Originally Posted by
iceman
I think it is very difficult to say if there will be a long term impact from this debacle, although it is quite possible that a more negative sentiment towards the practice of using foreign crew may develop, even within Government.
I do note that these vessels have historically been used to catch significant amounts of lower value species such as mackerel that Kiwi boats have not targeted to any large degree due to poor economics. But they also catch species like hoki and squid.
All of these vessels are NZ flagged, after a law change some years ago but obviously you will not get Kiwis on these boats when the likes of Sealords advertise for crew with an ability to speak Russian !! But because they are NZ flagged, NZ laws, including employment law, applies to them and that includes minimum wages. So the Russian fishermen are not "slave labour" by any stretch of the imagination.
It should be noted that Sanford has NZ crew on their own vessels (not sure if they still charter a Korean vessel with Korean crew) and Talley's always crew all of their vessels with NZ crew. Sealord has a couple of these Russians, Independent Fisheries 3 I think and Maruha also uses only foreign crew (like Independent). Sadly Sealord also has a significant part of the crew foreign, on their new and flash vessel Tokatu. This is due to the fact that it is near on impossible to get keen, reliable young Kiwis to work in the sector. They don't want to go away for many weekends and they don't want to be subjected to random drug tests.
People often say that is due to low earnings but I don't agree. An unqualified 18 yo hard worker can go out on the factory trawlers (5 weeks trips) and work for 6 months of the year starting at $40-50k. No food or accommodation costs for those 6 months. If they work hard, the companies will pay for them to go to various courses and I know of a boy here in Nelson that had his full Qualified Fishing Deckhand after 3 years and earning $70k p.a. for 6 months work. Another became a factory manager after 5 years on around $120k. So there are opportunities for people to do well in the industry but people are not available. There is a crewing crisis in the industry.
Sadly, until we change the attitudes and get young people interested in hard physical work again, foreign crewed vessels will always be part of the industry.