Seven individuals and businesses, who have each made a meaningful contribution to Aotearoa New Zealand's seafood industry, were celebrated today at the ninth annual Seafood Stars Awards. The Awards were held at the end of the 2024 Seafood New Zealand Conference in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Lisa Futschek, Seafood New Zealand CEO, said it was a pleasure to recognise so many passionate, committed kaitiaki of our moana.
"We have such a strong mix of people and new innovations, from an AI system to help fishers reduce bycatch and discards to acknowledging one of our big companies that has managed to achieve an incredible reduction in its carbon footprint by 24%.
"Our Seafood Stars have also evolved over time. This year we have two new awards to reflect our work to make sure we are a sector that is both safe and inclusive for all - the ACC Workplace Safety and Wellbeing Award and the WISA - Champions of Women in Seafood Award.
"Our ACC Workplace and Wellbeing Award champion is FirstMate, the national charity that provides essential support to fishers and their whānau when times are tough. And our WISA - Champions of Women in Seafood Award champion is Emma Thompson, who has tirelessly worked to improve the industry's social license in the media and also produced the highly successful Seafood Saturday festival in Nelson in 2023 and 2024.
"Seafood New Zealand's own Rosa Edwards was nominated seven times for the Young Achiever Award. She was instrumental in helping fishers to implement seabird mitigation measures in the surface longline fleet that often go above and beyond what will soon become regulation, and was a big support to fishers through the North Island Weather Event.
"We have two winners of the Future Adaptation Award. The first is Dom Talijancich, who created 'Deep Set Fishing Technology', which combines an underwater camera, advanced species recognition software, and real-time data transmission to enable more selective and responsible fishing methods.
"The second Future Adaptation Award winner is Sealord, which has managed to achieve an incredible reduction in its carbon footprint by 24% through the reduction in fuel consumption across its fleet, by ensuring more frequent maintenance programmes on some vessels, more efficient fuel usage generally and the retirement of Sealord's chartered vessel. And their quest to further reduce plastic usage continues.
"And finally, our two Lifetime Membership Award champions are Laws Lawson and Doug Saunders-Loder. Laws has worked on the design and implementation of the Māori fisheries and aquaculture settlements, and was the inaugural chair and CEO of Fisheries Inshore New Zealand.
"Doug, over his long career, has held various roles, including as a cray fisher, Resource Manager for Talley's Group, and has been President of the New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen for 21 years.
"The Seafood Stars Awards are our chance to celebrate some of our - those people who go above and beyond for our sector, and who play a big part in enabling us to deliver sustainable, low-carbon, nutritious and delicious NZ seafood here at home and right across the globe. It's important we take time to recognise these people.
"My warmest congratulations to each and every winner - kei runga noa atu koutou!"
