish, because the buyers buy
(01:23):
with their eyes.
For us, you should be able todeal to a southern bleef and
tuna in less than two minutes.
Basically, spike it through thebrain, have it gilded and
gutted and plunged, put yourpuff line down through its spine
, have it gilded and gutted andwashed out and in an icy slurry
in less than two or threeminutes.
And that and that's the key tothe whole thing because the
(01:43):
Japanese are the buyers and theydrive the market.
And the unique thing withSouthern Bluefin tuna is that
really it's only the Japanesethat have such a passion for it.
So if you look at other markets, like the Hawaiian market and
LA and all that sort of thing,if they're buying for the
restaurant trade and that sortof thing, they don't mind.
If it's Bluefin or Big Eye,it's the Japanese that have got
(02:06):
the passion for the southernbluefin tuna and the vast
majority of bluefin tuna is soldin Japan.
So they are very, very pickybuyers.
And I was actually mortifiedwhen I came over to Australia
watching my crew on my firsttrip fishing out of Malula Bar.
We'd go out for fishing andthey then just drag it across
(02:26):
the deck.
Well, we never dragged anythingacross the deck of New Zealand.
We we actually had hammocksmade up like, like, like a
stretcher.
So if we had a big fish youknow we've got a big northern
bluefin or something like thatwe'd actually put it on the
stretcher, have a deck out ofeach end, pick the bloody thing
up and walk it over the ditch.
We never dragged anythingbecause if you get a scratch
mark on that fish you might lose500 dead.
(02:47):
That's what it's all about.
It's all about quality.
I had a smaller vessel, a 60foot vessel called Extreme
Limits that I used to base outof Fong Vita.
We only had a small holdingcapacity.
So fishing out of Gisborne andNapier I was day tripping.
Basically I'd go out and get 40fish in one day and come back
in.
My price was just about doublethe price of the guys that were
(03:10):
out there for four or five days.
So quality is premium andthat's the great thing with the
Turner Champions.
They've got a lot ofinstructional videos on how to
care for your catch and the corething is getting that fish into
a nice slurry, sort of aconsistency of acdonald's slushy
is how you want it.
So what, you want that fish inthere as quick as possible.
If you'd be surprised if youtake uh core temperature, even
(03:33):
after four or five hours insidethat tuna it is still warm, you
know, even if I often spend onthat uh slug for four or five
hours.
So you've got to pull that coretemperature down to uh as cold
as you can get, as quickly asyou can, otherwise you end up
with like a brown coloured fleshand you really want that clear
rose petal coloured flesh.
I've seen Rick Ragsdale caughtfish and I've sort of frowned a
(03:56):
little bit and the beauty, ofcourse, with the surface long
liner is that they'll have theirinitial fight, then they'll
just settle down, you know.
So they're caught onlining.
They'll have their initialfight, then they'll just settle
down.
So they're caught on the hook,they'll have their initial run
and then they'll settle down.
Now, if you've been fighting afish on a recreational boat and
you've been fighting it for 40minutes.
Well, it's essentially cookingitself, mike.
(04:17):
So it's releasing all thisadrenaline and it's essentially
cooking itself.
So you want to get on as quickas you can and if you're not
worried about taking the weighstation, first thing you want to
do is like gill and gut itstraight away, but also whack
off the tail and if you've got adeco, hold the decos against
the tail.
And if you've caught, if you'vecaught through the spine, hold
that decos against the tail andwatch, watch the um, the spinal
(04:40):
cord, watch the gut cavity.
You'll watch all the red bloodgoing through the gut cavity and
keep that deco's on it untilit's running clear through the
gut cavity.
Or vice versa, you can put thedeco's in the gut cavity and
keep an eye, tuck the tail offand keep an eye on the tail and
you keep that deco's in thereuntil it's run clear.
The big thing is that the bloodin the fish is basically
(05:01):
heating the fish, so it'scooking the fish.
So the quicker you can get thatfish cooled down, the better.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
And here's John Holdsworth, our marine biologist
from episode three, telling usmore about this Japanese
practice and why the bluefintuna is such a sought-after fish
.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah well, they're a cold water tuna and they have
high fat content, particularlyif they've been feeding well and
in good condition, and I guessthe Japanese have lauded their
praises for a long time as oneof the top eating species
because of some of thoseattributes.
It's also the colour andtexture and they value a whole
(05:40):
range of different propertiesthat we might not be so attuned
to, and different parts of thetuna probably are really good
for different preparations.
Yeah well, I mean, they've beenfishing for a long time and
they've always had this thingabout maintaining the highest
quality of the fish.
Ikejime is to stop the musclesor relax the fish and it sort of
(06:04):
kills the fish instantly, whichis good for animal welfare as
well as for eating qualities,and relaxes the muscles so that
they don't sort of go into rigorquite as much.
Bleeding obviously gets some ofthat blood and potential means
that the fish will last longerwhen it's chilled.
The shelf life will be betterand probably the eating
(06:26):
qualities to some degree.
And the chilling's importantbecause after fighting on a line
the bluefin tuna can get quitehot.
They have an ability to raisetheir body temperature up above
water temperature quite a bit,which is unusual for a lot of
fish it's not common at all.
That's why they can be soefficient predators in these
(06:50):
cold waters and around temperateareas, you know, sort of 30 to
40 degrees south and that'sprecisely where alroy thompson
from episode three's batch inwhy hal bay is.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
He's trying to look after the fish as well by going
one step further.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
I actually bought a nice machine this year just
because it's such a special fish, you've really got to look
after it.
So I've got a you know enoughice to do with my mates sort of
up and down the street here andyou know the shop sells ice and
trophy Lewis floppy.
From up at trophy Lewis hesells ice and but yeah,
definitely you need more icethan you're thinking.
I can't actually remember whatthe stats were.
Um, I was listening to, but itmight have been 50% of ice for
(07:29):
every kilo of fish.
Even if we do take them, um,it's, it's bleeding them
properly.
You know, we normally don't comeand weigh, weigh the fish
because you know the way,masters, I think one year they
weighed 80, I think, in a dayand it was just ridiculous.
We normally the best photowe've found is just on the boat,
you know, with the anglerholding it, and that's what we
find the best thing.
And then just, yeah, get it inone of those big Stoney Creek
(07:52):
ice bags, you know those chillerbags, and they seem to be
pretty good.
Yeah, just ice it up, we gutthem, get plenty of ice in there
, because they do take a whileto chill down, and we're just
lucky our neighbour's got a bigchiller that we throw them in
and just hang them for a day andthen when we get back in the
next day it's like you cut themup, even vacuum pack them, you
know, and then at least when theboys go home or your mates go
(08:14):
home or you give them away likeit's all just good quality.
My goal would be to have youknow, like a Japanese, how they
do it, like it's pretty amazinghow they cut it up.
And I just over covered, I justgot lost in those videos of
people cutting up tuna.
I loved it, even watching a lotof the cons boys.
You know they'll put the fishon a mattress and then they'll,
they'll deal to it.
So you know it just saves itbruising and it is such a
special fish and I guess we'rejust so lucky to have it have it
(08:37):
here in new zealand tobybarkler from whakatane sport
fishing club.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
In episode three we heard from Toby Well, he's also
a local butcher, so he knows athing or two about meat
processing.
Home kills for farms around theregion.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
How good it is depends on how you've looked
after it.
And I process quite a few tunanow because a few guys bring
them in, you know, into our workand we cut them up and vacuum,
pack them and things like thatand they're all looking after
them really, really well and Ithink just with the quality of
those tuna bags and guys loadingup with ice and things like
that, bleeding them, you knowthey're just coming in a
(09:11):
fantastic quality.
Just a bit of advice for peopleif they are going to keep one or
two, bleeding them both sides,you know, I think some people
run into the mistake of justbleeding one side of the fish.
You know they'll get a fish onthe boat if, say, they've got a
double or triple strike, they'llquickly ram the knife in and
bleed one side of it.
Well, that only does that oneside, you know you've got to
really pump all that blood outand bleed both sides, you know.
And then ram the hose in thereand get all the blood out and
(09:32):
now the fish is just, they'refantastic eating.
