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Lee Fish takes a hands-on approach to making sure its staff understand the company’s commitment to being ‘seabird smart’ when fishing – as well as practical training, it regularly sends them off to Aotea Great Barrier to spend a night monitoring black petrels.
The most recent visitors from Leigh to scale Mount Hirakimata were operations manager Chase Hann and business manager for compliance and processing Jake Dikstaal, who helped seabird ecologist Biz Bell find and check black petrels as part of a population study that’s been running for more than 20 years.
Factory manager Tom Searle said Lee Fish had always worked with environmental groups and strived to keep seabirds safe when fishing from its long-line fleet.
“Over the years, we’ve built up a lot of trust and we’re always looking to do better,” he said. “Part of this is having our people involved in caring for the environment we live and work in, so we encourage our guys to get over there, spend the night up Mount Hirakimata and get hands on with the black petrels.”
The birds only nest and fledge on Hauturu Little Barrier and Aotea Great Barrier Islands in New Zealand, before spending several years off the coast of Peru and then returning to NZ later in life to breed.
“We can only look after them for part of their life, but the industry has funded radio trackers and there are lots of good initiatives to help keep them and other seabirds safe, and keep bird by-catch to a minimum.”
