Unlock the secrets of top-quality southern bluefin tuna preservation as we explore Japanese techniques with Tony Walker, aka TK from TK's Offshore Fishing. Discover the meticulous ikijime method and the critical steps for rapidly cooling the tuna's core temperature to avoid internal cooking. Learn why handling the fish on foam mattresses and using ice slurries can mean the difference between a premium catch and a wasted effort. We also discuss the high standards set by Japanese buyers and the financial benefits of maintaining these quality practices.
Get expert tips from Toby Barkla and Christine Elminger on preserving and processing tuna to ensure it remains in prime condition. We delve into the importance of using ample ice and proper bleeding techniques, as well as the benefits of vacuum packing. Learn why joining local fishing clubs can support marine research and conservation efforts while offering a platform for competitions. We also highlight practical and safety considerations for weighing and gutting fish in tournaments, stressing the importance of careful handling to avoid accidents.
Celebrate the success of Southern Bluefin tuna fishing tournaments with us. Hear about the unique cooperation between commercial and recreational fishers and the diverse tactics used in bluefin fishing. John Holdsworth shares insights on sustainable practices, including tagging and releasing fish, to ensure future populations. Finally, we examine the unexpected high turnout at the Whakatane winter tuna tournament and how a creative eating competition led to a surge in club membership. Don't miss these innovative ideas and valuable insights—subscribe to stay updated with our latest episodes!
Find out more on looking after your Bluefin Tuna catch here
This Podcast is brought to you by The New Zealand Sport Fishing Council a not for profit, incorporated society funded by its member Clubs. You can find your nearest club here Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast to receive new episodes weekly! This Podcast is entirely self funded by The New Zealand Sport Fishing Council If you want to hear more episodes like this please consider supporting the podcast here
Unlock the secrets of top-quality southern bluefin tuna preservation as we explore Japanese techniques with Tony Walker, aka TK from TK's Offshore Fishing. Discover the meticulous ikijime method and the critical steps for rapidly cooling the tuna's core temperature to avoid internal cooking. Learn why handling the fish on foam mattresses and using ice slurries can mean the difference between a premium catch and a wasted effort. We also discuss the high standards set by Japanese buyers and the financial benefits of maintaining these quality practices.
Get expert tips from Toby Barkla and Christine Elminger on preserving and processing tuna to ensure it remains in prime condition. We delve into the importance of using ample ice and proper bleeding techniques, as well as the benefits of vacuum packing. Learn why joining local fishing clubs can support marine research and conservation efforts while offering a platform for competitions. We also highlight practical and safety considerations for weighing and gutting fish in tournaments, stressing the importance of careful handling to avoid accidents.
Celebrate the success of Southern Bluefin tuna fishing tournaments with us. Hear about the unique cooperation between commercial and recreational fishers and the diverse tactics used in bluefin fishing. John Holdsworth shares insights on sustainable practices, including tagging and releasing fish, to ensure future populations. Finally, we examine the unexpected high turnout at the Whakatane winter tuna tournament and how a creative eating competition led to a surge in club membership. Don't miss these innovative ideas and valuable insights—subscribe to stay updated with our latest episodes!
Find out more on looking after your Bluefin Tuna catch here
This Podcast is brought to you by The New Zealand Sport Fishing Council a not for profit, incorporated society funded by its member Clubs. You can find your nearest club here Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast to receive new episodes weekly! This Podcast is entirely self funded by The New Zealand Sport Fishing Council If you want to hear more episodes like this please consider supporting the podcast here
Speaker 1:
Yeah well, they're a cold water tuna and they have high fat content, particularly if they've been feeding well and good condition, and I guess the Japanese have lauded their praises for a long time.
Speaker 2:
Welcome back to the Pot and Reel podcast. I'm Mike Plant, and this is episode four, where we continue to learn about southern bluefin tuna. And we heard in episode three about looking after the fish. One of the ways is ikijimi. It's a method of killing fish which maintains its quality of its meat, originating in japan. Now there's some irony in the fact that, as we've heard before, the japanese were somewhat blamed for depleting this fishery and now it's on the bounce back. But we are taking learnings from the Japanese on how to best preserve the fish. So we return to Tony Walker or TK from TK's Offshore Fishing to explain more about how the Japanese have influenced how we look after fish.