You know they're in primecondition, the fish when we're
nabbing them at Waihau Bay there.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
With the fish we weigh.
It's a very small minority.
We're actually weighing for ourown club members and obviously
there are a lot of courtesywaves.
So we have a policy now that wewe will weigh fish for
affiliated members and we'llcourtesy wave for anybody.
But we now have a high courtesyway fee of $50 to encourage
people mainly to join a club andbe contributing something.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
That's Christine Elminger.
She's also from the Waihau BaySport Fishing Club and she
raises a good point.
By joining a local fishing club, you have some skin in the game
.
You support the New ZealandSport Fishing Council.
Each member pays $16 a yeartowards the council.
That supports our publicoutreach legacy, also the Marine
(10:23):
Research Foundation and theYouth Ocean Trust.
It also enables anglers to havetheir catches recorded for each
club and at the end of the yearthis data is available on the
NZSFC website and in theyearbook.
It also contributes toscientists and marine biologists
like John Holdsworth, helpingus understand fish stocks.
(10:46):
You can also enter competitionswhen you're a member of a club,
like the Whakatane WinterBluefin Tuna Tournament
organised by Toby Barkler.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
That's what we did last year and it had to be
gilled and gutted before theycome into the weigh station,
which was great, you know, likethe fish were coming in, they're
gilled and gutted, they're onice, so those guys that were
staying away for, you know, fortwo or three days they could
just gill and gut them and bringthem in.
The only issue there, mike, wasit was just a little bit
dangerous for a few of the guysand like me, like I can vouch
(11:15):
for it as well when you're outon a trailer boat and you like
that and you think, oh, we haveto get the gills and guts out of
this fish to weigh it, I wasjust going to sort of an
accident waiting to happen.
You know what I mean.
So this year they don't have tobe gilled and gutted but
they're.
But they can if they want to.
You know, with how the prizestructure is, if there's a great
(11:37):
big fish weighed in this year,right, right from the start, you
know it's going to encourageguys to just to let their fish
go and get points for thatoverall team section.
So I think the guys do want togo and get them.
They're more than welcome toand we'll be, um, you know, all
over the social media channelsand stuff like that.
We'll be keeping guys up todate with what fish have come in
, you know.
For that exact reason.
You know, try, look after thefishery.
(11:57):
You know, if there's 130 kilofish caught on the first day,
you know you're just better offto let them go if you've got
something lighter than that it'sa great way to approach
tournaments and I just want toknow is tuna more exciting than
the marlin for you now?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
has has it kind of taken over the summer fishing
for you?
Speaker 5 (12:15):
sort of.
I've got a little bit like.
My next sort of mission is, uh,catching in northern, and
there's quite a few flattingaround this season.
I sort of keep in comms with afew of the commercial guys down
here.
Yeah, they're catching heaps ofthem.
You know more and more eachyear, you know.
But these guys are catchingupwards.
You know close to 50, you knowclose to 50 northerns this
season.
I made them on one of thecommercial boats, but you know
(12:37):
there might be one or two caughtrecreationally each year.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
You kind of see on social media too much really of
commercial guys pointing thefinger at wrecks and wreck guys
pointing the finger atcommercial.
But it seems talking toeveryone that I've spoken to
about it.
This is a fishery that kind ofbrings everyone together just to
celebrate the fishery and getinto it, you know.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Yeah, you're right, and I think it helps them out as
well.
You know, and I think it helpsthem out as well.
You know, like sometimes, youknow, sometimes the recreational
guys will be catching fish inwaters that the commercial guys
wouldn't even think aboutfishing in.
You know what I mean.
Like we sort of scout out thefish as such for them, you know.
So we sort of work in like thatand they seem to be real
helpful.
You know, you can hear them onthe VHF down there and things
like that.
So I think, just because thefishery is so healthy, yeah,
(13:23):
there's plenty enough fish foreveryone there which is cool.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
That's amazing.
And the other thing I'venoticed with this fishery is no
one seems to know the one lureor the one spread that works.
It seems like a bit ofeverything works for everyone
and everyone's kind of got a bitof a mix in the way they
approach trawling speeds andlure size and head shapes and
all sorts.
What tends to work for you,Toby?
Speaker 5 (13:47):
But all sorts, and I think that's why it attracts so
many people.
No-transcript behind thealdermans and stuff there.
They're fairly easy to catch upif you're, if you're in the
right place at the right time.
I don't think it matters whatyou're turning behind your boat,
to be honest.
And if you're doing between sixand eight knots, it's like you
(14:08):
know, and you've got some decentlures there, you've got a
pretty good chance of catchingone.
You know, and I think that'swhy it attracts a lot of people,
if you're down white halberd inthe middle of the summer and
there's 150 boats out, you mightcatch three or four marlin.
But if you're, if you're downthere in the middle of the
winter, you know there might be50 or 62 to court, you know.
So they're just a little biteasier to catch.
You don't have to have superrazor sharp hooks, you don't
(14:29):
have to have all the flash gear.
You know like they're just.
You know, great big, giantskippies really.
You know, if on the right daythey definitely have their hard
days.
Don't get me, you know, there'ssome days you can't catch a
bloody thing, but other days,you know, I think it also, I
think late in the season can beexceptional fishing.
We went down late last year andme and a mate, huey, we got 13
(14:51):
Southern Bluefin beforelunchtime one day and there were
four boats out just for peoplelistening.
You know Like that was.
I think that was early Augustand that was right out deep too.
It was early August and thatwas right out deep too.
So there's still a lot to learnabout the fishery.
You know, look at us, we'recatching them in May this year.
That was unheard of as well.
So there could be a good threemonths of fishing for them.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Pretty cool Well that would be very difficult because
of course you're not going toget a true weight if it's been
gilled and gutted.
So the guys wouldn't is great.
But generally if the guys arekilling and gutting and icing,
they're not intending to weighthem, they're just, you know,
keeping good care of it fortheir own food.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Well, that's a good concept because I mean, at the
end of the day, the wholethought behind that and why I
held by and walked on and beingleaders of this.
The whole thought is that, yeah, okay, you've been out and had
some sport, but it's not aboutstriking the pose of the weigh
station.
You want to have something thatyou can actually harvest at the
end of it and, you know, spreadaround the village.
You know, and that's a greatthing, as we saw in the first
couple of years, you know therewas guys wagging their fish and
(15:51):
basically discarding it besidethe bloody weigh station so
seagulls were feeding on it.
You know we is a hugedisrespect for, like whānau
there, this whole concept ofdilling and gutting.
I think it's a great idea, mike,because at the end of the day,
you want something you canactually take home.
You know One of the bluefin isyou're going to get multiple
feeds out of it and you know youcan look after your
(16:13):
grandparents and the guy acrossthe fence.
You know your neighbour.
That's the whole idea of it isif you're going to harvest a
fish, utilise that fish, utiliseevery part of it.
So I applaud the new starts onit.
What?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
does the bluefin fishery look like when it's
going off?
Like when action's happeningand they're feeding on the
surface?
What is it like for those whohaven't seen that?
Speaker 3 (16:34):
It's just nothing like it.
It's just nothing like it.
I was telling some guys at WayUp Bay I did a talk there and
that's worth noting for therecreational guys we'd start
hauling, say, 1 o'clock in theafternoon and if the fishing was
slow we'd stop hauling 2 or 3o'clock in the afternoon and
have a bite to eat and that sortof thing, and we'd wait until
just on dusk and start haulingagain.
(16:54):
The bluefin definitely come onthe bite just after the change
of light.
So we'd start all in again and,if you can imagine, we've got a
whole squid about 250, 300grams is the bait, and our trace
is 12 metres long.
So as we start all in, all of asudden for about a half mile in
front of us, as the tensioncomes on the main line, we've
(17:15):
got all these baits sort of 50feet apart, all start skipping
on the surface and they just getslammed and there's just
nothing like it.
You know, all of a sudden, allof a sudden you're hauling and
hauling and the next minute yourmainline gets pulled down
really, really tight.
We've just been slammed by thisbig, big bluefin and of course
we clip that trace onto afighting line.
(17:35):
So every bluefin we catch, wefight by hand.
You know we clip it onto somemaple rope.
