In our 2021 annual report, we provided an introduction to this ambitious project that seeks to
lighten the way we harvest inshore finfish.
As a wholly owned Māori organisation, our assets can never be sold. Decisions we make must take a
long-term view that includes our obligation and our right to feed our people. We seek to lead the
conversation on where and how we fish now, and into the future.
The three pillars
Responsible fishers
Ensuring our contract fishers are well supported through our Responsible Fisher
Programme and continue to display exemplary behaviours on the water.
Where we do/don't fish
Moana New Zealand do not own any fishing vessels. Working with our contract fishers we
seek to understand where we do and don’t fish and how this might overlap with
habitats of significance.
Lightening fishing gear
Survey our contract fishers to understand what gear types are used, what innovations
have been implemented and what their aspirations are for further improvements.
We’ve been working hard this year to progress this piece of work. Here’s what
we’ve achieved so far:
Engaged International Fishing Technologist Dr Steve Eayers, who along with our Sustainability
Advisors Terra Moana, has interviewed all full-time contract trawl fishers, two longliners and two
Danish Seine fishers to understand their gear, what changes they have made, the benefits they are
seeing and what aspirations they have to be even better in the future.
Some of the key findings were:
all participants have made modifications to their gear to reduce their impact on the seafloor
and/or reduce bycatch
many participants have modified their headline gear to increase selectivity and their mesh size
to reduce small fish bycatch
all have ideas on how they can be even better but need support to bring their ideas to fruition
Dr Steve Eayers
Engaged International Fishing Technologist
“I was surprised and encouraged to hear of the progress Moana New Zealand contract fishers
have made towards reducing trawl impacts on the seabed. They have made great strides
replacing many trawl components with light-weight materials and operating their trawl gear
in a way to minimise seabed impacts. Many are eager to make further progress and their
efforts should be lauded and promoted widely.”
We invested in ArcGIS mapping tool and worked with our contract fishers to understand exactly where
they are fishing. As privately owned businesses, it is prudent to acknowledge where they fish
forms part of their intellectual property, so credit must be given to our fishers for the trust
they place in Moana and the desire they have to make good decisions about where they fish and do
not fish in the future.
Where we have been able, we’ve obtained data layers of habitats of significance which have been made more readily available towards the end of this reporting year, to overlay
against our fishing behaviour to know how much we are avoiding those areas wherever possible.
Through this process we have been able to verify that our bottom contact inside 12nm is 3.5% and
0.5% within the EEZ.
nz map infograph of bottom contact EEZ
II of IV
Tio Transformation project
Moana New Zealand is the first fully integrated oyster company in Aotearoa, demonstrating how
Māori are leading the way in the oyster industry.
In 2019 we set a five-year aspirational plan. For Tio, that meant an objective to achieve
producing 2 million dozen oysters by 2022. Three years on, a lot has happened, and that objective
has been reviewed to 1.65 million dozen by 2027.
To get to our objectives, every part of the supply chain needs to play its part. We’ve made
a significant $21 million investment to deliver on our strategy.
Fiona Wikaira – GM Aquaculture
So we are partway through our farm transformation. What that means is a significant improvement in
working conditions. It was an opportunity to share with our shareholders what we are actually
doing and what our transformation journey was about so they could hear directly from us on a more
intimate basis.
Hohepa Rauputu – Tio Operations Manager
I get excited by all the innovation around us at the moment, I think it's just really cool because we’re all trying new things, some of it’s never been done before, so we are learning as we go. There’s just heaps of change in the air, and it's really exciting.
Vince Syddall – Retiring National Farm Manager
It’s the best thing that’s happened in this oyster industry in 40 years. You know they are very labour intensive, and this is one way of helping that get over that hump.
Rene Crough – Farm and Shore Manager
There's been a few challenges when you're putting the new lines and that out, baskets and that out. There's sort of a bit of team bonding goes on there, as well.
Fiona
Today we have the blessing of our new barge, and it’s the first new barge that Coromandel’s had in over 30 years. It's been designed specifically for our new farming technology.
The name of the barge is Kirinihi, and that’s a real acknowledgment of Vince Syddall, who has been our National Farm Manager, and you know, a real pioneer not only in the aquaculture business, but within the oyster industry as well, and this is part of his legacy that we will remember him by.
Overview of Tio Growth Cycle
Breeding Programme
Moana New Zealand’s oyster journey began in 1996 with the purchase of Pacific Marine Farms.
