('COUNTRY CALENDAR' THEME) - (WHISTLES) - Always a favourite on every rural road... (DOG BARKS) - He's the FirstMate helping the country's fishermen smooth out life on the waves. - That's the difference between, you know, survival and doom. It's new regulation, it's cameras, the cost of running your business with diesel prices skyrocketing If one person listens and gets help, that's a massive win for me. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024. (TRANQUIL MUSIC) - It's late summer, and the Coromandel town of Whitianga is still in holiday mode. - Fishing's family. Fishing is a way of life. It provides, it gives, it takes. How's it, boys? (CHUCKLES) - Fisher Zak Olsen has travelled from Whangarei to start his working week. - Ice in 30 minutes, eh, boys? Then we're out of here. (TRANQUIL MUSIC CONTINUES) - There's no two days the same. Fishing's primal, it's providing, it's hunter-gatherer. It's give me a whole lot of value on my life. We're heading out of Whitianga today. We're gonna try out some new grounds. Fishing's been a little bit tough down here lately, so we're hoping to find some good fish and try a shot that we've done historically well on. That's the hope. That's the plan. - As skipper, Zak's at the helm of the Southern Cross, a commercial fishing boat based in Whitianga, the home port of the Clow family's fleet. - I've been fishing with the Clows now for eight or nine years, and I love it. They enable me to do what I love. They're really supportive. This boat has seen some days. It's caught some fish, but it's got a special place in my heart. It's tattooed on my hand. I love it. Still got a little bit of mark here on the bottom. No real idea of what it is until we shoot it, but it's definitely worth a look at tomorrow. Fishing's been pretty tough, so we'll probably have a look at it. It's nice to get a feed on tomorrow. It's fishing ` it's always a gamble. - The weather is settled, and the calm conditions look set to continue. It could turn out to be a lucrative time on the water for Zak and his crew. - There's about 50 hooks on each card and just alternating squid and pilchard every hook there and don't need very big baits. Little ones seem to catch quite good fish. - Jethro Fyfe lives in the Far North and commutes to Whitianga to join the boat. He works seven days on, then has a week off. - I've been on here for about three years now; but fishing all up, nine years or so. Definitely love it. It's not really a job; it's more of a lifestyle. Just the freedom of it, really, and being out here away from everybody, but still being able to work hard and sweat all day long. (LAUGHS) Gotta get them up and under the backbone so they hold on. - The faster we get the baits on the hooks, a bit more downtime we get, the faster we go to bed. - Yeah, sleep is the goal. - A former tradesman, Mark Rowlands has lived off the sea for 10 years. - We get to catch very beautiful high-quality products around some of the most beautiful locations in New Zealand, get to anchor up under no light pollution, beautiful view of the stars, fall asleep to kiwi on remote islands, get to see how abundant the ocean is ` pretty cool lifestyle. - I love the fact that you're with people who you've never hung out with them in your life, but you end up together and there's a real camaraderie and fellowship, and, you know, everyone works together so that everyone can get done quicker. - Just like that, yeah. - I was told a long time ago, 'You're only as good as your crew.' So if you have good crew, you've got a good boat. So we're about a half hour from anchoring. You guys should be pretty close to done by the time we get there, eh? - Yeah, bro. - Yeah. - All right. See you in a minute. - He's pretty cool. I like him. he cooks good food. So that's good. - I'm a bit` I'm a bit biased. He's been one of my best mates for a very long time. He can be a bit hard at times, but he's fair. - If you do everything to the best of your ability and keep everything shipshape, and things don't slide and things don't get missed and you don't have a sloppy boat, then people look forward to going to work because they know that you're running a good operation. - How are we looking for tomorrow, mate? What sort of depth you want? - Uh, go... Let's start about 60, maybe end up about 90. The weather's mint. It should be glassy in the morning. Little bit in the arvo, but nothing much, and should be a pretty sweet night as well. - Yeah. Happy days. What's for dinner, skip? - (CHUCKLES) Wouldn't you like to know? Wait and find out. (IDYLLIC MUSIC) It's