So you've got the deckhand downthe back there, yee Har, and
he's got some of the blueprintsthat have just come on.
Yeah, it's truly an epicadventure when it's on, and
you'll see that with the guys.
Now, especially with advancedtechnology, you can see those
schools of fish and therecreational guys are targeting
(17:56):
themselves.
You know they'll see a schooland they'll target it.
The adrenaline rush is justincredible because there's such
an abundance white.
You know there's such anabundance of fish these days we
don't really see them on thesurface as much as you do, say,
over in south australia.
Uh, whether we're on on thesurface, a hell of a lot more.
But I think that's more to dowith the feed too.
You know you'll see that feedline on your sound and wipe down
(18:18):
10, 20-20 metres.
Where the feed is is whereyou're going to find your
bluefin.
But of course, around the fullmoon you've got all your
phytoplankton and all yourgriblins right on the surface,
particularly right on dusk.
So if you're going to see aschool of bluefin in New Zealand
, it's going to be right on dusk.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And the biomass.
You kind of hinted at it, butyou're pretty confident the
biomass is increasing for thatfishery.
Eh, oh it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah, I was in Blue Laboe last year and I was
talking to three of the AFPAscientists that are basically in
quite a allocation and all thatsort of thing, and they said
last year there was an 11%increase in biomass.
So it's just steadilyincreasing and that's the whole.
Yes, I know the recreation guyshave got issues with the quota
system but at the end of the day, thank god we do have a quota
(19:07):
system.
But that's the whole idea ofthe uh.
The quota system is that theymonitor our catches.
They monitor our catch per uniteffort and they'll adjust quite
accordingly.
So if they say I've got a catchper unit effort of two kilos
per book and they see thatdecreasing, well they'll cut the
quota.
And that's the great thing isthat we can monitor, although
you know, as you know, it's notan exact science.
But uh, we've been studyingbluefin for long enough now that
(19:28):
we know what's going on.
And that's the exciting thingis that we're seeing that
biomass increasing year by year.
We're seeing it over in americatoo.
You know they've got a pacificbluefin fishery over there and
in the last couple of yearsthat's just gone nuts as well.
So it's exciting times ahead.
We've got a very healthyfishery, I believe.
In Australia the southernbluefin tuna is soon to be
(19:49):
introduced into theReinstitution Council
certification as a sustainablefishery and, as you know, that's
an independent body.
It's not something owned by thefishing industry or any
government.
They're totally independent.
So if they're looking atintroducing it into their system
, it's the world's higheststandard of sustainability, so
it's it's.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
It's a good news story, it seems like a
collaborative effort to torebuild this fishery, and is
this something that we couldlook at at other fisheries?
Because it it seems unique.
You know, we we hear otherfisheries being decimated and
people point the fingers at eachother and that, but this is one
that I guess we've all agreedon, that we needed to look after
it.
We have put some things inplace.
(20:30):
The wreck guys are makingconcessions by taking one fish,
a boat or these self-imposedeven lower than what MPI sets
for recreational fishes to take,just basically being decent
blokes and going.
We're just going to take whatwe need, and it seems to be this
kind of understanding.
Is this something we couldlearn for other fisheries?
Do you think Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (20:49):
There's a lot of fishers that we could be doing
the same thing, you know, andit's really now that those
barriers have been broken downthere is a case where we can
work together.
I always had in the back of mymind, even when I started this
journey with the recreationalfishermen.
I mean, I've been sharinginformation with them for years
and you know, of course we hadthe bluefin fishery, but we've
(21:10):
got bigger battles.
We need to work together onthese things, you know.
Yes, Well, we've got a very,very healthy fishery in
Australia and New Zealand.
You look at the commercialsector for bluefin and swordfish
and that sort of thing.
There's only 30 boats in eachcountry.
It's such a hard game toactually be successful at.
The guys that are in thatfishery now have been in there
(21:32):
for a long time and they're thereal deal.
They know what they're doing.
The issue we have is that whilewe both the recreational and
commercial sector in Australiaand New Zealand have done a
stunning job and we're seeing arebound in our fishery, we can't
control what's happening on thehigh seas.
That's a terrifying thing forme.
I fished outside Lord HoweIsland last year and I could
(21:52):
hear the Aisne boats on theradio, as a lot of you guys do.
You look at the vessel finderand you see the plague of boats
outside our borders,particularly up in the South
Fiji Basin.
We've got Spanish vessels downhere.
For God's sakes, what the hellare they doing down here?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
We call it the wall of death.
No matter what we do here,these fish have tails, the
pelagic, migratory fish.
We can be as good custodians aswe can be, but there's that
wall of death that they have toget through as well.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yeah, and it's terrifying.
You know we can't control it.
Although some people aresignatories for it, a lot of the
nations are not signatories forit.
The Spanish are a perfect caseof that.
They're well known for notbeing team players.
And the most terrifying thingis that we've got and they are
camp.
You know, I've seen them up theKermadecs.
I fished outside the 200-milelimit chasing bluenose, and I
(22:45):
ran into the Spanish fleet andthe Chinese fleet, to name a few
of the nations.
They're not there to besustainable, that's for sure,
mike.
You know they're there to justtake whatever they can and go on
a plunder somewhere else.
We've got a serious, seriousissue there and that's why I
think both the recreational andcommercial sectors have got to
work together to try and limitwhat the damage that's being
done, because if we don't dosomething about it, we're not
(23:07):
going to have a fishery.
It's that simple.
You know they're not going togo away.
I've heard stories about theAsian fleet where it's not
actually economical at thisstage to do what they're doing.
But when it push comes to shoveand we do get our shit together
and say to guys, hey, you needto get out, they're going to say
hang on.
We've got a historical right tobe here.
We've been here for 15 yearsfishing in the western South
Pacific.
(23:27):
We've got a historical right tobe here.
That's where it'll paydividends for them not so much
now.
So, yeah, they're thinking alot further ahead than we are,
so thinking a lot further aheadthan we are.
So it's a really, really scarything that's going on outside
our borders.
I'd really like to congratulatethe recreational sector on what
they're doing with the fishery.
You know they've gone fromtheir bull rush mentality to
(23:51):
actually a sports fishery nowand I totally applaud what the
game fishing clubs and therecreational fishers are doing
themselves.
They're doing a fantastic job.
They're looking after thespecies and it's all about if
you're going to harvest abluefin tuna, you want to get
maximum recovery out of it, andif you're going to release it,
release it in the right way.
So it's got the best chance ofsurvival.
(24:12):
But I applaud the recreationalsector and what they're doing.
They've really taken thesustainability of their fishery
to heart and they're doing theright thing.
So, yeah, my hat's off to theguys.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
John Holdsworth explains the best way to look
after the Southern Bluefin tunafishery and some great
information on tagging aSouthern Bluefin tuna.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, I understand people who spend effort and time
to go to remote places to catchthese fish and they want
something to bring home.
They also want a goodexperience and to make that
continue, you should look afterthe fishery and there's no need
to take or keep fishing untileveryone's caught a fish and
killed a fish.
I mean you can share your catchplenty of meat on a big bluefin
(24:55):
tuna and if, if fish are ingood condition and you can
either tag it or just release it, that's also going to be good
for the future.
Yeah, we've had some goodresults from tagging.
We've put a number ofconventional tags in bluefin
tuna for many years.
The CSIRO and the Commission forConservation of Southern
(25:18):
Bluefin Tuna have done thousandsand thousands of tags which
have been really valuable fortracking movement and things,
but they haven't done very manyin New Zealand.
So it's quite interesting to seewhere the fish from New Zealand
end up.
Tagging shouldn't be in theside of the fish, but you want
it high on the body, probablyback by the second dorsal fin,
(25:40):
and that avoids any damage tothe lateral lines or the you
know, the sensory system or themajor vessels, blood vessels and
it's also more visible.
If a fish comes in on its sideor something, you can see that
it's got that fish has got a tagon, and so if you get a tagged
fish and you want to release it,we'd like you to remove the tag
(26:03):
or cut the part of the tag offwith the number on the end of it
before you release it andobviously report it.
We've had a few bluefin tunarecaptured with tags, but we
haven't had the releaseinformation.