Since then, we have continued to grow through innovation and acquisition. We saw the advantages of
using selective breeding and improved husbandry practices to produce an oyster which outperformed
tio produced from wild spat grown on sticks. Over 20 years ago, we partnered with the Cawthron
Institute to host the field trials of their newly established breeding program. This collaboration
has endured to this day, but Moana is now leading its own commercial breeding program and has
made significant gains bringing resilience and better productivity to its tio.
Our capacity to grow all-season oysters is the result of work led by Cawthron to develop a
novel induction method for safely producing triploid ‘all season’ oysters. Unlike
typical diploid oysters which lose meat condition after they spawn and are un-harvestable
during summer, triploids do not spawn and can effectively be harvested year-round. The
traditional method developed in the USA and Europe for the production of triploid oysters is
complex and involves breeding over two consecutive generations.
The merits of the induction method developed by Cawthron in New Zealand mean that genetic gains achieved through selective breeding can be quickly combined with the “all-season” advantages of triploids.
More recently, Moana with funding from Seafood Innovation Ltd, worked with Cawthron to develop new hatchery rearing methods suited to triploid larvae to ensure we can maximise oyster supply in the future. The confidence gained from this led to our investment in Kirikiritātangi, our new multi-million-dollar hatchery facility.
Hatchery
Early in the year, we had a ceremony to bless Kirikiritātangi, our new hatchery building in Nelson
and a core part of our aspirational plan for Tio. This facility is built on sustainable principles.
Kirikiritātangi — The name of our new hatchery
The name of our new hatchery is a gift from local Iwi: Kirikiri is a word that refers to pebbles,
shingle, or sand. Tātangi is a variation of the word tangi, which means song, sound, or voice
(or to cry). Together, they form Kirikiritātangi, the name given to shingle beds and the noise
they make carrying the sound, wai and abundance of kaimoana under the Te Taero a Kereopa (the
boulder bank) to the shellfish beds that were located there before the land was claimed for
farming at Wakapūaka.
Kirikiritātangi is more than a name for a building; it is a statement of the past, present and
future for this area. Shane Graham (Pouwhakahaere/CEO Ngāti Rārua) says that “the name was chosen
to remember and acknowledge the area’s importance as a nursery and as kaimoana beds”. We are
grateful to ngā iwi o Te Tauihu o te Waka a Māui who have given us this taonga.
The building is designed to reduce its environmental impact. It has its own rainwater collection
and solar energy systems, and uses locally sourced products in its construction.
It’s been amazing today, it’s such an awesome reason to celebrate! It’s a $5 million facility that’s taken, you know, almost 20 years in the making with all the science and R&D and partnerships over the years.
But I’m most excited to see is what’s possible. I just think we’re capable of anything and this sort of facility, this sort of investment really pushes the boundaries of what’s possible for us as Māori in fisheries.
It’s a beautiful facility, it’s all very shiny and sparkly now but I know within a number of months it’s going to be humming with beautiful baby tio.
I want to give a massive shout out to the team who have brought the project together. They have worked tirelessly all through challenging conditions with Covid to bring together all of the thinking, all of the heart, all of the science and the R&D and the innovation to put together Kirikiritātangi in a way that we can all be immensely proud of as we are proud of them.
You know, they’re a beautiful oyster so that’s part of it. But also they carry this beautiful story that started 30 years ago with the Settlement of Māori Fisheries. And they bring with it stories of 58 Iwi who are invested in this company as the owners and we carry that forward as the legacy and the responsibility. And to have Māori and Moana at the forefront of the tio industry in Aotearoa is amazing.
Growing our capacity
The first commercial run from the new hatchery is due in December 2022. Floods in August this year
have delayed production, but also demonstrated our resilience and the measures we have in place to
protect our tio from algae contamination and other issues.
1.65 million
dozen oysters by 2027
When it is running at full capacity, Kirikiritātangi will provide high quality oyster spat to Moana’s farming sites throughout the North Island. This ensures a steady supply to meet our 2027 goal of 1.65 million dozen oysters.
Grow Out Farms
We now have a business which is geographically spread from the top of the North Island in
Parengarenga, to our hatchery, nursery and farms in the top of the South Island.
This geographic spread gives us strategic benefits:
Biosecurity risk mitigation
Increased harvestable days
Great growing areas
Water space for future growth
$15.9m
will be invested by Moana for stage two
Moana will invest an estimated $15.9 million to deliver stage two of its plan. Existing tio
farming infrastructure is being removed and progressively replaced with semi-automated farming
technology.
To date, we have removed the old timber rack structures from 86 hectares of farm across three of
our growing areas (Whangaroa, Coromandel and Parengarenga) and instead developed over 340
long-lines of floating tio baskets. We are approximately 65% through the transformation of our farm and
our teams have learnt a lot along the way, rolling out a new technology while keeping production
objectives on target and dealing with the complications of a Covid19 world.