beautiful. (IDYLLIC MUSIC CONTINUES) - With the crew almost finished baiting up and thinking about dinner, Zak has found a safe harbour along the Coromandel Coast. - Slipper Island, it's a beautiful spot ` a little bit of a rocky bottom, but nice solid anchorage. What have we got? - Bit of butter. - Corn... parsley... bit of lettuce. I'll grab that too. - Uh, no tomatoes. - All right. One 'tomates'. Thank you. - Cooking for the crew is a long-held tradition for skippers on the Clow fishing boats. There's something quite nice out of just using what you got. If you don't have it, you can't just go to the shop and get it. You know, a lot of my inspiration for the cooking that I've done outside of fishing has come from on the boats, and I learned to cook on the boats. We're having a bit of a Mexican chicken wrap job with a bit of a all-in-one salad, so it should be quite nice. Bit of a tasty treat for the boys ` nice and fresh after a hot day on the boat. Maker sure you wash your hands, or nothing for you. (LAUGHS) Boys. - They'll all eat well after a big day on the water. Then Zak and the crew will grab some sleep before breaking anchor early tomorrow morning. - Avocado would have been all right, eh? - It's not bad at all. (TRANQUIL MUSIC) (AMBIENT MUSIC) - In the pre-dawn off the Coromandel's eastern coast, skipper Zak Olsen starts up the Southern Cross ahead of the day's fishing. - It's 2.30. We've just left the anchorage. We're heading out around the islands now. We've got about an hour's steam out to the grounds. It's pretty` pretty nice weather this morning. We use red lights in our wheelhouse so that we can still see out the windows, and they don't blind you. So your red light's a nice dim light so you can still see what's going on. If you have a white light shining, you can't actually see anything outside the wheelhouse. The early starts don't really bother me as much. They're definitely easier at the beginning of your week on the boat, when you're fresh and you can get out of bed, but, um, early morning is a good start. It's nice. You get the day out of the way. And then at 0 o'clock when everyone else is just getting out of bed, you're already seven hours into your day. Almost time to get the boys up. (AMBIENT MUSIC CONTINUES) Would you like some shugs in your coffee? You good to go? Double float it, please. - Floats away. - By 3.30, the Southern Cross has reached the fishing ground, and it's time to start setting the lines. - How deep? - 68! - 68. - This morning, the crew will send out 5000 hooks. - So the boys are setting the gear at the moment. We're doing about 6.5 knots. It's the most intense part of the day. It all happens quite quickly. There's not really a lot of room for error. This is the last job that the boys learn to do on the boat. So once they're good at everything else, then they learn to set the gear. It's good teamwork. - Every time it gets to the corner of the card, every 25 hooks, then we put the weight on. - The guy setting the gear is only as good as the guy passing the weights. If he's not taking the cards off and getting the weights on in time, then it doesn't work. - Nothing can beat manually baited hooks and putting them where the fish are. Every hook counts. - As the crew sets the fishing lines, they're being monitored by a special link to MPI, the Ministry for Primary Industries. - So we're just entering in our details for our set here. All the time, they can see where we are, see what we're up to, see the shots we've done, and it's all just part of the transparency of the industry. You know, we've got nothing to hide, so this is part of it. - Zak has a strong sense of guardianship. He's been recognised as a young industry leader, and he's keen to promote sustainable fishing practices amongst his crew. (INDISTINCT CHATTER) - We start nice and early so that we're setting the gear before the birds get up and start feeding. Your main risk period's obviously around the moons. At the moment, we've got a nice small moon, so not too much bird activity in the pre-dawn. But the earlier you start, the better chance you have of avoiding birds. We're at a low risk. We still don't want to, you know, open ourselves to any more risk. - By sunrise, Zak and the crew have set their lines and are just about to start hauling their catch. (GENTLE ACOUSTIC MUSIC) - We're just sighting dawn at the moment, so we've just got a bit of light. We can finally see the floats, so I'm going to go grab them and, um, get into it. This is the bit where we still don't know quite yet whether we've failed or succeeded. We're gonna