So it's also important to sendthe cards in after you've tagged
the fish either to your club oronto the internet on fishtag
nzconz.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Those catches there back to toby barkler from
whakatane on the club's wintertuna tournament next weekend so
just um, touching on that, onthis tuna tournament, like how
it all come about was we'vealways wanted, like whakatane
was always known as, uh, turnercapital of new zealand, you know
, like with the yellowfin andthings like that, and like I was
(26:43):
sort of a little bit, I was alittle bit young I sort of
missed the peak of the yellowfin.
I think that was sort of late90s, early 2000s sort of.
Then heard all these storiesabout the great tuna tournament
that we've had here in whakataneand you know, thousands of
people in a marquee and Ithought, um, you know it was
after like I'm on the committeeof the fishing club there in
whakatane and me and my matedean were on the committee.
We thought, you know, with thesouthern bluefin you need a few
(27:05):
things for a good tournament,but the the main thing is the
fish, you know, and in themiddle of the winter we have all
these fish just pouring up thecoastline and and I thought that
you know like obviously why howbay is right where it's all
happening, but it's fairly small, you know what I mean.
Like there's Whitehall Bay andTK.
Like um, tikaha, you know,haven't got the hugest fishing
clubs and parking and all thoseissues like that, whereas the
(27:26):
next best place was Whakataneand I thought you know why not
give it a crack.
You know, with the fisher there, with all the facilities, let's
go.
You know the fishermen arepouring up the like Like there
was guys coming from the SouthIsland, north of Auckland, and
if we can get a decent enoughprize pool and some decent rules
, we might be able to just pullthis off.
And sure enough that first yearwe had close to 300 anglers
(27:47):
turn up.
You know we filled the club.
It was bloody awesome, that'sunreal For winter.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Just to let those listening know, like what is a
normal club night in winter forWhakatane.
How many people are in therenormally in?
Speaker 5 (28:01):
winter.
It's always a battle in winter.
You know, like we always sitaround the committee room each
month go, how are they going toget the punters in the door.
You know, and you're thinkingof all these things Like, we
never thought in our wildestdreams that we were going to
just absolutely fool the club.
You know, I remember at theprize giving for that tournament
we were going down to tui partyhire and hiring bar leaners and
(28:26):
we just we just physicallycouldn't fit people in the in
the door.
You know, for this, just in themiddle of winter, on a cold
winter's night, it was prettycool to be a part of.
You know, it was pretty wickedand the fishing.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
That first trip I was down there and it was what
probably four fish that wereweighed for that tournament in
the end, yeah, it was hardfishing, it was really hard
fishing, like it's always.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
It's like you never know when to when to run a
tournament like that.
Like the idea of having it wasfairly early we had it last year
was the 20th of june, I thinkbecause of the weather, like
that's another issue with this.
Um, just a bit of an issue withthe tournament.
And and trying to hold atournament in the middle of the
winter, it's just issue with theweather, especially out on that
remote coast there.
It actually got pushed backthree weeks that tournament.
(29:03):
When we advertised thetournament we had postponement
dates just because of thatweather, you know.
And I said to the guys on thecommittee I said look, the
fishermen are going to turn upregardless.
You know, like as long asthere's two or three days of
flat weather, they're going tobe here.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
So look, you had a successful first year, so this
is the second year for thetournament and it's coming up
soon yeah, that's right.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Yeah, so it's taken a big leap this year.
I think last year, um, theheaviest tuna got five grand and
it's up to 50 this year, soit's taken a hell of a leap this
year.
So, and of course, that'sattracted a whole lot of anglers
and I think it's not far offreaching max capacity.
So it's going to be pretty,pretty cool to see everyone turn
up.
We just got to keep our fingersand toes crossed for this, uh,
(29:45):
for a nice weather window.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
The fish bring in the anglers, but the anglers also
bring in the sponsors, and it'sthe sponsors that make these
kind of things happen, isn't it?
Speaker 5 (29:53):
that's right, mike.
And yeah, just a big shout outto Jason Hubbard.
He's got got Hubbardcontracting and he was behind us
right from the word go, whichwas pretty cool, you know.
Like I went to him last year,you know, three or four months
before the tournament, came upwith a silly idea in the middle
of winter running a tournamentand he just said, yeah, I'm with
you the whole way.
So that was.
It was pretty neat to get hisbacking and he's backed it once
again this year.
(30:14):
So it was bloody awesome.
And when we've got a whole, Ithink everyone I've asked, you
know, like everyone I'veapproached, mike has been right
behind us.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
So it's been bloody awesome last year you guys
included kayika.
Can you tell us a bit aboutthat?
Yeah, that's right, mike.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
Yeah, so with the fish that were coming in and
getting weighed in, we werefilleting the fish for the
anglers.
So if so, there's tuna werecoming in, gill and gutter,
they'd been on ice and then wewere me and dean were down there
with a kaika trailer filletingthese fish, which were in
beautiful condition, would thenvacuum pack them and then if the
anglers didn't want the headsin frame, so we were just
working with a local ewe and andputting it out on the radio
(30:51):
stations and stuff like that,and the community were coming
down and getting these beautifulsouthern bluefin wings and
heads and the frames and all theoff cuts, like there was just
absolutely nothing going towaste, which was bloody awesome,
you know.
So it worked really, reallywell.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Whakatane seems to be looking at fishing comps just a
little bit differently thesedays.
So you've done that, which isso awesome, and I'm 100% behind
you with that, but you also hadlike a kina eating competition
for one comp yeah, we did,that's right.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Yeah, we had the kaiika tournament, which is
really cool.
So, like I'm a pretty mad keendiver as well.
So, um, we had a, we had a packhorse crayfish section and a
red crayfish section, but forsomething different, we had the
um top 10 heaviest kitters and Ithink we had something like 400
kitters come across the weighstation, yeah, which is pretty
cool.
So these guys are going out andpicking the biggest 10 kitters.
(31:41):
So, um, I think the biggest 10,uh, come from white island.
But it was amazing just a bitof information there around
kitters, uh, the shells at whiteisland was smaller but they
were a lot thicker.
So they, you know, you hadthese big kitters come from the
rows and, like our closeownersers, had these bigger
bodies but they had a lotthinner shells.
(32:02):
But the ones at White Islandwere smaller but had super thick
shells.
So whether or not the sulfur oranything like that's got
something to do with it, I don'tknow, but yeah, it was an
interesting tournament and itwas really really popular with
the community.
(32:24):
So looking forward for that onenext year or this, your
president hayden johnson told mesomething like 100 new members
came out of that tournament.
Just by doing something a bitdifferent.
The club got 100 new members.
Yeah, yeah, just created thiswhole new group and I, um,
organized a kind of eatingcompetition which we um, we
advertised over the radio andthe entrance came in, obviously,
because then all these come infrom the way station, and then
we had a kind of eatingcompetition, you know.
So we had these people thatweren't even into fishing at all
really, you know what I meanand they would.
They turned up for a kind ofeating cup.
Oh, the fishing club, this iscool, and how do we sign up here
(32:47):
and things like that.
So that was pretty wicked and Ithink, what chip shot.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
So, um, that was bloody awesome, yeah and that
concludes episode four of thenzsfc pod and real podcast.
Further details of topicsmentioned in this podcast are
available in the show notes.
We're seeking your feedback onthis podcast.
(33:15):
We'd like to know what fishingtopics you'd like us to explore.
You can send us a messagethrough the show notes.
The best way to support us isto subscribe to the podcast.
That way, you'll never miss anew episode.
Nzssc is an incorporatedsociety run by volunteers to
represent fishing clubs andtheir members.
(33:36):
Thank you, thank you.
Yeah well, they're a cold water tuna and they have
high fat content, particularlyif they've been feeding well and
good condition, and I guess theJapanese have lauded their
praises for a long time.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome back to the Pot and Reel podcast.
I'm Mike Plant, and this isepisode four, where we continue
to learn about southern bluefintuna.
And we heard in episode threeabout looking after the fish.
One of the ways is ikijimi.
It's a method of killing fishwhich maintains its quality of
its meat, originating in japan.
(00:36):
Now there's some irony in thefact that, as we've heard before
, the japanese were somewhatblamed for depleting this
fishery and now it's on thebounce back.
