NZSM Online

Get TurboNote+ desktop sticky notes

Interclue makes your browsing smarter, faster, more informative

SciTech Daily Review

Webcentre Ltd: Web solutions, Smart software, Quality graphics

Spotlight

Life With Lobsters

Life is all lobsters at the moment for MAF Fisheries researcher Kerri Lister. She's spent the last six months chasing rock lobsters from East Cape to Fiordland.

Lister and a colleague have been working on commercial rock lobster boats around the country, measuring the tail width and carapace length of the catch, and recording details of the sex and condition of the rock lobsters and the area, depth and type of pots in which they were caught.

"The average day begins at dawn when the first pot is hauled up," says Lister, "and usually ends at dusk. It's busy work. We normally measure about 1,700 or 1,800 rock lobsters a day -- that's about two every minute."

Although the work is fairly predictable, the weather isn't.

"One day we'll be in shorts and T-shirts, and the next we'll be decked out in overpants and parkas. Usually it's wet weather gear because we work on the deck which is exposed to the weather, waves and wind," says Lister.

Lister is one of five people employed by the MAF Fisheries research stock monitoring group, and works on rock lobster monitoring from August to January, the peak time for landings around the coast.

During the last month, Lister has flown to Te Anau, steamed out to the inlets and bays of Fiordland, taken off to Kaikoura for four days of fine weather and then returned to Fiordland to complete the survey there. She's keen to see the survey finished so she can get back to Wellington for a friend's wedding and her role as bridesmaid.

"It's a lifestyle," Lister says, noting that she's got used to having no set plans for the weekend.

"It's also a chance to get to places that you don't normally see as a tourist."

The lifestyle can involve working during a four-metre swell with winds of 50 knots roaring past, or being dropped off by floatplane or helicopter to boats in isolated inlets.

Lister enjoys being involved with the "wet" end of the fishing industry, and hopes to supplement her BSc in marine science with a diploma in aquaculture. Until then, she'll be keeping an eye on the weather and her travel bag packed for the next set of field work.