find out very soon. Morale is high at the moment. Yeah, this is the first bit. We're just about to crack on into it ` so happy days. Absolutely rippa day for it, though. Doesn't get much better than this. Even if we catch nothing, it's still a win ` out here in nature. - It's not long before the fish are surfacing, and Zak knows he's on to a good run of snapper. - That was way nicer hauling. - There'll be plenty to keep the crew busy. - The numbers of snapper have, you know, increased pretty dramatically from our observations over the last sort of 15, 20 years. Um, yeah, it's definitely a lot easier now to catch fish than what it was when I started. This year is proving to be a difficult year, but as a whole, fishing for snapper is a lot better than what it's been for a long time. - Zak is also advocating for the smooth introduction of new regulations for commercial fishers. He carries out trials to see if the regulations are workable, and he ensures small fishing operators aren't forgotten during times of change. - It's new regulation, it's cameras, it's the cost of running your business with diesel prices skyrocketing. Just everything coming in together just makes it that little bit harder. In most people's jobs, they don't have to deal with, you know, a new bunch of regulations every year or so. In the fishing industry, it's pretty common. Some of them are workable, and some of them are really hard, very, like, costly to implement, but we're resilient, and we adapt. - Whenever things seem tough, Zak has learned to be optimistic and value teamwork from his crew. But that wasn't always the case. - Apparently, I was really grumpy, and I wasn't that nice to be around anymore. My ex-wife says it, my kids say it, but I wasn't aware of it. If someone had told me that I was grumpy then or was pretty nasty, I wouldn't have believed them, because, you know, it's hard to look at yourself like that. I gave up everything one thing at a time, with fishing being the last thing I gave up, because I was miserable. I was so unhappy. I ended up getting divorced and then started to rebuild my life again from there. I've went back to fishing, and I was like, I didn't dislike this; I love this. This has` This has been a major part of my life that's missing. (LAUGHS) - And Zak is now sharing his newfound wisdom to help his fishing mates. - Had a hard day. - (LAUGHS) (RELAXING ACOUSTIC MUSIC) (GULLS SQUAWK) - Ka kite! - See ya later. I'll give you a ring! (ACOUSTIC MUSIC CONTINUES) - We are looking after the wellbeing of fishers and shore-based people, families of fishers, deckhands. Post-Covid, it was noticed there was a real void and the health and wellbeing part of the seafood industry. - Fisher Zak Olsen cut his teeth working on boats running out of his home port of Whangarei. - That's the first part I ever worked on when I started fishing for Sanford when I was 17. It was a long liner at the time with Stu and Ross. There's, um, a lot of good memories on this boat. - Zak reckons these days, economic and environmental change is making it hard for small operators to make a living. - That's the difference between, you know, survival and doom for some small fishers. It's just things are that tight with the cost of living. We're just gonna help people in every way we can. Matthew. - Hey ya, Zak. - How are we? - Yeah, good, mate? - Yeah. - Zak's not only fishing, he's taken on a new role as FirstMate. - Overworked, underpaid. (LAUGHS) - Too much pub? - He helps fishers navigate their lives in much the same way that Rural Support helps farmers. Zak thinks of it as checking in on his mates. - How's the kinas? You still going, or are you almost done? - We're done. We're done, yeah, been a good year, actually. - Matt Caldwell is a commercial kina diver. He's seen plenty of hardship during his 25 years in the industry. But now, more than ever, he says too many of his mates are under pressure. - We all like to think we're tough, you know, but there's things that you can't deal with by yourself, I guess, and that kind of sends people over the edge. A few years ago, one of our crew committed suicide, and that came as a real shock. Uh, it kind of... blew us all apart, you know. Like, we, um... we always make a point of` of, uh... delving deep in conversation now with` with, um... with the rest of the crew, you know, and always make a point of, uh, telling a person that you love them at the end of the conversation, you know, just` just so they know they've got some support. And FirstMate's giving support to those people out there that don't have the same kind of crew we have. - I'd better get back to the kids. - OK, mate. It's good to see ya. - Sometimes it takes, you know, one, two, three conversations before someone will be willing to look for any help at all. And, you know, it's not a matter of coming to us and saying, 'Hey, look, I'm depressed.' It's just, 'Hey, I'm not doing so well at the moment. 