Speaker 3:
Oh, it's totally dictated by that. So so when we harvest a bluefin, it's dragged onto a foam mattress and the whole idea is that there's not a scale missing. And the big thing for us, mike, and it's also for the recreational guys, is getting that core temperature down as quickly as you can. So we drag it onto a mattress so that we essentially don't want a scale missing off that fish, because the buyers buy with their eyes. For us, you should be able to deal to a southern bleef and tuna in less than two minutes. Basically, spike it through the brain, have it gilded and gutted and plunged, put your puff line down through its spine, have it gilded and gutted and washed out and in an icy slurry in less than two or three minutes. And that and that's the key to the whole thing because the Japanese are the buyers and they drive the market. And the unique thing with Southern Bluefin tuna is that really it's only the Japanese that have such a passion for it. So if you look at other markets, like the Hawaiian market and LA and all that sort of thing, if they're buying for the restaurant trade and that sort of thing, they don't mind. If it's Bluefin or Big Eye, it's the Japanese that have got the passion for the southern bluefin tuna and the vast majority of bluefin tuna is sold in Japan. So they are very, very picky buyers.
Speaker 3:
And I was actually mortified when I came over to Australia watching my crew on my first trip fishing out of Malula Bar. We'd go out for fishing and they then just drag it across the deck. Well, we never dragged anything across the deck of New Zealand. We we actually had hammocks made up like, like, like a stretcher. So if we had a big fish you know we've got a big northern bluefin or something like that we'd actually put it on the stretcher, have a deck out of each end, pick the bloody thing up and walk it over the ditch. We never dragged anything because if you get a scratch mark on that fish you might lose 500 dead. That's what it's all about.
Speaker 3:
It's all about quality. I had a smaller vessel, a 60 foot vessel called Extreme Limits that I used to base out of Fong Vita. We only had a small holding capacity. So fishing out of Gisborne and Napier I was day tripping. Basically I'd go out and get 40 fish in one day and come back in. My price was just about double the price of the guys that were out there for four or five days. So quality is premium and that's the great thing with the Turner Champions.
Speaker 3:
They've got a lot of instructional videos on how to care for your catch and the core thing is getting that fish into a nice slurry, sort of a consistency of acdonald's slushy is how you want it. So what, you want that fish in there as quick as possible. If you'd be surprised if you take uh core temperature, even after four or five hours inside that tuna it is still warm, you know, even if I often spend on that uh slug for four or five hours. So you've got to pull that core temperature down to uh as cold as you can get, as quickly as you can, otherwise you end up with like a brown coloured flesh and you really want that clear rose petal coloured flesh.
Speaker 3:
I've seen Rick Ragsdale caught fish and I've sort of frowned a little bit and the beauty, of course, with the surface long liner is that they'll have their initial fight, then they'll just settle down, you know. So they're caught onlining. They'll have their initial fight, then they'll just settle down. So they're caught on the hook, they'll have their initial run and then they'll settle down. Now, if you've been fighting a fish on a recreational boat and you've been fighting it for 40 minutes. Well, it's essentially cooking itself, mike. So it's releasing all this adrenaline and it's essentially cooking itself.
Speaker 3:
So you want to get on as quick as you can and if you're not worried about taking the weigh station, first thing you want to do is like gill and gut it straight away, but also whack off the tail and if you've got a deco, hold the decos against the tail. And if you've caught, if you've caught through the spine, hold that decos against the tail and watch, watch the um, the spinal cord, watch the gut cavity. You'll watch all the red blood going through the gut cavity and keep that deco's on it until it's running clear through the gut cavity. Or vice versa, you can put the deco's in the gut cavity and keep an eye, tuck the tail off and keep an eye on the tail and you keep that deco's in there until it's run clear. The big thing is that the blood in the fish is basically heating the fish, so it's cooking the fish. So the quicker you can get that fish cooled down, the better.
Speaker 2:
And here's John Holdsworth, our marine biologist from episode three, telling us more about this Japanese practice and why the bluefin tuna is such a sought-after fish.