But we are taking learningsfrom the Japanese on how to best
preserve the fish.
So we return to Tony Walker orTK from TK's Offshore Fishing to
(00:57):
explain more about how theJapanese have influenced how we
look after fish.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Oh, it's totally dictated by that.
So so when we harvest a bluefin, it's dragged onto a foam
mattress and the whole idea isthat there's not a scale missing
.
And the big thing for us, mike,and it's also for the
recreational guys, is gettingthat core temperature down as
quickly as you can.
So we drag it onto a mattressso that we essentially don't
want a scale missing off thatfish, because the buyers buy
(01:23):
with their eyes.
For us, you should be able todeal to a southern bleef and
tuna in less than two minutes.
Basically, spike it through thebrain, have it gilded and
gutted and plunged, put yourpuff line down through its spine
, have it gilded and gutted andwashed out and in an icy slurry
in less than two or threeminutes.
And that and that's the key tothe whole thing because the
(01:43):
Japanese are the buyers and theydrive the market.
And the unique thing withSouthern Bluefin tuna is that
really it's only the Japanesethat have such a passion for it.
So if you look at other markets, like the Hawaiian market and
LA and all that sort of thing,if they're buying for the
restaurant trade and that sortof thing, they don't mind.
If it's Bluefin or Big Eye,it's the Japanese that have got
(02:06):
the passion for the southernbluefin tuna and the vast
majority of bluefin tuna is soldin Japan.
So they are very, very pickybuyers.
And I was actually mortifiedwhen I came over to Australia
watching my crew on my firsttrip fishing out of Malula Bar.
We'd go out for fishing andthey then just drag it across
(02:26):
the deck.
Well, we never dragged anythingacross the deck of New Zealand.
We we actually had hammocksmade up like, like, like a
stretcher.
So if we had a big fish youknow we've got a big northern
bluefin or something like thatwe'd actually put it on the
stretcher, have a deck out ofeach end, pick the bloody thing
up and walk it over the ditch.
We never dragged anythingbecause if you get a scratch
mark on that fish you might lose500 dead.
(02:47):
That's what it's all about.
It's all about quality.
I had a smaller vessel, a 60foot vessel called Extreme
Limits that I used to base outof Fong Vita.
We only had a small holdingcapacity.
So fishing out of Gisborne andNapier I was day tripping.
Basically I'd go out and get 40fish in one day and come back
in.
My price was just about doublethe price of the guys that were
(03:10):
out there for four or five days.
So quality is premium andthat's the great thing with the
Turner Champions.
They've got a lot ofinstructional videos on how to
care for your catch and the corething is getting that fish into
a nice slurry, sort of aconsistency of acdonald's slushy
is how you want it.
So what, you want that fish inthere as quick as possible.
If you'd be surprised if youtake uh core temperature, even
(03:33):
after four or five hours insidethat tuna it is still warm, you
know, even if I often spend onthat uh slug for four or five
hours.
So you've got to pull that coretemperature down to uh as cold
as you can get, as quickly asyou can, otherwise you end up
with like a brown coloured fleshand you really want that clear
rose petal coloured flesh.
I've seen Rick Ragsdale caughtfish and I've sort of frowned a
(03:56):
little bit and the beauty, ofcourse, with the surface long
liner is that they'll have theirinitial fight, then they'll
just settle down, you know.
So they're caught onlining.
They'll have their initialfight, then they'll just settle
down.
So they're caught on the hook,they'll have their initial run
and then they'll settle down.
Now, if you've been fighting afish on a recreational boat and
you've been fighting it for 40minutes.
Well, it's essentially cookingitself, mike.
(04:17):
So it's releasing all thisadrenaline and it's essentially
cooking itself.
So you want to get on as quickas you can and if you're not
worried about taking the weighstation, first thing you want to
do is like gill and gut itstraight away, but also whack
off the tail and if you've got adeco, hold the decos against
the tail.
And if you've caught, if you'vecaught through the spine, hold
that decos against the tail andwatch, watch the um, the spinal
(04:40):
cord, watch the gut cavity.
You'll watch all the red bloodgoing through the gut cavity and
keep that deco's on it untilit's running clear through the
gut cavity.
Or vice versa, you can put thedeco's in the gut cavity and
keep an eye, tuck the tail offand keep an eye on the tail and
you keep that deco's in thereuntil it's run clear.
The big thing is that the bloodin the fish is basically
(05:01):
heating the fish, so it'scooking the fish.
So the quicker you can get thatfish cooled down, the better.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
And here's John Holdsworth, our marine biologist
from episode three, telling usmore about this Japanese
practice and why the bluefintuna is such a sought-after fish
.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah well, they're a cold water tuna and they have
high fat content, particularlyif they've been feeding well and
in good condition, and I guessthe Japanese have lauded their
praises for a long time as oneof the top eating species
because of some of thoseattributes.
It's also the colour andtexture and they value a whole
(05:40):
range of different propertiesthat we might not be so attuned
to, and different parts of thetuna probably are really good
for different preparations.
Yeah well, I mean, they've beenfishing for a long time and
they've always had this thingabout maintaining the highest
quality of the fish.
Ikejime is to stop the musclesor relax the fish and it sort of
(06:04):
kills the fish instantly, whichis good for animal welfare as
well as for eating qualities,and relaxes the muscles so that
they don't sort of go into rigorquite as much.
Bleeding obviously gets some ofthat blood and potential means
that the fish will last longerwhen it's chilled.
The shelf life will be betterand probably the eating
(06:26):
qualities to some degree.
And the chilling's importantbecause after fighting on a line
the bluefin tuna can get quitehot.
They have an ability to raisetheir body temperature up above
water temperature quite a bit,which is unusual for a lot of
fish it's not common at all.
That's why they can be soefficient predators in these
(06:50):
cold waters and around temperateareas, you know, sort of 30 to
40 degrees south and that'sprecisely where alroy thompson
from episode three's batch inwhy hal bay is.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
He's trying to look after the fish as well by going
one step further.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
I actually bought a nice machine this year just
because it's such a special fish, you've really got to look
after it.
So I've got a you know enoughice to do with my mates sort of
up and down the street here andyou know the shop sells ice and
trophy Lewis floppy.
From up at trophy Lewis hesells ice and but yeah,
definitely you need more icethan you're thinking.
I can't actually remember whatthe stats were.
Um, I was listening to, but itmight have been 50% of ice for
(07:29):
every kilo of fish.
Even if we do take them, um,it's, it's bleeding them
properly.
You know, we normally don't comeand weigh, weigh the fish
because you know the way,masters, I think one year they
weighed 80, I think, in a dayand it was just ridiculous.
We normally the best photowe've found is just on the boat,
you know, with the anglerholding it, and that's what we
find the best thing.
And then just, yeah, get it inone of those big Stoney Creek
(07:52):
ice bags, you know those chillerbags, and they seem to be
pretty good.
Yeah, just ice it up, we gutthem, get plenty of ice in there
, because they do take a whileto chill down, and we're just
lucky our neighbour's got a bigchiller that we throw them in
and just hang them for a day andthen when we get back in the
next day it's like you cut themup, even vacuum pack them, you
know, and then at least when theboys go home or your mates go
(08:14):
home or you give them away likeit's all just good quality.
My goal would be to have youknow, like a Japanese, how they
do it, like it's pretty amazinghow they cut it up.
And I just over covered, I justgot lost in those videos of
people cutting up tuna.
I loved it, even watching a lotof the cons boys.
You know they'll put the fishon a mattress and then they'll,
they'll deal to it.
So you know it just saves itbruising and it is such a
special fish and I guess we'rejust so lucky to have it have it
(08:37):
here in new zealand tobybarkler from whakatane sport
fishing club.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
In episode three we heard from Toby Well, he's also
a local butcher, so he knows athing or two about meat
processing.
Home kills for farms around theregion.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
How good it is depends on how you've looked
after it.
And I process quite a few tunanow because a few guys bring
them in, you know, into our workand we cut them up and vacuum,
pack them and things like thatand they're all looking after
them really, really well and Ithink just with the quality of
those tuna bags and guys loadingup with ice and things like
that, bleeding them, you knowthey're just coming in a
(09:11):
fantastic quality.