'Things are... Things are hard in the business, you know. Is there anything you can do for me?' Things left unchecked can lead to bigger things. How are we? - Whenever he's down on the wharf, Zak can always find someone to talk to. - What's happening? - Not much. How's the markets? - Yeah, not too bad, not too bad. We did one this morning. - Brad Leggott leases quota for his Fish To Fish operation, where he processes and sells fish on the local market. - I think it's so important to get some young blood into the game, man. It's, um` And those guys have their challenges, make no mistake. It's, like, at least there's some way for them to turn if` you know, if they need help or` You know, I mean, mental illness and all sorts of stuff and pressure from the economy and stuff for these young guys, it's quite hard. It's difficult. (SERENE MUSIC) - Back out on the water off the Coromandel Coast, Zak and his crew are stowing the catch below decks. Zak reckons he's now a much better person and a better skipper to be around. He's also learning to take time to enjoy what nature has to offer. when the fishing is good, seabirds ` like black petrels ` are always a welcome sight around the boat. - Yeah, they're our mates. This is pretty tame compared to how it gets some times. Especially around the full moons, it can be, you know, as far as you can see, birds working around you, but there's a pretty nice little number just following us. They're obviously not that hungry. They're not sort of attacking the line or anything. When they're real hungry, they'll be right in there, you know, trying to rip any old baits or a small fish off the line. When you're out deep and you can't see any land and you're sick of talking to the crew, at least you can always still talk to the birds. (GENTLE UPLIFTING MUSIC) - When the fishing is over, the crew sorts the day's catch and gets ready for arrival back in port. - (SHOUTS EXCITEDLY) Home sweet home. We're all done. The finish line is just there. Uh, it feels good. We've had a good trip. The boys are happy, I'm happy, home to see the family now. (UPLIFTING MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC FADES) - For Zak, home is never too far from the water. Since separating from his wife, Zak has based himself close to family at Portland on the outskirts of Whangarei. - I was really fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to come and live here with my auntie. It's got a homely feeling, and it was such a invaluable part of being able to transition and finding my feet again. So I was able to spend a lot of time focusing on the kids. It was really nice to be able to spend that time and spend that energy on them, and in this really special place that just feels like home. - A keen barbecue chef, Zak enjoys cooking for family. - If I'm happy, I cook. And if I'm not happy, I find it really hard to, you know, muster the energy and passion to cook anything. But I mean, at the moment, very happy ` cooking a lot of food. (CHUCKLES) At my worst point, I think I got up to 13 barbecues. I've culled it back to four again, which I think has a more sustainable number of barbecues. You like the barbecue, eh? Yeah? What's your favourite thing that I cooked for you? - Meaty. - You like the meaty, eh? Yeah. I have my family here. I can entertain here. You know, they come, and we cook and we have those family meals ` and family meals are so important. (IDYLLIC MUSIC) I think I'm extremely privileged to be able to share my story and my dealings with FirstMate as a, you know, success story ` to show people that, like, you can be, you know, miserable, and you can get back to being happy again. If one person listens and gets help and is less miserable than what they were before or, you know, finds happiness again, that's a massive win for me. - Next time ` a Southland farm rescued by that humble vegetable, the swede. - Harvesting swedes, it did save the farm. - It's now a thriving family business... - It's a phenomenal province for producing. We kind of forget that, I think, as Southlanders. - ...and celebrating local. - It's not hard for me to turn a swede into a dish if it's delicious from the get-go. - That's next time on Hyundai Country Calendar.