Foreign charter fishing under the lens

A Nelson-based documentary film-maker says foreign charter fishing vessels catching New Zealand quota have cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars and hurt the inshore fishing industry.

Guye Henderson, a Bafta-nominated editor who has helped produce documentaries for the BBC, the ABC in Australia and PBS in the United States, has spent more than a year looking at the impact of foreign fishing vessels on the New Zealand fishing industry.

He has spoken to industry insiders and independent fishermen to help him paint a picture of the industry, and says he is disgusted by what he has found and the impact it has had on the country and those trying to earn a living.

His documentary, The Great New Zealand Fishing Scandal, is to air on the Discovery Channel early next month.

Mr Henderson said that while New Zealand's commercial fish resources can be caught only by New Zealanders, quota owners can hire anyone to catch it on their behalf.

Some of the large fishing companies, including Nelson-based Sealord, have hired Russian, Korean or Polish boats to catch their quota, saving them millions of dollars in pay and conditions and fish-processing costs, he said.

Mr Henderson said crew costs were $4.2 million a year on a New Zealand vessel and only US$500,000 (NZ$797,000) on a foreign vessel.

The impact of having foreign vessels has cost the country millions in wages, taxes and ACC payments.

"After 1996, if the foreign vessels that were operating in New Zealand waters were New Zealand boats with New Zealand crews, and also taking into consideration the quality of the end product that was being caught, conservatively I've figured out that the New Zealand economy has missed out on hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of revenue," Mr Henderson said.

Foreign vessels had also hurt inshore fishermen nationwide.

Mr Henderson said that for three months of the year, seven Russian fishing vessels trawl for jack mackerel between Farewell Spit and Manakau Harbour.

"They [local fishermen] just notice that when the Russian boats are going past in those three months, there is not the fish there usually is and they are suffering from it quite substantially."

Maori were also missing out on profiting from the resource.

"I talked to a couple of Maori fishermen, one in particular who was quite outraged by the fact that they've been given, through the Treaty of Waitangi settlement, this asset, and they're [fishing companies] not developing a vibrant Maori industry." Mr Henderson spent time on fishing boats to get a grip on life at sea.

Sealord declined an invitation from The Nelson Mail to comment about foreign charter fishing.

The Great New Zealand Fishing Scandal screens on the Documentary Channel (Sky Digital 74) on August 4 at 7.30pm.

- © Fairfax NZ News