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Speaker 1: Now the fishing industry is welcoming a proposed major shakeup

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Speaker 1: of the Fisheries Act. It would see a loosening of

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Speaker 1: catch regulations and restrict who can access camera footage from

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Speaker 1: fishing boats, meaning only MPI and the courts would have

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Speaker 1: access to the footage. Keith Morson as a fisherman and

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Speaker 1: owner of Eggmont Seafoods in New Plymouth, and he joins me, now,

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Speaker 1: thank you for your time, Keith, Good morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Francesca Hey, is this a win for you? Look,

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Speaker 2: this has been in the something that the industry has

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Speaker 2: been wanting to get addressed for a long period of time.

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Speaker 2: You know, they're quite a management system has been in

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Speaker 2: force now for nearly forty years, but we've had a

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Speaker 2: real change in technology on our vessels, the amount of

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Speaker 2: transparency that we have, and you know, there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of technology that the fishermen are dealing with these days.

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Speaker 2: So the regulations of the Fisheries Act needs to take

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Speaker 2: into account the changes that we've had within the industry.

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Speaker 2: So you know, the changes that are being recommended or

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Speaker 2: that are being addressed in this discussion paper are certainly

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Speaker 2: things that we've been having to deal with for a long.

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Speaker 1: Period of time, Keith, the catching regulations are they holding

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Speaker 1: you back?

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Speaker 2: Look, it's really complex. The catching regulations that we're having

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Speaker 2: to deal with on a day to day basis make

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Speaker 2: it really difficult for the guys on the water and

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Speaker 2: also for the land based operators as well. So I

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Speaker 2: think this will simplify and make it easier for both

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Speaker 2: the harvesters on the water and the operators on land

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Speaker 2: to be able to get on and do their business.

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Speaker 1: What do you think about anyone being able to access

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Speaker 1: footage from boats?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I know that people want and there's certainly

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Speaker 2: been some bad press around the fresh fishing industry for

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Speaker 2: a long period of time, but we're in a really

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Speaker 2: heavily regulated environment and it's very transparent what we do

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Speaker 2: on a day to day basis. A lot of these

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Speaker 2: fishermen are out on the water for three, four or

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Speaker 2: five days at a time, living on those vessels. To

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Speaker 2: have footage of those operations available to the general public,

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Speaker 2: you know, I just don't think that that should necessarily,

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Speaker 2: you know, just just be as visible as people would

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Speaker 2: like it to be. You know, the regulators certainly have

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Speaker 2: access to that information and they can see what fishermen

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Speaker 2: are doing, where they're doing it, how they're doing it,

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Speaker 2: and I just don't know that that's something that should

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Speaker 2: be available to the general public. It could be taken

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Speaker 2: out of context if they clip or take certain parts

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Speaker 2: of a fishing activity, and we've seen that play out

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Speaker 2: in the past sometimes with NGOs. So no, I don't

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Speaker 2: think that footage that our fishermen are supplying is necessarily

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Speaker 2: something that should be in the public. Tonay, Okay, Can

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Speaker 2: I just go.

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Speaker 1: Back to catching regulations for a moment. Loosening the catch regulations?

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Speaker 1: Would that be quite area specific?

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Speaker 2: Look, it's like I said, it's really complex. For example,

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Speaker 2: you have some fish species that have got minimum legal

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Speaker 2: sizes snapper, tero key. You've got other species that haven't

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Speaker 2: got minimum legal sizes. So if you have a small snapper,

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Speaker 2: you can return that to the sea legally. If you

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Speaker 2: have a small gernerd, you're required to bring that back in.

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Speaker 2: So it's not necessarily a loosening of the regulations. It's

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Speaker 2: just providing the ability for the fishermen to make some

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Speaker 2: decisions around what species they should be bringing.

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Speaker 3: In from an economic point of view. But whilst they

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Speaker 3: are harvesting, they're still going to be recording all of

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Speaker 3: their cats against quota, so there's not going to be

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Speaker 3: a sustainability issue. It's just about simplifying their ability to

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Speaker 3: operate and return tists to the sea. If it has

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Speaker 3: no real economic value, there's no sense in bringing in

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Speaker 3: small gerner that's just going to end up in landfill.

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Speaker 3: It's father off to be returned to the sea and

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Speaker 3: go back in the food chain.

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Speaker 1: Okay, thank you very much for your time in talking

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Speaker 1: us through that. That was Keith Morson. He's a fisherman

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Speaker 1: and owner of Egorant Seafoods in New Plymouth. For more

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Speaker 1: from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks.

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Speaker 1: It'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio