KEY POINTS:
TRAINING PLACE
Panel: Certificate in Marine Technology (level 4)
Where: Mahurangi Technical Institute, Warkworth
Contacts: Website: www.mti.net.nz, phone: (09) 425 8493, email: office@mti.net.nz
Course: 42 weeks, February to November, maximum class size 18, minimum age 18 preferred.
Costs $4200.
Starting salary: Around $40K.
Career opportunities: Aquaculture and aquarium operations, marine administration, eco-tourism. An ocean of opportunities
Marine technology can lead to anything from tourism to fisheries, writes
The Certificate in Marine Technology provides students with the skills, experience and qualifications required in the field of marine technology.
Subjects range from aquaculture, bivalve and marine biology, maritime navigation and mechanical engineering to marine hazard and emergency control. Students also conduct a research project.
The course opens up many pathways within the marine, tourism and fisheries industries.
Employment opportunities include working in aquariums, hatcheries laboratories, on dive boats and in marine tourism and eco-tourism.
THE GRADUATE
Glynn Anderson (30)
Plant manger with Marconee Seafoods, Papakura.
Graduated December 2007.
I was in commercial fishing for 12 years and wanted a change. I wanted to stay within the industry.
Before I did the Mahurangi course, I knew nothing of water quality and maintenance. It also taught me systems, how pumps and filters and aerators and temperature affect water quality, and basically how to keep animals alive. It's a bit different to having a goldfish in your fish tank.
The course taught me about the biology of marine and aquatic species and it got me a job, basically.
I liked that the course wasn't stuck on a singular path. We did electric fishing, which was new to me. It opened up opportunities and different pathways. I could have maybe taken a job with the Department of Conservation with their freshwater management.
The school has an active fish hatchery. If you are doing something on pumps and filters, you get to see how it all works first hand. It's a good course to get established in aquaculture.
I did all the course except for the boatmasters unit as I already have my inshore launchmaster ticket. And that's the equivalent of having an HT licence when the others are sitting their learners'.
I was recommended for this job. I tell people my job is babysitting crayfish.
We export crayfish. When they get overseas, they're called lobsters. They are red rock lobsters - Kiwis call them crayfish but overseas when they talk about crayfish they're usually talking about freshwater species.
At the moment, my boss is away and I'm flat out. The job involves everything from weighing and grading the crayfish to the paperwork, water quality and management because the crayfish are all kept in tanks here. I make sure the water quality is up to standard, that there's sufficient flow; there's filters and the system maintenance. I manage all the stock when it comes in.
We receive stock from the Chatham Islands, from up north, from the East Cape and Whitianga. Today we sent two lots to Japan, one to Hong Kong. We do Singapore, Malaysia and Dubai.
What happens here is the crayfish, or the lobster, whatever you want to call it, comes in either already graded to size, or we have to grade it. There are nine size grades and they are graded by weight.
My boss's partner deals with the buyers overseas. Once the crayfish are sold, we get a fax of what they want. I take the crayfish out of the main tank and put them into the packing tank. We bring them down to 6C; it quietens them for the flight and makes them easier to pack. We have a lady here who packs them, and they are sorted, weighed and packed in a polystyrene with wood, wool and ice, with a hole in the box so they can breathe. It is labelled and taken to the airport. We keep the time the crayfish is in the box to a minimum, to stop mortalities. If the flight leaves at midday we will have them at the airport at 10.30 to be on the flight.
THE EMPLOYER
Richard Hitchings
Owner, Marconee Seafoods
I was looking for a manager and I know Paul Decker [who founded Mahurangi Technical Institute].
He and I were involved with marron farming years and years ago. When I set the business up, I said to Paul that I was after one of his graduates, who he could recommend as manager to run the plant for me.
Glynn is experienced in the fishing industry and he's also got training in marine biology. He is reliable. He's a hard worker and trustworthy.
His qualification is everything I need because I deal in live lobster exports. So he understands the function of the plant, how it all works and how to handle live animals for export. And he's got a fishing background which is great.
He's bloody good.