Just a bit of advice for peopleif they are going to keep one or
two, bleeding them both sides,you know, I think some people
run into the mistake of justbleeding one side of the fish.
You know they'll get a fish onthe boat if, say, they've got a
double or triple strike, they'llquickly ram the knife in and
bleed one side of it.
Well, that only does that oneside, you know you've got to
really pump all that blood outand bleed both sides, you know.
And then ram the hose in thereand get all the blood out and
(09:32):
now the fish is just, they'refantastic eating.
You know they're in primecondition, the fish when we're
nabbing them at Waihau Bay there.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
With the fish we weigh.
It's a very small minority.
We're actually weighing for ourown club members and obviously
there are a lot of courtesywaves.
So we have a policy now that wewe will weigh fish for
affiliated members and we'llcourtesy wave for anybody.
But we now have a high courtesyway fee of $50 to encourage
people mainly to join a club andbe contributing something.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
That's Christine Elminger.
She's also from the Waihau BaySport Fishing Club and she
raises a good point.
By joining a local fishing club, you have some skin in the game
.
You support the New ZealandSport Fishing Council.
Each member pays $16 a yeartowards the council.
That supports our publicoutreach legacy, also the Marine
(10:23):
Research Foundation and theYouth Ocean Trust.
It also enables anglers to havetheir catches recorded for each
club and at the end of the yearthis data is available on the
NZSFC website and in theyearbook.
It also contributes toscientists and marine biologists
like John Holdsworth, helpingus understand fish stocks.
(10:46):
You can also enter competitionswhen you're a member of a club,
like the Whakatane WinterBluefin Tuna Tournament
organised by Toby Barkler.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
That's what we did last year and it had to be
gilled and gutted before theycome into the weigh station,
which was great, you know, likethe fish were coming in, they're
gilled and gutted, they're onice, so those guys that were
staying away for, you know, fortwo or three days they could
just gill and gut them and bringthem in.
The only issue there, mike, wasit was just a little bit
dangerous for a few of the guysand like me, like I can vouch
(11:15):
for it as well when you're outon a trailer boat and you like
that and you think, oh, we haveto get the gills and guts out of
this fish to weigh it, I wasjust going to sort of an
accident waiting to happen.
You know what I mean.
So this year they don't have tobe gilled and gutted but
they're.
But they can if they want to.
You know, with how the prizestructure is, if there's a great
(11:37):
big fish weighed in this year,right, right from the start, you
know it's going to encourageguys to just to let their fish
go and get points for thatoverall team section.
So I think the guys do want togo and get them.
They're more than welcome toand we'll be, um, you know, all
over the social media channelsand stuff like that.
We'll be keeping guys up todate with what fish have come in
, you know.
For that exact reason.
You know, try, look after thefishery.
(11:57):
You know, if there's 130 kilofish caught on the first day,
you know you're just better offto let them go if you've got
something lighter than that it'sa great way to approach
tournaments and I just want toknow is tuna more exciting than
the marlin for you now?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
has has it kind of taken over the summer fishing
for you?
Speaker 5 (12:15):
sort of.
I've got a little bit like.
My next sort of mission is, uh,catching in northern, and
there's quite a few flattingaround this season.
I sort of keep in comms with afew of the commercial guys down
here.
Yeah, they're catching heaps ofthem.
You know more and more eachyear, you know.
But these guys are catchingupwards.
You know close to 50, you knowclose to 50 northerns this
season.
I made them on one of thecommercial boats, but you know
(12:37):
there might be one or two caughtrecreationally each year.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
You kind of see on social media too much really of
commercial guys pointing thefinger at wrecks and wreck guys
pointing the finger atcommercial.
But it seems talking toeveryone that I've spoken to
about it.
This is a fishery that kind ofbrings everyone together just to
celebrate the fishery and getinto it, you know.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Yeah, you're right, and I think it helps them out as
well.
You know, and I think it helpsthem out as well.
You know, like sometimes, youknow, sometimes the recreational
guys will be catching fish inwaters that the commercial guys
wouldn't even think aboutfishing in.
You know what I mean.
Like we sort of scout out thefish as such for them, you know.
So we sort of work in like thatand they seem to be real
helpful.
You know, you can hear them onthe VHF down there and things
like that.
So I think, just because thefishery is so healthy, yeah,
(13:23):
there's plenty enough fish foreveryone there which is cool.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
That's amazing.
And the other thing I'venoticed with this fishery is no
one seems to know the one lureor the one spread that works.
It seems like a bit ofeverything works for everyone
and everyone's kind of got a bitof a mix in the way they
approach trawling speeds andlure size and head shapes and
all sorts.
What tends to work for you,Toby?
Speaker 5 (13:47):
But all sorts, and I think that's why it attracts so
many people.
No-transcript behind thealdermans and stuff there.
They're fairly easy to catch upif you're, if you're in the
right place at the right time.
I don't think it matters whatyou're turning behind your boat,
to be honest.
And if you're doing between sixand eight knots, it's like you
(14:08):
know, and you've got some decentlures there, you've got a
pretty good chance of catchingone.
You know, and I think that'swhy it attracts a lot of people,
if you're down white halberd inthe middle of the summer and
there's 150 boats out, you mightcatch three or four marlin.
But if you're, if you're downthere in the middle of the
winter, you know there might be50 or 62 to court, you know.
So they're just a little biteasier to catch.
You don't have to have superrazor sharp hooks, you don't
(14:29):
have to have all the flash gear.
You know like they're just.
You know, great big, giantskippies really.
You know, if on the right daythey definitely have their hard
days.
Don't get me, you know, there'ssome days you can't catch a
bloody thing, but other days,you know, I think it also, I
think late in the season can beexceptional fishing.
We went down late last year andme and a mate, huey, we got 13
(14:51):
Southern Bluefin beforelunchtime one day and there were
four boats out just for peoplelistening.
You know Like that was.
I think that was early Augustand that was right out deep too.
It was early August and thatwas right out deep too.
So there's still a lot to learnabout the fishery.
You know, look at us, we'recatching them in May this year.
That was unheard of as well.
So there could be a good threemonths of fishing for them.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Pretty cool Well that would be very difficult because
of course you're not going toget a true weight if it's been
gilled and gutted.
So the guys wouldn't is great.
But generally if the guys arekilling and gutting and icing,
they're not intending to weighthem, they're just, you know,
keeping good care of it fortheir own food.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Well, that's a good concept because I mean, at the
end of the day, the wholethought behind that and why I
held by and walked on and beingleaders of this.
The whole thought is that, yeah, okay, you've been out and had
some sport, but it's not aboutstriking the pose of the weigh
station.
You want to have something thatyou can actually harvest at the
end of it and, you know, spreadaround the village.
You know, and that's a greatthing, as we saw in the first
couple of years, you know therewas guys wagging their fish and
(15:51):
basically discarding it besidethe bloody weigh station so
seagulls were feeding on it.
You know we is a hugedisrespect for, like whānau
there, this whole concept ofdilling and gutting.
I think it's a great idea, mike,because at the end of the day,
you want something you canactually take home.
You know One of the bluefin isyou're going to get multiple
feeds out of it and you know youcan look after your
(16:13):
grandparents and the guy acrossthe fence.
You know your neighbour.
That's the whole idea of it isif you're going to harvest a
fish, utilise that fish, utiliseevery part of it.
So I applaud the new starts onit.
What?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
does the bluefin fishery look like when it's
going off?
Like when action's happeningand they're feeding on the
surface?
What is it like for those whohaven't seen that?
Speaker 3 (16:34):
It's just nothing like it.
It's just nothing like it.
I was telling some guys at WayUp Bay I did a talk there and
that's worth noting for therecreational guys we'd start
hauling, say, 1 o'clock in theafternoon and if the fishing was
slow we'd stop hauling 2 or 3o'clock in the afternoon and
have a bite to eat and that sortof thing, and we'd wait until
just on dusk and start haulingagain.
(16:54):
The bluefin definitely come onthe bite just after the change
of light.
So we'd start all in again and,if you can imagine, we've got a
whole squid about 250, 300grams is the bait, and our trace
is 12 metres long.
