Rena's grounding hits fishermen

The livelihoods of 35 commercial fishers working out of Tauranga have taken a huge hit since the Ministry of Fisheries imposed an exclusion zone after the grounding of the Rena.

Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley was in Tauranga yesterday talking to fishers and hearing first-hand about the impact on the industry.

The grounding has affected 25 jobs from 10 boats catching fin fish and 10 jobs from the three quota crayfishing companies.

Mr Heatley said the Western Bay's exclusion zone was imposed to reassure the domestic and export market that no tainted fish were coming from the area affected by the oil slicks. It was also for safety reasons to protect boats from containers.

He said shellfish, kina, crayfish and fish caught within the zone could not be sold. He said the ministry was working closely with the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce to get a good picture of how the industry was being affected.

Any future Government recovery package would also look at the effect on other marine businesses such as charter boat operators, dive shops and surf schools.

Mr Heatley said it was fortunate that the disaster happened before the fishing season picked up over the summer months from next month.

Once the issues with the oil had been solved and the clean-up finished, they would go through testing species by species to see how the fish had been affected. Fin fish tended to swim away from oil pollution, leaving shellfish and crayfish as the most affected.

The impact of the exclusion zone on crayfishing ranged from 80 per cent to 33 per cent of each company's quota. Mr Heatley said a significant number of commercial crayfish were caught on Astrolabe Reef - the reef on which the Rena grounded. Crayfishing was the most affected because it was the most valuable.

He did not yet know the economic impact but said he was now a lot clearer on what fishers required. The exclusion zone extends from Tauranga to Matata and is centred on Motiti Island.