Speaker 1:
Yeah well, they're a cold water tuna and they have high fat content, particularly if they've been feeding well and in good condition, and I guess the Japanese have lauded their praises for a long time as one of the top eating species because of some of those attributes. It's also the colour and texture and they value a whole range of different properties that we might not be so attuned to, and different parts of the tuna probably are really good for different preparations. Yeah well, I mean, they've been fishing for a long time and they've always had this thing about maintaining the highest quality of the fish. Ikejime is to stop the muscles or relax the fish and it sort of kills the fish instantly, which is good for animal welfare as well as for eating qualities, and relaxes the muscles so that they don't sort of go into rigor quite as much.
Speaker 1:
Bleeding obviously gets some of that blood and potential means that the fish will last longer when it's chilled. The shelf life will be better and probably the eating qualities to some degree. And the chilling's important because after fighting on a line the bluefin tuna can get quite hot. They have an ability to raise their body temperature up above water temperature quite a bit, which is unusual for a lot of fish it's not common at all. That's why they can be so efficient predators in these cold waters and around temperate areas, you know, sort of 30 to 40 degrees south and that's precisely where alroy thompson from episode three's batch in why hal bay is.
Speaker 2:
He's trying to look after the fish as well by going one step further.
Speaker 4:
I actually bought a nice machine this year just because it's such a special fish, you've really got to look after it. So I've got a you know enough ice to do with my mates sort of up and down the street here and you know the shop sells ice and trophy Lewis floppy. From up at trophy Lewis he sells ice and but yeah, definitely you need more ice than you're thinking. I can't actually remember what the stats were. Um, I was listening to, but it might have been 50% of ice for every kilo of fish. Even if we do take them, um, it's, it's bleeding them properly.
Speaker 4:
You know, we normally don't come and weigh, weigh the fish because you know the way, masters, I think one year they weighed 80, I think, in a day and it was just ridiculous. We normally the best photo we've found is just on the boat, you know, with the angler holding it, and that's what we find the best thing. And then just, yeah, get it in one of those big Stoney Creek ice bags, you know those chiller bags, and they seem to be pretty good. Yeah, just ice it up, we gut them, get plenty of ice in there, because they do take a while to chill down, and we're just lucky our neighbour's got a big chiller that we throw them in and just hang them for a day and then when we get back in the next day it's like you cut them up, even vacuum pack them, you know, and then at least when the boys go home or your mates go home or you give them away like it's all just good quality.
Speaker 4:
My goal would be to have you know, like a Japanese, how they do it, like it's pretty amazing how they cut it up. And I just over covered, I just got lost in those videos of people cutting up tuna. I loved it, even watching a lot of the cons boys. You know they'll put the fish on a mattress and then they'll, they'll deal to it. So you know it just saves it bruising and it is such a special fish and I guess we're just so lucky to have it have it here in new zealand toby barkler from whakatane sport fishing club.
Speaker 2:
In episode three we heard from Toby Well, he's also a local butcher, so he knows a thing or two about meat processing. Home kills for farms around the region.
Speaker 5:
How good it is depends on how you've looked after it.
Speaker 5:
And I process quite a few tuna now because a few guys bring them in, you know, into our work and we cut them up and vacuum, pack them and things like that and they're all looking after them really, really well and I think just with the quality of those tuna bags and guys loading up with ice and things like that, bleeding them, you know they're just coming in a fantastic quality.
Speaker 5:
Just a bit of advice for people if they are going to keep one or two, bleeding them both sides, you know, I think some people run into the mistake of just bleeding one side of the fish. You know they'll get a fish on the boat if, say, they've got a double or triple strike, they'll quickly ram the knife in and bleed one side of it. Well, that only does that one side, you know you've got to really pump all that blood out and bleed both sides, you know. And then ram the hose in there and get all the blood out and now the fish is just, they're fantastic eating. You know they're in prime condition, the fish when we're nabbing them at Waihau Bay there.
Speaker 6:
With the fish we weigh. It's a very small minority. We're actually weighing for our own club members and obviously there are a lot of courtesy waves. So we have a policy now that we we will weigh fish for affiliated members and we'll courtesy wave for anybody. But we now have a high courtesy way fee of $50 to encourage people mainly to join a club and be contributing something.
