Skipper responsible for checking fishing permits, Amaltal says
Thursday, 17 September 2020
Fishing company Amaltal says its skippers are responsible for ensuring they check the details of high seas fishing permits, including their co-ordinates when fishing offshore.
Amaltal, the deepwater division of Talley's Group, and skipper Charles Shuttleworth are on trial in the Nelson District Court for allegedly trawling in an area closed to fishing in the Lord Howe Rise, in the Tasman Sea.
The Amaltal Apollo left Nelson in May 2018, on a trip to fish for orange roughy and alfonsino. During the trip, there was confusion over the area the vessel was fishing in. There were discrepancies between the information supplied by the Fisheries NZ observer services unit, that in the high seas fishing permit on board and what was available on the vessel’s sea plotter.
In an interview played to the court on Thursday, Talley's operations manager Andy Smith told Ministry for Primary Industries fisheries officer Craig Richardson it was the responsibility of a skipper to check the co-ordinates in the high seas fishing permit and plot them on the vessel's navigation system.
**READ MORE:
* Fishing company and skipper on trial for alleged unlawful trawling in Tasman Sea
* Amaltal skipper fined $15,525 for fishing in marine reserve
* Concerns over secret fisheries donations to NZ First Foundation
**
A pre-trip briefing was held in Smith’s office with Shuttleworth, vessel manager Hamish Tijsen and long-time Amaltal Apollo skipper Guy Duggan.
Smith said the purpose of the meeting was to ensure Shuttleworth as the skipper understood the South Pacific Regional Fishing Management Organisation (SPRFMO) rules and the conditions of the high seas fishing permit.
“What we explained to Charlie was quite clear in my view, the plots on the boat, to me, tell you where you can and can't be.
“Put bluntly, he did not follow the bloody instructions.”
Smith, a highly experienced fisherman, is the current chair of the New Zealand High Seas Group, which represents almost all New Zealand fishing companies that operate in the high seas.
In 2015, changes were made by SPRFMO in the Lord Howe Rise with an area previously open for fishing being closed and another that was closed being opened.
Smith said he was aware of the changes to the fishing areas as he negotiated with SPRFMO to have them changed.
High seas fishing permits typically showed areas open to fishing in green, areas with a move-on rule in yellow, and areas closed to fishing in red.
Smith said the skipper of the vessel was responsible for updating the sea plotter with the new information but skippers had different ways of recording that information which was their preference.
He said Shuttleworth had been reminded to check the co-ordinates of his high seas fishing permit with what was in the sea plotter on an earlier trip in March 2018 to the Westpac Bank, near the Challenger Plateau.
In another interview with Richardson that was played to the court, Tijsen reinforced that the pre-departure briefing was to ensure Shuttleworth was familiar with the high seas fishing permit but said he had not gone through it with him.
Under cross-examination by Amaltal’s lawyer, Jonathan Eaton QC, Richardson was asked about vessels previously being able to midwater trawl in closed areas.
“Am I right that in 2015, for the purpose of the high seas fishing permit, the term bottom trawling was redefined to expressly include midwater trawling?”
Richardson said it was and that was why the SPRFMO fishing areas in the Lord Howe Rise changed.
“That was effectively the deal that was struck to keep it commercially realistic for New Zealand operators.
“What that meant was in 2015 when you saw red boxes, New Zealand vessels were still midwater trawling legally within them.”
At the end of the prosecution case on Thursday afternoon, lawyer Tony Stallard made an application for the charges against Shuttleworth to be dismissed, citing the defence of an officially induced error.
The application will be heard before Judge David Ruth on Friday.