Industry in lockdown mode

The commercial fishing industry, along with other primary industries, has been deemed an essential business by the Government during the COVID-19 pandemic so it can continue to supply seafood to New Zealanders and the export market.

This is a challenging new world. Adhering to the physical distancing requirements has called for innovative solutions in vessels and factories, although in some cases, mostly small inshore vessels, it has not been possible.

In factories, production has been reduced to separate workers, and other measures such as shields and rotating shifts to keep numbers of workers to a minimum have been deployed. On vessels, the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has been rolled out.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) are carefully checking businesses compliance with the requirements, to ensure their staff – and the families they go home to – remain protected from the transmission of COVID-19. Hundreds of inspectors are visiting primary industry sites to check everything from physical distancing measures, the use of PPE and personal hygiene, and transport measures to get to and from the office, factory or vessel.

While factories traditionally maintain a very high hygiene standard, it is heartening that MPI are pleased with the industry’s quick adaptation to the new requirements.

Fish retailers are not considered essential under alert level 4 and the public must buy their seafood at a supermarket or order fish online.

Some companies already offered online ordering and have adapted that to meet the strict new guidelines of no contact delivery.

While supply of deepsea species will remain largely uninterrupted some inshore species may reduce, in line with the reduction in the inshore fleet.