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Dumping of Fire Damaged Trawler off Dunedin


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I'm sure this story will be of interest to a few around here.

Dodgy Korean fishing trawler (NZ Flagged) caught fire at Timaru. Loads of fire suppressant still on it (I assume that POAA foam that has been contaminating water aquifers around the country, but its not stated). Owners want to sink it off the Otago coast, cause any proper disposal will cost too much. That is what they said in their consent application to the EPA. Consent has been granted. ECAN are kicking up, but have no legal power, cause you guessed it, its more than 12 nm off shore...

An independent surveyor states that the asbestos is the least of your worries...

''It is our concern that the disposal of the vessel is being driven more by convenience and cost, than delivering preferred environmental outcomes,'' he wrote.

ECan declined to comment, stating ''the letter is clear on our position''.

The EPA decision noted it wasn't possible to reuse, recycle or treat the vessel's waste without more than adverse effect on human heath or the environment ''or without imposing costs on the applicant that are unreasonable in the circumstances''.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/121451741/what-lies-beneath-the-murky-plan-to-dump-a-firedamaged-fishing-trawler

There has been some real murkiness around these types of fishing companies for a long time. I believe they are fishing Iwi quota, for Iwi that aren't big enough to get their own boats and employee their own whanau (Like Ngai Tahu / SeaLord), but just want some easy money. There was a series of articles a year or two back, about how these boats are effectively slave ships.

I'm just going to come right out and say it, given the current circumstances with the rona, I think this type of employment and resource exploitation should be for NZ citizens only (NZ citizens of all ethnic backgrounds). These shell NZ companies with foreign ownership need to get the heave-ho. Even iconic NZ companies like Lion (the brewer) is foreign owned, to the extent it needs Overseas Investment Office approval to carry out basic operational capital investment decisions.

This is inline with my ranting about NZ Corporates like Torpedo 7, and how we should be supporting the small guys and owner operators. Not to mention the environmental impacts of scuttling a ship, but the whole ethical basis from start to finish of these foreign owned NZ flagged fishing operations.

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1 hour ago, Fish said:

I'm sure this story will be of interest to a few around here.

Dodgy Korean fishing trawler (NZ Flagged) caught fire at Timaru. Loads of fire suppressant still on it (I assume that POAA foam that has been contaminating water aquifers around the country, but its not stated). Owners want to sink it off the Otago coast, cause any proper disposal will cost too much. That is what they said in their consent application to the EPA. Consent has been granted. ECAN are kicking up, but have no legal power, cause you guessed it, its more than 12 nm off shore...

An independent surveyor states that the asbestos is the least of your worries...

''It is our concern that the disposal of the vessel is being driven more by convenience and cost, than delivering preferred environmental outcomes,'' he wrote.

ECan declined to comment, stating ''the letter is clear on our position''.

The EPA decision noted it wasn't possible to reuse, recycle or treat the vessel's waste without more than adverse effect on human heath or the environment ''or without imposing costs on the applicant that are unreasonable in the circumstances''.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/121451741/what-lies-beneath-the-murky-plan-to-dump-a-firedamaged-fishing-trawler

There has been some real murkiness around these types of fishing companies for a long time. I believe they are fishing Iwi quota, for Iwi that aren't big enough to get their own boats and employee their own whanau (Like Ngai Tahu / SeaLord), but just want some easy money. There was a series of articles a year or two back, about how these boats are effectively slave ships.

I'm just going to come right out and say it, given the current circumstances with the rona, I think this type of employment and resource exploitation should be for NZ citizens only (NZ citizens of all ethnic backgrounds). These shell NZ companies with foreign ownership need to get the heave-ho. Even iconic NZ companies like Lion (the brewer) is foreign owned, to the extent it needs Overseas Investment Office approval to carry out basic operational capital investment decisions.

