Facts about Charter Vessels in the New Zealand seafood industry

• New Zealand owned businesses or individuals who own or lease quota are free to choose how they use that quota. Some may choose to charter vessels to catch their quota. 
• A chartered fishing vessel in New Zealand is usually called a CV (charter vessel) or JV (joint venture). Some of the CVs or JVs are from non-New Zealand companies - these have been referred to as FCVs (foreign charter vessels) in the past.
• A charter vessel from another country is not foreign countries catching our fish - it is a hired vessel working for a New Zealand-owned company.
• All major New Zealand deep-water fishing companies use some charter vessels and/or sell the right to catch their quota to companies that operate charter vessels.
• Some entities own quota but choose to not operate their own fishing vessels or they don't own fishing vessels. It may be too expensive to buy a vessel for a limited season fishery, so they charter one instead.
• Charter vessels catch close to 80% of Iwi-owned quota for deep water fisheries like hoki or warehou.
• Under existing regulations, charter vessels cannot fish where New Zealand's inshore fishermen mostly work.
• The company that charters the vessel is legally responsible for it and how it operates while it is working for them. Since all of New Zealand's fishing quota is New Zealand owned, the vessels chartered to fish it are all working for New Zealand companies.
• Chartering a vessel to catch your quota is like hiring a bus to get your sports team to another town.  You wouldn’t buy a bus just for the one trip.  The bus driver, who is trained and qualified to do the job, comes with the bus.  You cannot ask the driver to do anything outside the law.  You cannot, for example, let the driver continue driving without break for excessive hours, even if he or she wants to.
• Well-run charter vessel operations make a significant contribution to the New Zealand economy. Their catch creates income for New Zealanders and New Zealand-owned companies.
• The crews of charter vessels are entitled to the same employment rights and conditions as anyone working in New Zealand. However, the crews do not qualify for social support services or ACC and therefore do not cost the taxpayer.

Why do some businesses use CVs/JVs?

• Most deep water fish are caught and processed at sea, but the equipment needed to do this is very expensive. A modern new factory freezer trawler with the technology to process and freeze fish would cost over $50 million. Many New Zealand operators couldn't afford this kind of cost and still make a profit.
• Many of the deep water species of fish that charter vessels harvest can only be fished during specific seasons. It doesn't make sense to buy expensive vessels and keep them tied up for a good part of the year.
• If New Zealand companies could not use charter vessels to catch low-value fish such as squid, jack mackerel and barracouta they would not be caught. Under the International law of the sea, foreign-owned companies could be allowed to harvest the fish that New Zealand companies do not catch.
• Commercial fishing in New Zealand is managed by a quota system. All fishing quota is owned by New Zealand companies. The use of charter vessels ensures New Zealand's quota is caught for New Zealand companies.
• There is a shortage of New Zealanders to crew all vessels fishing in New Zealand waters, so the use of charter vessels and their crew helps meet this shortage.
• Charter vessels do help provide year-round employment for New Zealanders who work in businesses that support fishing activities. These include maintenance staff, provedors, and those who work for engineering firms, fabrication firms, fuel suppliers, packaging suppliers, and port companies.

Foreign crew regulations

• Like New Zealand fishing companies, charter operators work with the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries and Department of Labour to make sure they have a minimum impact on the environment and have fair employment practices. Charter vessels regularly carry observers to make sure this is the case.
• Food safety and health and safety practices on charter vessels are benchmarked against New Zealand standards.
• Crews on well-run vessels work for wages that are considerably higher than the average earnings rate in their own countries and are above international market rates. Charter companies have to agree to pay their crew more than the New Zealand minimum wage before their crew can be granted work visas. Crew also get bonuses.
• All responsible charter operators agree that bad operators should not be employed in New Zealand fisheries. All fishing vessels - whether New Zealand owned or not - have to operate to the same high standards.