Speaker 2:
That's Christine Elminger. She's also from the Waihau Bay Sport Fishing Club and she raises a good point. By joining a local fishing club, you have some skin in the game. You support the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council. Each member pays $16 a year towards the council. That supports our public outreach legacy, also the Marine Research Foundation and the Youth Ocean Trust. It also enables anglers to have their catches recorded for each club and at the end of the year this data is available on the NZSFC website and in the yearbook. It also contributes to scientists and marine biologists like John Holdsworth, helping us understand fish stocks. You can also enter competitions when you're a member of a club, like the Whakatane Winter Bluefin Tuna Tournament organised by Toby Barkler.
Speaker 5:
That's what we did last year and it had to be gilled and gutted before they come into the weigh station, which was great, you know, like the fish were coming in, they're gilled and gutted, they're on ice, so those guys that were staying away for, you know, for two or three days they could just gill and gut them and bring them in. The only issue there, mike, was it was just a little bit dangerous for a few of the guys and like me, like I can vouch for it as well when you're out on a trailer boat and you like that and you think, oh, we have to get the gills and guts out of this fish to weigh it, I was just going to sort of an accident waiting to happen. You know what I mean. So this year they don't have to be gilled and gutted but they're. But they can if they want to.
Speaker 5:
You know, with how the prize structure is, if there's a great big fish weighed in this year, right, right from the start, you know it's going to encourage guys to just to let their fish go and get points for that overall team section. So I think the guys do want to go and get them. They're more than welcome to and we'll be, um, you know, all over the social media channels and stuff like that. We'll be keeping guys up to date with what fish have come in, you know. For that exact reason. You know, try, look after the fishery. You know, if there's 130 kilo fish caught on the first day, you know you're just better off to let them go if you've got something lighter than that it's a great way to approach tournaments and I just want to know is tuna more exciting than the marlin for you now?
Speaker 2:
has has it kind of taken over the summer fishing for you?
Speaker 5:
sort of. I've got a little bit like. My next sort of mission is, uh, catching in northern, and there's quite a few flatting around this season. I sort of keep in comms with a few of the commercial guys down here. Yeah, they're catching heaps of them. You know more and more each year, you know. But these guys are catching upwards. You know close to 50, you know close to 50 northerns this season. I made them on one of the commercial boats, but you know there might be one or two caught recreationally each year.
Speaker 2:
You kind of see on social media too much really of commercial guys pointing the finger at wrecks and wreck guys pointing the finger at commercial. But it seems talking to everyone that I've spoken to about it. This is a fishery that kind of brings everyone together just to celebrate the fishery and get into it, you know.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, you're right, and I think it helps them out as well. You know, and I think it helps them out as well. You know, like sometimes, you know, sometimes the recreational guys will be catching fish in waters that the commercial guys wouldn't even think about fishing in. You know what I mean. Like we sort of scout out the fish as such for them, you know. So we sort of work in like that and they seem to be real helpful. You know, you can hear them on the VHF down there and things like that. So I think, just because the fishery is so healthy, yeah, there's plenty enough fish for everyone there which is cool.
Speaker 2:
That's amazing. And the other thing I've noticed with this fishery is no one seems to know the one lure or the one spread that works. It seems like a bit of everything works for everyone and everyone's kind of got a bit of a mix in the way they approach trawling speeds and lure size and head shapes and all sorts. What tends to work for you, Toby?
Speaker 5:
But all sorts, and I think that's why it attracts so many people. No-transcript behind the aldermans and stuff there. They're fairly easy to catch up if you're, if you're in the right place at the right time. I don't think it matters what you're turning behind your boat, to be honest. And if you're doing between six and eight knots, it's like you know, and you've got some decent lures there, you've got a pretty good chance of catching one. You know, and I think that's why it attracts a lot of people, if you're down white halberd in the middle of the summer and there's 150 boats out, you might catch three or four marlin. But if you're, if you're down there in the middle of the winter, you know there might be 50 or 62 to court, you know. So they're just a little bit easier to catch. You don't have to have super razor sharp hooks, you don't have to have all the flash gear. You know like they're just. You know, great big, giant skippies really. You know, if on the right day they definitely have their hard days. Don't get me, you know, there's some days you can't catch a bloody thing, but other days, you know, I think it also, I think late in the season can be exceptional fishing.
