Splashzone Marine fish for a large tonnage of crayfish all around the North Island of New Zealand.
The total catch is split between Gisborne, ‘Legend1’, Whangaehu, “Splashzone II” and the West Coast, “Medea”.
Most of NZ crayfish gets exported live and is flown all around the world. The final destination is to high-end restaurant meals.
“It is all about having options”
– Splashzone Marine Owner Richard
As Richie says, fishing is the easy part. Watching prices, talking to the industry and brokers, keeping the product up and in good condition at the right time, keeping enough quota up to the crews to keep them going are mostly what keep Richard and Jean occupied.
Crayfishing can be a stressful time due to price fluctuation, scarcity and weather. Early 2014 the price dropped from record highs of around $120.00 kilo to $70.00. “Is it going to keep going down or go up again?” if so will the price stay there?
Richard is one of the few smaller boat fisherman to have the versatility in his boats that if they cannot make the boat pay with current crayfish prices they can easily go wet fishing until prices improve. Not only does it help keep stress levels down it also helps keep the boats working, the crews employed and the bottom line improving.
Hence a new boat, Gancho has been added as COVID – 19 struck our crayfishing industry and highlighted the need for a purpose built wetfishing vessel, for Napier. ‘