Almost all of the extra heat that humans have captured by adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere over the last few centuries has wound up warming the deep oceans. We’re now starting to feel the effects of that excess heat.
The Nats are happy for the fishing industry to effectively self-monitor, despite the fact that this has already been shown to be massively ineffective. In other news: John Key questioned on National’s closeness to fishing industry.
“The findings also reveal how the Quota Management System, despite its intentions and international reputation, actually undermines sustainable fisheries management by inadvertently incentivising misreporting and dumping,” University of Auckland’s Dr Glenn Simmons said.
The $25 million deal prompted considerable curiosity because it involved an off-market purchase of shares from Sanford’s second biggest shareholder, Avalon Investment Trust, which is run by the family of Peter Goodfellow.
It’s great that foreign fishing vessels in New Zealand waters will now be required to be flagged here and, in theory, will be subject to New Zealand law. But I reckon that abuses of those crews is only half the problem. The other problem is that we have Kiwi quota owners, in particular iwi, employing foreign fishers while quarter of a million of our people are jobless.
The government has correctly bowed to pressure and banned foreign-flagged fishing boats from operating in our waters.
We don’t have too many posts praising this government, and to have 2 today may surprise some. But credit where it’s due.
Labour’s fisheries policy will phase-in a requirement for fishing vessels to be at least 50% Kiwi-crewed and at least 50% of processing would have to occur here. Good start. It’s our fish – it should be harvested sustainably to create Kiwi jobs with fair pay and adequate conditions. The shame of slave fishing has to be ended.
You won’t find much praise for Talley’s on this site. But, fair dues, they harvest their fish with Kiwi crews and have this to say on slave fishing: “If it is uneconomic to harvest a New Zealand resource under New Zealand labour conditions and costs then it is not a resource. Blood diamonds and Asian textile sweatshops use the same justification”
“We need more cheap foreign fishermen” says the slave fishing lobby group. They say that it’s just like Fisher & Paykel moving their production offshore for cheaper labour. Well, tell you want, slave-fishers, how about you fuck off to China and we’ll stay here and fish our fish ourselves without breaking labour and environment laws? NoRightTurn takes up the story.
Remember when New Zealand used to lead the world on the environment? Yeah, well not under the Key Government. Now, New Zealand is preparing to veto making the Ross Sea a marine protected area. Why are we alone in blocking this last pristine sea from protection? For the sake of a $18m fishery, probably fished by slave ships.
Next week, a report will reveal the abuse of 2,500 foreign workers used as virtual slaves on ships employed by kiwi fishing quota holders in our waters. By rights, we should have a world renowned fishing fleet. Instead, we let our potential go to waste and employ foreign slaveowners and human traffickers to do the work instead.
Every night before they go to sleep, good little Labour and Green spin doctors pray for another headline involving Gerry Brownlee. The guy has an amazing tin ear for public opinion. He’s had 50,000 people march against his mining plans and, now, he’s made a Treaty breach over the one area of foreshore and seabed that was settled. Gerry, you’re a godsend.
Maersk, the world’s largest shipping line, has announced it will no longer transport unsustainably harvested fish. New Zealand orange roughy is on the ban list. Good on Maersk. It’s not often you see a major corporate using its market power for good, putting the long-term future ahead of short-term profits. A wake up call for the government and the fishing industry.
In a move that can only be described as the fox guarding the hen house, the fishing industry has released plans for self-regulation entitled ‘Managing Our Own Ship’. National would be making a huge mistake to hand over more power to the fishing industry and in the end it would be the people who would have to deal with the consequences.
Despite making sound profits Sealord are laying off 180 workers in Nelson. They claim the move is part of restructuring and that there […]