Speaker 5:
We went down late last year and me and a mate, huey, we got 13 Southern Bluefin before lunchtime one day and there were four boats out just for people listening. You know Like that was. I think that was early August and that was right out deep too. It was early August and that was right out deep too. So there's still a lot to learn about the fishery. You know, look at us, we're catching them in May this year. That was unheard of as well. So there could be a good three months of fishing for them.
Speaker 6:
Pretty cool Well that would be very difficult because of course you're not going to get a true weight if it's been gilled and gutted. So the guys wouldn't is great. But generally if the guys are killing and gutting and icing, they're not intending to weigh them, they're just, you know, keeping good care of it for their own food.
Speaker 3:
Well, that's a good concept because I mean, at the end of the day, the whole thought behind that and why I held by and walked on and being leaders of this. The whole thought is that, yeah, okay, you've been out and had some sport, but it's not about striking the pose of the weigh station. You want to have something that you can actually harvest at the end of it and, you know, spread around the village. You know, and that's a great thing, as we saw in the first couple of years, you know there was guys wagging their fish and basically discarding it beside the bloody weigh station so seagulls were feeding on it. You know we is a huge disrespect for, like whānau there, this whole concept of dilling and gutting.
Speaker 3:
I think it's a great idea, mike, because at the end of the day, you want something you can actually take home. You know One of the bluefin is you're going to get multiple feeds out of it and you know you can look after your grandparents and the guy across the fence. You know your neighbour. That's the whole idea of it is if you're going to harvest a fish, utilise that fish, utilise every part of it. So I applaud the new starts on it. What?
Speaker 2:
does the bluefin fishery look like when it's going off? Like when action's happening and they're feeding on the surface? What is it like for those who haven't seen that?
Speaker 3:
It's just nothing like it. It's just nothing like it. I was telling some guys at Way Up Bay I did a talk there and that's worth noting for the recreational guys we'd start hauling, say, 1 o'clock in the afternoon and if the fishing was slow we'd stop hauling 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon and have a bite to eat and that sort of thing, and we'd wait until just on dusk and start hauling again. The bluefin definitely come on the bite just after the change of light. So we'd start all in again and, if you can imagine, we've got a whole squid about 250, 300 grams is the bait, and our trace is 12 metres long. So as we start all in, all of a sudden for about a half mile in front of us, as the tension comes on the main line, we've got all these baits sort of 50 feet apart, all start skipping on the surface and they just get slammed and there's just nothing like it. You know, all of a sudden, all of a sudden you're hauling and hauling and the next minute your mainline gets pulled down really, really tight. We've just been slammed by this big, big bluefin and of course we clip that trace onto a fighting line. So every bluefin we catch, we fight by hand. You know we clip it onto some maple rope. So you've got the deckhand down the back there, yee Har, and he's got some of the blueprints that have just come on. Yeah, it's truly an epic adventure when it's on, and you'll see that with the guys.
Speaker 3:
Now, especially with advanced technology, you can see those schools of fish and the recreational guys are targeting themselves. You know they'll see a school and they'll target it. The adrenaline rush is just incredible because there's such an abundance white. You know there's such an abundance of fish these days we don't really see them on the surface as much as you do, say, over in south australia. Uh, whether we're on on the surface, a hell of a lot more. But I think that's more to do with the feed too. You know you'll see that feed line on your sound and wipe down 10, 20-20 metres. Where the feed is is where you're going to find your bluefin. But of course, around the full moon you've got all your phytoplankton and all your griblins right on the surface, particularly right on dusk. So if you're going to see a school of bluefin in New Zealand, it's going to be right on dusk.
Speaker 2:
And the biomass. You kind of hinted at it, but you're pretty confident the biomass is increasing for that fishery. Eh, oh it's incredible.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I was in Blue Laboe last year and I was talking to three of the AFPA scientists that are basically in quite a allocation and all that sort of thing, and they said last year there was an 11% increase in biomass. So it's just steadily increasing and that's the whole. Yes, I know the recreation guys have got issues with the quota system but at the end of the day, thank god we do have a quota system. But that's the whole idea of the uh. The quota system is that they monitor our catches. They monitor our catch per unit effort and they'll adjust quite accordingly. So if they say I've got a catch per unit effort of two kilos per book and they see that decreasing, well they'll cut the quota. And that's the great thing is that we can monitor, although you know, as you know, it's not an exact science.