Better for our people
Flip farming improves working conditions for our people:
Reduces working in water and mud year round
Reduces manual handling
Greater predictability of hours and shifts are not tide-depedent
Elimination of non-value added activity like cleaning bags
New employment opportunities
Broader demographics can do the work
Leroy Apiata
Whangaroa
“The new flip farm system provides a larger window to work the farm, less manual handling and not working and walking in the mud becomes more attractive with future recruitment.”
Better for Te Taiao
Flip farming improves working conditions for our people:
~99.7% reduction in H6 treated timber infrastructure
Full rows replaced with two posts
Reduces siltation
Improves waterflow
Reduces need for repairs and maintenance
Improves visual impact
Immediate notable effects on biotic value by wild catch
Reduces the disturbance of the seabed ecosystem
No bag movements between farms or regions for transfers
Local markets and export
Demand for Moana New Zealand all-season oysters continues to outstrip supply. It has taken several
decades for the industry to move from its infancy to now, where there has been margin creation with
scale and price realisation achieved in market.
III of IV
Our commitment to the 6R’s
Moana New Zealand has a deep sense of responsibility of contributing to the wellbeing of future
generations including the way we treat the environment and how we interact with it.
As the largest Iwi-owned kaimoana company in the country our commitment is reflected in our
values. Kaitiakitanga sits at the forefront of this as we strive to be good custodians of our
people and te taiao. This can be seen in our commitment to the 6 R’s.
Reuse Recycle Refuse Rethink Repair
Reduce
Part of rethinking how we do things includes re-evaluating what we do, why we do it, and how we
can improve. Here we provide you with a few examples of how our people are walking the walk and
living true to our 6R commitment.
As part of our Tio Transformation project we are removing ~99.7% H6 treated timber
infrastructure as we move to semi-automated farming practices.
To save this going to landfill, Morgan from our Whangaroa tio team has found a way to reuse
the timber being pulled out of the water by fencing off a walkway at Te Puna Roimata
cemetery.
Our Coromandel team have also found another use. Repurposing the timber into garden planter
boxes and picnic tables for summer.
Through this project we also need to retire our old baskets that tio were grown in. Bradley
Lithgow from our Coromandel tio team has taken the old triangular baskets and is using them
as sleeves for trees, protecting saplings from animals and high winds. The flat bags can be
unrolled and used as vine netting, protection screens or trellis.
Ofa Pamaka from Wiri noticed that polybin liners that come on a roll are wrapped around
a black plastic tube which were being sent to landfill. The team are now collecting
these and once the box is full, return the tubes back to the supplier who reuses them
for the next batch of liners. Every bit counts!
Mt Wellington has served as our collection hub for our Bata Gumboot recycling initiative,
where used gumboots are collected in containers before being shipped to the manufacturing
facility in Wellington where the gumboots are shredded and turned into new gumboots for home
use.
The four stages of PVC recycling:
Collection - drop used Bata gumboots off to Wellington manufacturing facilities.
Sorting - Bata separate the non PVC materials from the boot.
Granulated - the boots are then processed through a granulating machine that shreds
the PVC into smaller pellets
Re-manufacture - Bata then uses the recycled PVC material in its injection moulding
machines to produce new gumboots ready for home use which can be purchased through
Mitre10.
We want to re-process this gumboot waste into the raw materials to create brand new Bata PVC gumboots. Our main objective is to have zero used/worn PVC gumboots being disposed of into landfill and to help our customers responsible dispose of their used boots
Bata Shoes NZ
While there are many examples of this, we pay a special mention here to Steve Mowbray for
helping educate his team on what can and can’t be recycled and where to put it. Sounds
simple, but a little goes a long way. This is action, and at other sites, has made sure our
recycling streams are clean.
Our Wiri and Coromandel sites have also begun to recycle their soft plastic offcuts or waste
product of packaging. Their first shipment saw 2 cubic metres of soft plastic being sent to
SaveBoard who upcycle plastic waste into high quality building materials for use in both
homes and commercial buildings. This is saving approximately 50kgs or 3-4 trailer loads of
plastic per year from going to landfill.
The tio deliveries have largely moved away from using Polybins for local Auckland deliveries
over the last two years. A chilled truck is used for short haul meaning we have been able to
stop using polybins and have replaced these with cardboard cartons.
Pāua Tūwā are refusing to use polybins for the transfer of pāua, instead opting for
reusable plastic bins which are sturdy and provide all the benefits of polybins between
our site in Palmerston North and Masterton.
