Seafood sector calls for more detail about cameras on boats scheme

The seafood industry remains frustrated over the Government’s rollout of cameras on commercial inshore fishing vessels, saying important questions about the $68 million scheme still remain unanswered.

Seafood New Zealand chief executive Jeremy Helson said key issues the sector needed answers to included what the actual artificial intelligence (AI) in the camera plan would be, and whether it would be ready for the first camera fittings; how fishers’ privacy would be protected; and how much it was going to cost fishers.

‘‘We now know a couple more details, and it is good to see progress, but we are still very much in the dark about the important things,’’ he said.

Helson said that none of the industry’s key questions could be answered when it had a briefing with the Ministry for Primary Industries on Thursday.

‘‘We need to adequately advise and help prepare quota holders and fishers for what is shaping up to be a ‘make it or break it’ business consideration for them, but we still can’t do this.’’

Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker this week announced more detail about the rollout, in which 300 inshore fishing boats would be fitted with cameras over the next four years.

Trawl and set net vessels operating off the west coast of the North Island will receive the first cameras from August, with the first footage to be transmitted by the end of November.

Spark, one of the country’s major telecommunications companies, has been appointed as the prime supplier to manage the rollout, training and support for the installation of the cameras, supported by cuttingedge artificial intelligence software.

The cameras will ensure that vessels are following the law and accurately documenting things like the size of the catch, as well as any bycatch.

The rollout is being staged so that vessels posing the greatest risk to protected species, such as Hector’s and Māui dolphins and hōiho (yellow-eyed penguins), will get cameras first.

Helson said that while the industry conditionally supported cameras, there was huge interest in the sector as to what kind of AI there would be.

‘‘At a high level, we have been told that motion sensor-type technology will drive what the cameras will capture, but it is still unclear exactly what will be filmed in what are skippers’ and fishers’ workplaces and homes,’’ he said.

‘‘But the delivery of the generation of AI we are hopeful of, that we are relying on for evidence-based fisheries management decisions, is still uncertain.

‘‘We’ve been told the cameras will be high-definition, and we’d expect this of a $68m investment, but is the AI ready now to analyse screeds of footage to determine the details that MPI has indicated cameras can deliver on?

‘‘We need cameras that can identify what fish species are returned to the sea, what their length is, what species we land, what protected species we do or don’t catch.’’

Parker has said the software will use machine learning to recognise relevant activity for recording.

When the software detects activities such as net setting or hauling, the cameras move into high-definition capture, and the relevant footage will be stored and marked for uploading, reducing storage and review costs, and better protecting the privacy of fishers.

Helson said privacy remained a key concern, despite assurances that the cameras would not be rolling around the clock indiscriminately.

Quota holders and fishers also had no idea how much they would have to pay for the scheme, he said, although the Government has said that about $10m of the $68m rollout cost over four years would be recovered from the industry.

‘‘At a time when small owneroperators are having to leave boats and crews on shore because they can’t afford the rocketing cost of fuel, they deserve greater certainty about costs coming, so they can prepare,’’ Helson said.

‘‘Imposing additional costs in the order of $10m on the inshore fleet in the next two years, and an unknown sum after that, will be enough to put some out of business, and New Zealanders will need to give up eating their fish.’’

Seafood New Zealand said it believed that until the cameras were proven to be adding value to fisheries management, they should be paid for by the Government.

‘‘It is still unclear exactly what will be filmed in what are skippers’ and fishers’ workplaces and homes.’’

Seafood New Zealand chief executive Jeremy Helson