Speaker 3:
But uh, we've been studying bluefin for long enough now that we know what's going on. And that's the exciting thing is that we're seeing that biomass increasing year by year. We're seeing it over in america too. You know they've got a pacific bluefin fishery over there and in the last couple of years that's just gone nuts as well. So it's exciting times ahead. We've got a very healthy fishery, I believe. In Australia the southern bluefin tuna is soon to be introduced into the Reinstitution Council certification as a sustainable fishery and, as you know, that's an independent body. It's not something owned by the fishing industry or any government. They're totally independent. So if they're looking at introducing it into their system, it's the world's highest standard of sustainability, so it's it's.
Speaker 2:
It's a good news story, it seems like a collaborative effort to to rebuild this fishery, and is this something that we could look at at other fisheries? Because it it seems unique. You know, we we hear other fisheries being decimated and people point the fingers at each other and that, but this is one that I guess we've all agreed on, that we needed to look after it. We have put some things in place. The wreck guys are making concessions by taking one fish, a boat or these self-imposed even lower than what MPI sets for recreational fishes to take, just basically being decent blokes and going. We're just going to take what we need, and it seems to be this kind of understanding. Is this something we could learn for other fisheries? Do you think Absolutely?
Speaker 3:
There's a lot of fishers that we could be doing the same thing, you know, and it's really now that those barriers have been broken down there is a case where we can work together. I always had in the back of my mind, even when I started this journey with the recreational fishermen. I mean, I've been sharing information with them for years and you know, of course we had the bluefin fishery, but we've got bigger battles. We need to work together on these things, you know. Yes, Well, we've got a very, very healthy fishery in Australia and New Zealand.
Speaker 3:
You look at the commercial sector for bluefin and swordfish and that sort of thing. There's only 30 boats in each country. It's such a hard game to actually be successful at. The guys that are in that fishery now have been in there for a long time and they're the real deal. They know what they're doing. The issue we have is that while we both the recreational and commercial sector in Australia and New Zealand have done a stunning job and we're seeing a rebound in our fishery, we can't control what's happening on the high seas. That's a terrifying thing for me. I fished outside Lord Howe Island last year and I could hear the Aisne boats on the radio, as a lot of you guys do. You look at the vessel finder and you see the plague of boats outside our borders, particularly up in the South Fiji Basin. We've got Spanish vessels down here. For God's sakes, what the hell are they doing down here?
Speaker 2:
We call it the wall of death. No matter what we do here, these fish have tails, the pelagic, migratory fish. We can be as good custodians as we can be, but there's that wall of death that they have to get through as well.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and it's terrifying. You know we can't control it. Although some people are signatories for it, a lot of the nations are not signatories for it. The Spanish are a perfect case of that. They're well known for not being team players. And the most terrifying thing is that we've got and they are camp. You know, I've seen them up the Kermadecs. I fished outside the 200-mile limit chasing bluenose, and I ran into the Spanish fleet and the Chinese fleet, to name a few of the nations.
Speaker 3:
They're not there to be sustainable, that's for sure, mike. You know they're there to just take whatever they can and go on a plunder somewhere else. We've got a serious, serious issue there and that's why I think both the recreational and commercial sectors have got to work together to try and limit what the damage that's being done, because if we don't do something about it, we're not going to have a fishery. It's that simple. You know they're not going to go away. I've heard stories about the Asian fleet where it's not actually economical at this stage to do what they're doing. But when it push comes to shove and we do get our shit together and say to guys, hey, you need to get out, they're going to say hang on. We've got a historical right to be here. We've been here for 15 years fishing in the western South Pacific. We've got a historical right to be here. That's where it'll pay dividends for them not so much now. So, yeah, they're thinking a lot further ahead than we are, so thinking a lot further ahead than we are. So it's a really, really scary thing that's going on outside our borders.
Speaker 3:
I'd really like to congratulate the recreational sector on what they're doing with the fishery. You know they've gone from their bull rush mentality to actually a sports fishery now and I totally applaud what the game fishing clubs and the recreational fishers are doing themselves. They're doing a fantastic job. They're looking after the species and it's all about if you're going to harvest a bluefin tuna, you want to get maximum recovery out of it, and if you're going to release it, release it in the right way. So it's got the best chance of survival. But I applaud the recreational sector and what they're doing. They've really taken the sustainability of their fishery to heart and they're doing the right thing. So, yeah, my hat's off to the guys.
