May 31, 2016
Independent eyes on fisheries
Maori-owned Aotearoa Fisheries is rejecting Greenpeace claims that a new system to monitor fishing boats is flawed because it's industry-owned.
Chief executive Carl Carrington says the industry voluntarily spends a million dollars a year monitoring the sensitive Hauraki Gulf snapper fishery, to give the public confidence that what it says is happening on the water is what is really happening.
It pushed the government to back on-board cameras on all commercial vessels in the New Zealand fishery.
He says the company developing the cameras and associated data collection technology is operated by independent researchers and scientists.
All the data from the sealed, tamper-proof cameras is passed directly to the Ministry for Primary industries.
"So the fact that it's the fishing industry investing in this technology, that's what you would expect from a good quota management system, that those who have the most invested in the industry, quota owners and fishers, they would be logically most interested in making sure we understand what is going on in the water because sustainability is vital to our business," Mr Carrington says.
Aotearoa Fisheries has a zero tolerance policy to breachers of the quota management system, and it will dump any of its fishers convicted of practices like fish dumping.
FULL INTERVIEW: CARL CARRINGTON
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com