A 30-year dream of Ngati Kahungunu to own and fish with a commercial fishing vessel based in its own area has been realised with the arrival of 34m stern trawler the Glomfjord.
Berthed at Napier Port late on Sunday morning and heading for the Chatham Rise tomorrow, the Glomfjord is a factory vessel which owners Pania Fisheries, a 50/50 joint venture between Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Inc and Napier-based Hawke's Bay Seafoods, intend will provide up to 80 jobs based mainly in Hawke's Bay.
Built in Norway where it was launched in 1992, named after a fishing town, and bought in Denmark for $3.5 million in November last year, it arrived in New Zealand when it berthed in Nelson five months ago.
Having fished mainly the North Sea, it was refurbished for New Zealand conditions after a journey which stretched into five months with delays en route to England, in Spain and then Panama, and has fished hoki quota off the West Coast of the South Island for the last two months.
Iwi and Pania Fisheries chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana, who voyaged on the Glomfjord in the first leg of the delivery voyage, on which his son was an engineer, said the iwi had dreamed since the introduction of the quota management in 1986 that it would be able to get into significant commercial fishing with its own vessel.