‘You’ve just got to carry on’: Fishers off the water since October

Usually out on the water daily in his boat Tennessee Whisky for 10 months of the year, Mr Ellison is now only out there once a week — voluntarily catching the crays required for crucial biotoxin testing by the Cawthron Institute in Wellington. Commercial fishers have been grounded until toxicity levels in the crays reduce. Picture supplied

This season has been a tough one for Eastern North Island (CRA3) fishers.

Bad weather, lower than average catch numbers and declining cray population generally, lower than average port prices, and now - in the middle of it all – a toxic algal bloom, have kept Māhia fisherman Selwyn Ellison and his counterparts off the water since October.

Mr Ellison says there’s no way he can expect to meet his usual average yearly catch rate of about 16 tonnes – nearly all of which would normally be exported to China.

He has been fishing for 24 years, his father for 30 years ahead of him. And while there’s been about four or five other algal blooms that have halted fishing in the past, this is the worst New Zealand’s ever experienced.

As a sole operator for the past two years, Mr Ellison is used to spending about 12 hours daily with his 6.5-metre boat Tennessee Whisky.

When they are not on the water, he’s washing the vessel down, organising the safe transport of his catch and attending to his fishing equipment.

Not being able to do the job he loves and seeing money constantly leaving his bank account with nothing coming in has been “a bit tough”, he says.

“But you’ve just got to carry on.”

Luckily, he also drives an excavator so hasn’t been completely without work.

And he’s been going out voluntarily each week catching the crayfish samples needed to be sent to the Cawthron Institute for crucial testing of biotoxin levels.

With parts of Hawke’s Bay recently testing low enough for fishing to resume there, he’s hopeful toxicity levels will reduce soon in Māhia and Gisborne.

Testing has shown toxicity levels in mussels and pipi — the staple food of crayfish — have recently started to drop.

Visible in aerial photos, this current algal bloom was created by a “perfect storm” of conditions, Mr Ellison said.

There’s been plenty of food in the water for the bioplankton that makes up the bloom, the sea temperature has been a degree cooler than usual and there’s been no strong stormy weather to break the bloom up.

Two cyclones that were destined to head this way, were instead pushed off to Australia by high pressure over the Tasman Sea.

Mr Ellison says he feels for other crayfishers who are also finding it tough and desperate to get back to work. Some of them also have staff to worry about.

“You have to wonder how they’re getting on mentally. It’s been a hell year,” Mr Ellison says.

Then there’s the knock-on effect for the region generally.

For instance, he would normally buy about 10,000 litres of petrol per season through his local garage but it now also misses out on trade associated with fishing.

Income that would normally be spent in Wairoa and Gisborne isn’t there so the local economy is suffering as well.

Because it is prone to various seasonal volatilities, not just events like this, the industry has its own organised support group for affected fishers.