So as we start all in, all of asudden for about a half mile in
front of us, as the tensioncomes on the main line, we've
(17:15):
got all these baits sort of 50feet apart, all start skipping
on the surface and they just getslammed and there's just
nothing like it.
You know, all of a sudden, allof a sudden you're hauling and
hauling and the next minute yourmainline gets pulled down
really, really tight.
We've just been slammed by thisbig, big bluefin and of course
we clip that trace onto afighting line.
(17:35):
So every bluefin we catch, wefight by hand.
You know we clip it onto somemaple rope.
So you've got the deckhand downthe back there, yee Har, and
he's got some of the blueprintsthat have just come on.
Yeah, it's truly an epicadventure when it's on, and
you'll see that with the guys.
Now, especially with advancedtechnology, you can see those
schools of fish and therecreational guys are targeting
(17:56):
themselves.
You know they'll see a schooland they'll target it.
The adrenaline rush is justincredible because there's such
an abundance white.
You know there's such anabundance of fish these days we
don't really see them on thesurface as much as you do, say,
over in south australia.
Uh, whether we're on on thesurface, a hell of a lot more.
But I think that's more to dowith the feed too.
You know you'll see that feedline on your sound and wipe down
(18:18):
10, 20-20 metres.
Where the feed is is whereyou're going to find your
bluefin.
But of course, around the fullmoon you've got all your
phytoplankton and all yourgriblins right on the surface,
particularly right on dusk.
So if you're going to see aschool of bluefin in New Zealand
, it's going to be right on dusk.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And the biomass.
You kind of hinted at it, butyou're pretty confident the
biomass is increasing for thatfishery.
Eh, oh it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah, I was in Blue Laboe last year and I was
talking to three of the AFPAscientists that are basically in
quite a allocation and all thatsort of thing, and they said
last year there was an 11%increase in biomass.
So it's just steadilyincreasing and that's the whole.
Yes, I know the recreation guyshave got issues with the quota
system but at the end of the day, thank god we do have a quota
(19:07):
system.
But that's the whole idea ofthe uh.
The quota system is that theymonitor our catches.
They monitor our catch per uniteffort and they'll adjust quite
accordingly.
So if they say I've got a catchper unit effort of two kilos
per book and they see thatdecreasing, well they'll cut the
quota.
And that's the great thing isthat we can monitor, although
you know, as you know, it's notan exact science.
But uh, we've been studyingbluefin for long enough now that
(19:28):
we know what's going on.
And that's the exciting thingis that we're seeing that
biomass increasing year by year.
We're seeing it over in americatoo.
You know they've got a pacificbluefin fishery over there and
in the last couple of yearsthat's just gone nuts as well.
So it's exciting times ahead.
We've got a very healthyfishery, I believe.
In Australia the southernbluefin tuna is soon to be
(19:49):
introduced into theReinstitution Council
certification as a sustainablefishery and, as you know, that's
an independent body.
It's not something owned by thefishing industry or any
government.
They're totally independent.
So if they're looking atintroducing it into their system
, it's the world's higheststandard of sustainability, so
it's it's.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
It's a good news story, it seems like a
collaborative effort to torebuild this fishery, and is
this something that we couldlook at at other fisheries?
Because it it seems unique.
You know, we we hear otherfisheries being decimated and
people point the fingers at eachother and that, but this is one
that I guess we've all agreedon, that we needed to look after
it.
We have put some things inplace.
(20:30):
The wreck guys are makingconcessions by taking one fish,
a boat or these self-imposedeven lower than what MPI sets
for recreational fishes to take,just basically being decent
blokes and going.
We're just going to take whatwe need, and it seems to be this
kind of understanding.
Is this something we couldlearn for other fisheries?
Do you think Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (20:49):
There's a lot of fishers that we could be doing
the same thing, you know, andit's really now that those
barriers have been broken downthere is a case where we can
work together.
I always had in the back of mymind, even when I started this
journey with the recreationalfishermen.
I mean, I've been sharinginformation with them for years
and you know, of course we hadthe bluefin fishery, but we've
(21:10):
got bigger battles.
We need to work together onthese things, you know.
Yes, Well, we've got a very,very healthy fishery in
Australia and New Zealand.
You look at the commercialsector for bluefin and swordfish
and that sort of thing.
There's only 30 boats in eachcountry.
It's such a hard game toactually be successful at.
The guys that are in thatfishery now have been in there
(21:32):
for a long time and they're thereal deal.
They know what they're doing.
The issue we have is that whilewe both the recreational and
commercial sector in Australiaand New Zealand have done a
stunning job and we're seeing arebound in our fishery, we can't
control what's happening on thehigh seas.
That's a terrifying thing forme.
I fished outside Lord HoweIsland last year and I could
(21:52):
hear the Aisne boats on theradio, as a lot of you guys do.
You look at the vessel finderand you see the plague of boats
outside our borders,particularly up in the South
Fiji Basin.
We've got Spanish vessels downhere.
For God's sakes, what the hellare they doing down here?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
We call it the wall of death.
No matter what we do here,these fish have tails, the
pelagic, migratory fish.
We can be as good custodians aswe can be, but there's that
wall of death that they have toget through as well.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yeah, and it's terrifying.
You know we can't control it.
Although some people aresignatories for it, a lot of the
nations are not signatories forit.
The Spanish are a perfect caseof that.
They're well known for notbeing team players.
And the most terrifying thingis that we've got and they are
camp.
You know, I've seen them up theKermadecs.
I fished outside the 200-milelimit chasing bluenose, and I
(22:45):
ran into the Spanish fleet andthe Chinese fleet, to name a few
of the nations.
They're not there to besustainable, that's for sure,
mike.
You know they're there to justtake whatever they can and go on
a plunder somewhere else.
We've got a serious, seriousissue there and that's why I
think both the recreational andcommercial sectors have got to
work together to try and limitwhat the damage that's being
done, because if we don't dosomething about it, we're not
(23:07):
going to have a fishery.
It's that simple.
You know they're not going togo away.
I've heard stories about theAsian fleet where it's not
actually economical at thisstage to do what they're doing.
But when it push comes to shoveand we do get our shit together
and say to guys, hey, you needto get out, they're going to say
hang on.
We've got a historical right tobe here.
We've been here for 15 yearsfishing in the western South
Pacific.
(23:27):
We've got a historical right tobe here.
That's where it'll paydividends for them not so much
now.
So, yeah, they're thinking alot further ahead than we are,
so thinking a lot further aheadthan we are.
So it's a really, really scarything that's going on outside
our borders.
I'd really like to congratulatethe recreational sector on what
they're doing with the fishery.
You know they've gone fromtheir bull rush mentality to
(23:51):
actually a sports fishery nowand I totally applaud what the
game fishing clubs and therecreational fishers are doing
themselves.
They're doing a fantastic job.
They're looking after thespecies and it's all about if
you're going to harvest abluefin tuna, you want to get
maximum recovery out of it, andif you're going to release it,
release it in the right way.
So it's got the best chance ofsurvival.
(24:12):
But I applaud the recreationalsector and what they're doing.
They've really taken thesustainability of their fishery
to heart and they're doing theright thing.
So, yeah, my hat's off to theguys.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
John Holdsworth explains the best way to look
after the Southern Bluefin tunafishery and some great
information on tagging aSouthern Bluefin tuna.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, I understand people who spend effort and time
to go to remote places to catchthese fish and they want
something to bring home.
They also want a goodexperience and to make that
continue, you should look afterthe fishery and there's no need
to take or keep fishing untileveryone's caught a fish and
killed a fish.
I mean you can share your catchplenty of meat on a big bluefin
(24:55):
tuna and if, if fish are ingood condition and you can
either tag it or just release it, that's also going to be good
for the future.
Yeah, we've had some goodresults from tagging.
We've put a number ofconventional tags in bluefin
tuna for many years.
The CSIRO and the Commission forConservation of Southern
(25:18):
Bluefin Tuna have done thousandsand thousands of tags which
have been really valuable fortracking movement and things,
but they haven't done very manyin New Zealand.
So it's quite interesting to seewhere the fish from New Zealand
end up.