This initiative will take approximately 6,500 polybins out of the business and comes
with a bonus cost saving of over $40,000 per annum.
At Mt Wellington we have been rethinking our products and have recently moved from gel packs
to a more sustainable cooling option of ice water packs.
These packs consist of recyclable soft plastic that is filled with water and frozen before
adding to our storing containers for safe transporting of goods. After use, these packs can
be reused or are then cut and drained with the outer packaging being recycled. This is not
only a more sustainable practice but is also easier for disposal for our customers as they
no longer need to find a way to dispose of the gel.
Nathan Reid from our Mt Wellington, Auckland Ika site has done a car swap with his wife and
started driving her hybrid car to work. The 55 kilometre daily round trip is saving at least
$100 in fuel each week and is massively reducing his carbon footprint at the same time.
Robyn from Coromandel has started repurposing oyster shells and grit from the rumbling
machine which used to be tipped into the shell waste skip bin. Robyn and the team have
been taking the grit home for their chickens to peck through. The calcium in the tio
shells are ideal for forming healthy, strong egg shells and the grit from the rumbler
has been rinsed with fresh water which helps ensure minimal salt is transferred to the
garden in the process.
Another use they have found for the shell is in the bottom of their plant pots for
better drainage.
We’re all about innovation at Moana New Zealand. Recently David Cossey, ITC and Projects
Manager was visiting the Coromandel Tio site and noticed a little kiwi ingenuity happening.
“I was impressed that Vince Syddall and Rene Crouch were looking at how to maintain the
semi-automated oyster farming lines on the water, more efficiently than from the
barges.”
They put their heads together to rethink, reuse and repurpose some old farm equipment
and came up with the perfect solution. This saved having to design and purchase new
equipment, by modifying unused equipment.
They put their heads together to rethink, reuse and repurpose some old farm equipment and came up with the perfect solution.
Our COPACK fish bins are a vital part of fish production and are made from a rigid HDPE.
They’re in a constant cycle of use, wash, sanitise and reuse with our contract fishers.
Like anything, they sometime break. Wherever possible these are sent for repair so they
can remain in the cycle. At the end of life, they are returned to ES Plastics to be
chipped down and recycled into new products.
The recent pandemic also saw the need to change and alter some of our practices, one such
change resulting in the first paperless renumeration review. This move resulted in the
reduction of printouts and paper used saving 1400 pages.
Wiri installed a water recirculatory cooling system for the tray packing machine which
previously used 5L per minute. It now recirculates the same water resulting in large savings
in water usage.
We’re reducing the amount of packaging we use to get our oysters to supermarkets.
Previously these were sent in a two-piece cardboard box with, three labels, gel packs
and tape. Now, they are packed straight into crates and sent on to the supermarket,
washed and returned for reuse.
We have a long list of ideas we are looking to explore and initiate. The examples above confirm
that it is the collective efforts that make the difference, that our company and our people are
committed to being a part of that difference. This is an ongoing journey and we look forward to our
continued progression.
IV of IV
He koha
– koha mai, koha atu
This year we were pleased to launch our sustainability rewards programme – He Koha. Based on
the whakatauki, aroha mai, aroha atu (love received is love returned).
The koha we refer to here is a sustainability idea that helps to reduce our carbon emissions or
aligns to our commitment of 6Rs (rethink, refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and repair).
For every idea given, we give our people a koha in return that will help them on their journey to
living a more sustainable life.
The programme was launched in July 2022. The first quarter saw an uplift of 72% in engagement with
38% of ideas already having been implemented.
Pleasing is the amount of thought that has gone into the ideas. Here’s a sample:
Andrew Oliver
Depot Manager, Whitianga
“Encourage our fishers to sort their rubbish and recycling to reduce waste to
landfill”
Grant Rolfe
Engineering Supervisor, Palmerston North
“The current Forklift Charger in the Label Line is an old design and uses more
power than current models, a quote has been sourced which shows we can save $672
in power and also reduce our carbon footprint by 972kg per year.”
David Cossey
Group Portfolio, Projects and ICT Manager
“Use the mobile app, Snap, Send, Solve to report environmental concerns you see in
your local community”
/
Ross Brown, Mt Wellington
Every quarter the Sustainability Working Group (made up of participants from across our
business) chooses a winner for the best idea. In the first quarter, Ross Brown from Mt
Wellington won for his idea of catching rainwater to wash down trucks and hose down the yard.
The prize is a kai voucher, a gift bag packed full of sustainable everyday products and the
winner also gets to nominate a charity of their choice for Moana to koha to their cause.
Ross chose Para Kore who provide education through wānanga that supports groups, whānau and
communities to design out and reduce their waste.
