Mahia Peninsula project aims to improve VHF, cellphone coverage in area after tragic fishing deaths

Mahia Peninsula has a communication blackspot for boaties where there is no cellphone or VHF radio coverage. Photo / Michaela Gower

By Alexa Cook of RNZ

It’s hoped a new project to improve VHF radio coverage and cellphone service on Mahia Peninsula can prevent tragedies at sea, after the deaths of three Gisborne fishermen in the area.

The bodies of Elwood Higgins, Taina Sinoti and Damien Macpherson were found along the eastern Mahia Peninsula coastline in June, after they had gone missing in an area of ocean with notoriously bad communications.

Gisborne Tatapouri Sport Fishing Club president Roger Faber was out fishing with the three men on that tragic day and told RNZ that a communication “blackspot” off Mahia Peninsula was a big factor because it was not until his boat got back to the marina that he discovered the three men were not there.

“There was a delay unfortunately in sounding the alarm and getting the coastguard and helicopters into action because we all thought they may have been in that marginal area,” Faber said.

“If we had had cellphone coverage and VHF coverage down there at that time, and we couldn’t get them on either of those, then we would have immediately said ‘hey, something is definitely wrong here and we need to do something’.”

Faber said that communication blackspot was what cost the fishermen their lives.

“Definitely yes, we would have alerted the alarm a lot earlier,” he said.

Which weighs heavily on Faber’s mind.

“That was the worst part of the whole thing is we were definitely last to see them and could we have done more? Should we have done more? The conditions weren’t good,” he said.

And Faber has talked about the project with the families of the three men who died.

“They are rapt with anything that is positive that comes out of it... just great to hear there are some positives that will hopefully prevent this happening again,” he said.

To ensure it does not, a group of local fishing clubs and iwi, the Sport Fishing Council, LegaSea and Rocket Lab have all banded together to improve communications.

They want to install a cell tower, which costs about $1.5 million, and a VHF radio coverage extender on Mahia Peninsula, and are urging the Government to help by using its Regional Infrastructure Fund.

“To prevent anything like this happening again, we really need input from the Government in terms of building better infrastructure out there for communications so we don’t see people on the water dying like they have been,” Chris Scott from LegaSea said.

“We want to ensure there are safer fishing measures out there for recreational fishers and commercial fishers as well, it’s quite a commercial hotspot – we want less tragedies on the water,” he said.

Mike Plant from the Sport Fishing Council is leading the project and feels hopeful the Government will back it.

“If we can extend the VHF coverage with a high point being based on Rocket Lab’s land, well that benefits all users including people on land as well as at sea,” Plant said.

“That’s where local iwi is interested as well – but it’s for anyone in that area to have better communications. We’d love this to spark off other areas around New Zealand that have these same concerns and issues,” he said.

It is a concern Rocket Lab shares too; Morgan Connaughton said its team was keen to get the project off the ground.

“We’ve been involved in a few search and rescue efforts out there on the Mahia Peninsula where we are able to use our communication systems and cameras to help search for people, but that’s only one effort and we’re not designed to be supporting those efforts.

“So we’re putting our support behind LegaSea and the team there who are calling for better comms out on the peninsula,” she said.

The group has requested a meeting with Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith to discuss the urgent need to improve VHF and cellphone coverage for the Mahia Peninsula.

The minister told RNZ he was aware of the matter and was seeking further advice.

– RNZ