Tagging shouldn't be in theside of the fish, but you want
it high on the body, probablyback by the second dorsal fin,
(25:40):
and that avoids any damage tothe lateral lines or the you
know, the sensory system or themajor vessels, blood vessels and
it's also more visible.
If a fish comes in on its sideor something, you can see that
it's got that fish has got a tagon, and so if you get a tagged
fish and you want to release it,we'd like you to remove the tag
(26:03):
or cut the part of the tag offwith the number on the end of it
before you release it andobviously report it.
We've had a few bluefin tunarecaptured with tags, but we
haven't had the releaseinformation.
So it's also important to sendthe cards in after you've tagged
the fish either to your club oronto the internet on fishtag
nzconz.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Those catches there back to toby barkler from
whakatane on the club's wintertuna tournament next weekend so
just um, touching on that, onthis tuna tournament, like how
it all come about was we'vealways wanted, like whakatane
was always known as, uh, turnercapital of new zealand, you know
, like with the yellowfin andthings like that, and like I was
(26:43):
sort of a little bit, I was alittle bit young I sort of
missed the peak of the yellowfin.
I think that was sort of late90s, early 2000s sort of.
Then heard all these storiesabout the great tuna tournament
that we've had here in whakataneand you know, thousands of
people in a marquee and Ithought, um, you know it was
after like I'm on the committeeof the fishing club there in
whakatane and me and my matedean were on the committee.
We thought, you know, with thesouthern bluefin you need a few
(27:05):
things for a good tournament,but the the main thing is the
fish, you know, and in themiddle of the winter we have all
these fish just pouring up thecoastline and and I thought that
you know like obviously why howbay is right where it's all
happening, but it's fairly small, you know what I mean.
Like there's Whitehall Bay andTK.
Like um, tikaha, you know,haven't got the hugest fishing
clubs and parking and all thoseissues like that, whereas the
(27:26):
next best place was Whakataneand I thought you know why not
give it a crack.
You know, with the fisher there, with all the facilities, let's
go.
You know the fishermen arepouring up the like Like there
was guys coming from the SouthIsland, north of Auckland, and
if we can get a decent enoughprize pool and some decent rules
, we might be able to just pullthis off.
And sure enough that first yearwe had close to 300 anglers
(27:47):
turn up.
You know we filled the club.
It was bloody awesome, that'sunreal For winter.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Just to let those listening know, like what is a
normal club night in winter forWhakatane.
How many people are in therenormally in?
Speaker 5 (28:01):
winter.
It's always a battle in winter.
You know, like we always sitaround the committee room each
month go, how are they going toget the punters in the door.
You know, and you're thinkingof all these things Like, we
never thought in our wildestdreams that we were going to
just absolutely fool the club.
You know, I remember at theprize giving for that tournament
we were going down to tui partyhire and hiring bar leaners and
(28:26):
we just we just physicallycouldn't fit people in the in
the door.
You know, for this, just in themiddle of winter, on a cold
winter's night, it was prettycool to be a part of.
You know, it was pretty wickedand the fishing.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
That first trip I was down there and it was what
probably four fish that wereweighed for that tournament in
the end, yeah, it was hardfishing, it was really hard
fishing, like it's always.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
It's like you never know when to when to run a
tournament like that.
Like the idea of having it wasfairly early we had it last year
was the 20th of june, I thinkbecause of the weather, like
that's another issue with this.
Um, just a bit of an issue withthe tournament.
And and trying to hold atournament in the middle of the
winter, it's just issue with theweather, especially out on that
remote coast there.
It actually got pushed backthree weeks that tournament.
(29:03):
When we advertised thetournament we had postponement
dates just because of thatweather, you know.
And I said to the guys on thecommittee I said look, the
fishermen are going to turn upregardless.
You know, like as long asthere's two or three days of
flat weather, they're going tobe here.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
So look, you had a successful first year, so this
is the second year for thetournament and it's coming up
soon yeah, that's right.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Yeah, so it's taken a big leap this year.
I think last year, um, theheaviest tuna got five grand and
it's up to 50 this year, soit's taken a hell of a leap this
year.
So, and of course, that'sattracted a whole lot of anglers
and I think it's not far offreaching max capacity.
So it's going to be pretty,pretty cool to see everyone turn
up.
We just got to keep our fingersand toes crossed for this, uh,
(29:45):
for a nice weather window.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
The fish bring in the anglers, but the anglers also
bring in the sponsors, and it'sthe sponsors that make these
kind of things happen, isn't it?
Speaker 5 (29:53):
that's right, mike.
And yeah, just a big shout outto Jason Hubbard.
He's got got Hubbardcontracting and he was behind us
right from the word go, whichwas pretty cool, you know.
Like I went to him last year,you know, three or four months
before the tournament, came upwith a silly idea in the middle
of winter running a tournamentand he just said, yeah, I'm with
you the whole way.
So that was.
It was pretty neat to get hisbacking and he's backed it once
again this year.
(30:14):
So it was bloody awesome.
And when we've got a whole, Ithink everyone I've asked, you
know, like everyone I'veapproached, mike has been right
behind us.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
So it's been bloody awesome last year you guys
included kayika.
Can you tell us a bit aboutthat?
Yeah, that's right, mike.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
Yeah, so with the fish that were coming in and
getting weighed in, we werefilleting the fish for the
anglers.
So if so, there's tuna werecoming in, gill and gutter,
they'd been on ice and then wewere me and dean were down there
with a kaika trailer filletingthese fish, which were in
beautiful condition, would thenvacuum pack them and then if the
anglers didn't want the headsin frame, so we were just
working with a local ewe and andputting it out on the radio
(30:51):
stations and stuff like that,and the community were coming
down and getting these beautifulsouthern bluefin wings and
heads and the frames and all theoff cuts, like there was just
absolutely nothing going towaste, which was bloody awesome,
you know.
So it worked really, reallywell.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Whakatane seems to be looking at fishing comps just a
little bit differently thesedays.
So you've done that, which isso awesome, and I'm 100% behind
you with that, but you also hadlike a kina eating competition
for one comp yeah, we did,that's right.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Yeah, we had the kaiika tournament, which is
really cool.
So, like I'm a pretty mad keendiver as well.
So, um, we had a, we had a packhorse crayfish section and a
red crayfish section, but forsomething different, we had the
um top 10 heaviest kitters and Ithink we had something like 400
kitters come across the weighstation, yeah, which is pretty
cool.
So these guys are going out andpicking the biggest 10 kitters.
(31:41):
So, um, I think the biggest 10,uh, come from white island.
But it was amazing just a bitof information there around
kitters, uh, the shells at whiteisland was smaller but they
were a lot thicker.
So they, you know, you hadthese big kitters come from the
rows and, like our closeownersers, had these bigger
bodies but they had a lotthinner shells.
(32:02):
But the ones at White Islandwere smaller but had super thick
shells.
So whether or not the sulfur oranything like that's got
something to do with it, I don'tknow, but yeah, it was an
interesting tournament and itwas really really popular with
the community.
(32:24):
So looking forward for that onenext year or this, your
president hayden johnson told mesomething like 100 new members
came out of that tournament.
Just by doing something a bitdifferent.
The club got 100 new members.
Yeah, yeah, just created thiswhole new group and I, um,
organized a kind of eatingcompetition which we um, we
advertised over the radio andthe entrance came in, obviously,
because then all these come infrom the way station, and then
we had a kind of eatingcompetition, you know.
So we had these people thatweren't even into fishing at all
really, you know what I meanand they would.
They turned up for a kind ofeating cup.
Oh, the fishing club, this iscool, and how do we sign up here
(32:47):
and things like that.
So that was pretty wicked and Ithink, what chip shot.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
So, um, that was bloody awesome, yeah and that
concludes episode four of thenzsfc pod and real podcast.
Further details of topicsmentioned in this podcast are
available in the show notes.
We're seeking your feedback onthis podcast.
(33:15):
We'd like to know what fishingtopics you'd like us to explore.
You can send us a messagethrough the show notes.
The best way to support us isto subscribe to the podcast.
That way, you'll never miss anew episode.
Nzssc is an incorporatedsociety run by volunteers to
represent fishing clubs andtheir members.
(33:36):
Thank you, thank you.
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