Speaker 2:
John Holdsworth explains the best way to look after the Southern Bluefin tuna fishery and some great information on tagging a Southern Bluefin tuna.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I understand people who spend effort and time to go to remote places to catch these fish and they want something to bring home. They also want a good experience and to make that continue, you should look after the fishery and there's no need to take or keep fishing until everyone's caught a fish and killed a fish. I mean you can share your catch plenty of meat on a big bluefin tuna and if, if fish are in good condition and you can either tag it or just release it, that's also going to be good for the future.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, we've had some good results from tagging.
Speaker 1:
We've put a number of conventional tags in bluefin tuna for many years.
Speaker 1:
The CSIRO and the Commission for Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna have done thousands and thousands of tags which have been really valuable for tracking movement and things, but they haven't done very many in New Zealand.
Speaker 1:
So it's quite interesting to see where the fish from New Zealand end up. Tagging shouldn't be in the side of the fish, but you want it high on the body, probably back by the second dorsal fin, and that avoids any damage to the lateral lines or the you know, the sensory system or the major vessels, blood vessels and it's also more visible. If a fish comes in on its side or something, you can see that it's got that fish has got a tag on, and so if you get a tagged fish and you want to release it, we'd like you to remove the tag or cut the part of the tag off with the number on the end of it before you release it and obviously report it. We've had a few bluefin tuna recaptured with tags, but we haven't had the release information. So it's also important to send the cards in after you've tagged the fish either to your club or onto the internet on fishtag nzconz.
Speaker 5:
Those catches there back to toby barkler from whakatane on the club's winter tuna tournament next weekend so just um, touching on that, on this tuna tournament, like how it all come about was we've always wanted, like whakatane was always known as, uh, turner capital of new zealand, you know, like with the yellowfin and things like that, and like I was sort of a little bit, I was a little bit young I sort of missed the peak of the yellowfin. I think that was sort of late 90s, early 2000s sort of. Then heard all these stories about the great tuna tournament that we've had here in whakatane and you know, thousands of people in a marquee and I thought, um, you know it was after like I'm on the committee of the fishing club there in whakatane and me and my mate dean were on the committee. We thought, you know, with the southern bluefin you need a few things for a good tournament, but the the main thing is the fish, you know, and in the middle of the winter we have all these fish just pouring up the coastline and and I thought that you know like obviously why how bay is right where it's all happening, but it's fairly small, you know what I mean. Like there's Whitehall Bay and TK.
Speaker 5:
Like um, tikaha, you know, haven't got the hugest fishing clubs and parking and all those issues like that, whereas the next best place was Whakatane and I thought you know why not give it a crack. You know, with the fisher there, with all the facilities, let's go. You know the fishermen are pouring up the like Like there was guys coming from the South Island, north of Auckland, and if we can get a decent enough prize pool and some decent rules, we might be able to just pull this off. And sure enough that first year we had close to 300 anglers turn up. You know we filled the club. It was bloody awesome, that's unreal For winter.
Speaker 2:
Just to let those listening know, like what is a normal club night in winter for Whakatane. How many people are in there normally in?
Speaker 5:
winter. It's always a battle in winter. You know, like we always sit around the committee room each month go, how are they going to get the punters in the door. You know, and you're thinking of all these things Like, we never thought in our wildest dreams that we were going to just absolutely fool the club. You know, I remember at the prize giving for that tournament we were going down to tui party hire and hiring bar leaners and we just we just physically couldn't fit people in the in the door. You know, for this, just in the middle of winter, on a cold winter's night, it was pretty cool to be a part of. You know, it was pretty wicked and the fishing.
Speaker 2:
That first trip I was down there and it was what probably four fish that were weighed for that tournament in the end, yeah, it was hard fishing, it was really hard fishing, like it's always.
