When the Quota Management System (QMS) was introduced in 1986, it was revolutionary. Snapper quota is expensive in Northland because it’s difficult to catch other species. Snapper fills most of the bins when Adam Kellian hauls up the line. What he didn’t have was quota-and in this country, that makes all the difference. He had a boat, and he had the sea in his blood. By his early 20s, he had started a crayfish business and was his own boss. He loved it so much he got a bluefin tattooed on his bicep. He was making good money crewing on tuna boats-enough to throw $100 notes down at the pub when he came ashore every few weeks. He’s never wanted to do anything else.Īt first, it was a great career. As a teenager, he took months off school to go tuna-fishing with his dad. He was four or five when his father first took him to sea. Kellian, 35, grew up flicking sprats out of Leigh Harbour with his bare hands. Their fathers and grandfathers fished out of Leigh, 26 nautical miles to the south. Kellian and Aiken are third-generation commercial fishermen. Sharks often bite through the line, causing hours of delay as the fishers turn back to find it. “Every day we throw all that gear over the side and hope it comes back,” says Kellian. Cousins Connor Jones and Jack Aiken crew for Adam Kellian on the Carolyn Marie, laying the longline out into the dawn. There are still a dozen trays of hooks to go, and the line already stretches several kilometres across Bream Bay. A road cone drags a dancing row of fluoro orange ribbons out above the main line to scare off any early seabirds.Īt 5.30am, first light reveals the twin crocodile silhouettes of Mt Manaia and the Hen against a mottled sky. At intervals, he adds weights, floats, and buoys. Every two metres, Aiken clips on a hook with gloved hands. The nylon longline unspools into the darkness. “Here comes the balancing act.” He carries the squid-fringed trays across the rolling deck to the crewman at the stern, Andy Aiken. “Not too bad for a screaming southeasterly,” says the skipper, Adam Kellian, picking up a stack of square trays, each one laden with 50 baited hooks. The stars are masked by cloud, and the orange lights of the oil refinery at Marsden Point loop wildly as the 12-metre Carolyn Marie rides the swell. The first of the 1800 fish hooks hits the inky water at 4.20am. Written by Kate Evans Photographed by Richard Robinson
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