This is inline with my ranting about NZ Corporates like Torpedo 7, and how we should be supporting the small guys and owner operators. Not to mention the environmental impacts of scuttling a ship, but the whole ethical basis from start to finish of these foreign owned NZ flagged fishing operations.

you might want to correct the spelling of the discussion heading 😃

By the way you are aware Sealord is ~half owned by the Japanese. I assume Moana holds the quota.

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Thanks for the typo head up, fixed.

On Sealord & the Japanese, no, I'm not entirely aware. I'm not actually aware of a large NZ corporation that is wholly owned by NZ interests anymore, other than Fonterra (who we really enjoy bagging 90% of the time). Could almost say Fletchers, but being listed on the stock exchange, its not really possible to know who owns it.

The salient point with Sealord is they own their own boats, and as far as I'm aware, employ NZ crew who actually live in NZ and spend their money here etc.

The whole foreign investment thing gets complicated quickly. We want to sell Dairy to China, so in an open market policy, they want to buy our land and resources in return. Its like the quid pro quo thing.

The underlying point is who gets to benefit from the exploitation of our resources. I've no problem with mining and commercial fishing, if their benefits come back to NZ and NZ communities. There is little point in suffering the environmental costs if all the benefit goes elsewhere. I would far prefer to see commercial fishing over the older fashioned owner operator with 2 or 3 crew type operation, but I'm probably dreaming of some utopian land that isn't realistic anymore.

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I think you will be fighting vested interests, paid-off politicians (ref National's connection with commercial fishing), and profit-before-anything-else logic.

But I agree that such a potentially high-value resource should be utilised by and for the people that claim ownership - i.e. Kiwis.

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39 minutes ago, Dtwo said:

I think you will be fighting vested interests, paid-off politicians (ref National's connection with commercial fishing), and profit-before-anything-else logic.

don't forget the fishing industry's other very good "friend", Winston Peters

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Well, what was that job Shane Jones had before he joined NZ First?

I'd say NZ First have much stronger connections / back handers to the fishing industry than National, but its like a moot point. Its all back handers, vested interests etc. It is already an issue I have in mind when thinking about who I will support in the next election. Apologies for the political drift.

Back to the original problem, its like they are going to dump a toxic wreck in our waters, cause doing anything with it properly is in the too hard basket. Not impresed.

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Sealord is 50% Japanese and 50% Maori through Aotearoa fisheries/Moana and yes they do engage foreign crews and vessels. Aotearoa are Ngapuhi  based and received their rights from a waitangi tribunal win back 2011

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2 hours ago, Rehabilitated said:

Can the post get any longer. Did not bother reading it after ,60 sec and saw the stuff hyperlink.

Yet you thought it was worth replying to? This post was pointless. Deleted.

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4 hours ago, Fish said:

Back to the original problem, its like they are going to dump a toxic wreck in our waters, cause doing anything with it properly is in the too hard basket. Not impresed.

I wonder where Maritime NZ fit into this and their regulatory role to ensure NZ complies with its MARPOL obligations? Certainly agree this is not the correct way to dispose of it, if it cannot be broken up here then should be compelled to go to a breakers, altho the likely outcome in that case would be an "accident" during the tow which would see it sink.

The ruling from the EPA is very "unusual", normally they never have a concern for the likely cost to an applicant. I wonder who had chartered the trawler and what if any insurance coverage there was on it.

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9 minutes ago, marinheiro said:

I wonder where Maritime NZ fit into this and their regulatory role to ensure NZ complies with its MARPOL obligations? Certainly agree this is not the correct way to dispose of it, if it cannot be broken up here then should be compelled to go to a breakers, altho the likely outcome in that case would be an "accident" during the tow which would see it sink.

The ruling from the EPA is very "unusual", normally they never have a concern for the likely cost to an applicant. I wonder who had chartered the trawler and what if any insurance coverage there was on it.

They are in a 50/50 partnership with "Sanfords"

http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/9919782/Korean-fishing-crews-underpaid

Dongwon 519, 530 and 701 and the Juham Industries vessel Pacinui. Dongwon is a 50-50 partner with Sanford in a fish-processing operation.

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