Speaker 5:
It's like you never know when to when to run a tournament like that. Like the idea of having it was fairly early we had it last year was the 20th of june, I think because of the weather, like that's another issue with this. Um, just a bit of an issue with the tournament. And and trying to hold a tournament in the middle of the winter, it's just issue with the weather, especially out on that remote coast there. It actually got pushed back three weeks that tournament. When we advertised the tournament we had postponement dates just because of that weather, you know. And I said to the guys on the committee I said look, the fishermen are going to turn up regardless. You know, like as long as there's two or three days of flat weather, they're going to be here. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:
So look, you had a successful first year, so this is the second year for the tournament and it's coming up soon yeah, that's right.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, so it's taken a big leap this year. I think last year, um, the heaviest tuna got five grand and it's up to 50 this year, so it's taken a hell of a leap this year. So, and of course, that's attracted a whole lot of anglers and I think it's not far off reaching max capacity. So it's going to be pretty, pretty cool to see everyone turn up. We just got to keep our fingers and toes crossed for this, uh, for a nice weather window.
Speaker 2:
The fish bring in the anglers, but the anglers also bring in the sponsors, and it's the sponsors that make these kind of things happen, isn't it?
Speaker 5:
that's right, mike. And yeah, just a big shout out to Jason Hubbard. He's got got Hubbard contracting and he was behind us right from the word go, which was pretty cool, you know. Like I went to him last year, you know, three or four months before the tournament, came up with a silly idea in the middle of winter running a tournament and he just said, yeah, I'm with you the whole way. So that was. It was pretty neat to get his backing and he's backed it once again this year. So it was bloody awesome. And when we've got a whole, I think everyone I've asked, you know, like everyone I've approached, mike has been right behind us.
Speaker 2:
So it's been bloody awesome last year you guys included kayika. Can you tell us a bit about that? Yeah, that's right, mike.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, so with the fish that were coming in and getting weighed in, we were filleting the fish for the anglers. So if so, there's tuna were coming in, gill and gutter, they'd been on ice and then we were me and dean were down there with a kaika trailer filleting these fish, which were in beautiful condition, would then vacuum pack them and then if the anglers didn't want the heads in frame, so we were just working with a local ewe and and putting it out on the radio stations and stuff like that, and the community were coming down and getting these beautiful southern bluefin wings and heads and the frames and all the off cuts, like there was just absolutely nothing going to waste, which was bloody awesome, you know. So it worked really, really well.
Speaker 2:
Whakatane seems to be looking at fishing comps just a little bit differently these days. So you've done that, which is so awesome, and I'm 100% behind you with that, but you also had like a kina eating competition for one comp yeah, we did, that's right.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, we had the kaiika tournament, which is really cool. So, like I'm a pretty mad keen diver as well. So, um, we had a, we had a pack horse crayfish section and a red crayfish section, but for something different, we had the um top 10 heaviest kitters and I think we had something like 400 kitters come across the weigh station, yeah, which is pretty cool. So these guys are going out and picking the biggest 10 kitters. So, um, I think the biggest 10, uh, come from white island. But it was amazing just a bit of information there around kitters, uh, the shells at white island was smaller but they were a lot thicker. So they, you know, you had these big kitters come from the rows and, like our close ownersers, had these bigger bodies but they had a lot thinner shells. But the ones at White Island were smaller but had super thick shells. So whether or not the sulfur or anything like that's got something to do with it, I don't know, but yeah, it was an interesting tournament and it was really really popular with the community.
Speaker 5:
So looking forward for that one next year or this, your president hayden johnson told me something like 100 new members came out of that tournament. Just by doing something a bit different. The club got 100 new members. Yeah, yeah, just created this whole new group and I, um, organized a kind of eating competition which we um, we advertised over the radio and the entrance came in, obviously, because then all these come in from the way station, and then we had a kind of eating competition, you know. So we had these people that weren't even into fishing at all really, you know what I mean and they would. They turned up for a kind of eating cup. Oh, the fishing club, this is cool, and how do we sign up here and things like that. So that was pretty wicked and I think, what chip shot.
Speaker 2:
So, um, that was bloody awesome, yeah and that concludes episode four of the nzsfc pod and real podcast. Further details of topics mentioned in this podcast are available in the show notes. We're seeking your feedback on this podcast. We'd like to know what fishing topics you'd like us to explore. You can send us a message through the show notes. The best way to support us is to subscribe to the podcast. That way, you'll never miss a new episode. Nzssc is an incorporated society run by volunteers to represent fishing clubs and their members. Thank you, thank you.
