<&>Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English Version One <&>Copyright 1998 School of Linguistics & Applied Language Studies <&>Victoria University of Wellington <&>side one <&>8:42 ron dennis has been in the fishing game for over twenty years and he knows a few of the tricks course there's different ways of putting messages across to different friends <.>and and the ones that are listening in sometimes don't get correct information about perhaps the fish <,> or <.>h how they're working at this time <&>9:00 yeah so <.>w the fishermen would be a bit cagey about saying what er what they're catching and where they're catching it i suppose would they yes um i think that would be fair to say they're er almost always very correct with the weather though which is most important and <{><[>that's the <.>main <[>yeah mm main VALUE perhaps of it is knowing what conditions are just about all the time because there's always someone around that can tell you <.>wheth you know whether they're holed up in <.>am anchorage somewhere or out at sea fishing <.>and yeah but they can be cagey about the fish side of things <{><[>yeah <[>laughs er any codes? i suppose that'd be one way of getting round it mm there's all sorts of ways <.>of mm getting a message through to you know when you're <.>g when you've got a code of <.>some <.>w <.>different everyone works it yeah so they can say <.>c certain things <.>about and make certain comments about rugby games or laughs all sorts of things and er people will know what they're voc catching at the time yeah and you used to fish <.>down down <.>the the south of the island <&>10:00 that's right yeah and um i've heard it said that there's a distinct difference you get down there and you almost have a feeling that <.>you're you're kind of on the edge of the <.>arct of the antarctic is er just <.>what what IS it like down there well it's probably as you say there isn't anything between there <.>and other than a few rocks sticking up er and different islands right to the antarctic so the <.>c the weather conditions of course at certain times can be atrocious mm and <{><[>you work in what kind of boats what size boats down there <[>yeah almost all of them are around the forty six foot mark mm forty six to fifty odd feet around that mark seems to be as far as crayfish are concerned are <.>th you know the ideal unit mm sizewise now by its very nature cray fishing er is it dangerous when you're in heavy seas it can be dangerous yes um er pots are very heavy and they can go flying all round the place at times <.>if <&>11:00 if you're not watching and sea conditions of course inhales i don't know whether a <.>l a lot of people <.>un know or understand the fact that <.>the NORMALLY that er the rougher the conditions that you work in or can work in the better the fish are at the time they very seldom catch good fish in calm weather so that means then that you'd be down there in some really rough weather <{1><[1><.>because <.>if <.>if if you want to get good fish <{2><[2>obviously <[1><.>yeah <[2>right yeah so what's your memory of that er is there a time or two when you thought you weren't going to get back oh yes and probably more than a few times er i've often wondered you know what are we actually doing here laughs yeah because you know er <.>we've i've lost a boat fifty two footer um in big seas one time we broke a <.>c a tail shaft in it and er couldn't um manoeuvre the boat the boat was in good condition other than the propeller wasn't hooked to the boat er to the <.>m engine mm so er it went down and er we were very fortunate that there was another boat only an hour away from us to pick us up <&>12:00 tut so what did you do in the meantime you were just <.>y we were in a <.>b er we <.>g got into the er <.>the the dinghy and started rowing yeah mm almost an hour probably and never moved so <,> you can only keep rowing for so long and of course um in the conditions when they're er big seas it's very hard to row because <,> er one oar can be right up to <.>the <,> to the rowlock in water and the other one's flapping around and the next time the other one's full into the water so <.>it's becomes hard three of us in the boat and um very fortunate to get out of it so the boat went down <,> yeah <{><[>right word <[>and you did what what <.>y um well then <.>b um <.>b went away and had a think about it for a while like you say and er had another one built we built another boat a forty six footer then um and fished it <.>for <{><[>word <[>but i suppose <.>you've you've got to go into debt to get the money to er yeah and we had it <{><[>under insured which is normal when <&>13:00 we first er started out we you know er didn't have a lot of money so er we'd just finished doing a lot of work on it which we didn't increase <.>the would have actually increased the value of <.>the of the VESSEL but of course we didn't increase the value of the insurance and er cost us a lot <[>you'd <.>get you'd get insurance mm and of course then to buy a new boat comes in on top of it as well so it takes a number of years to get back on top of it what's the worst weather you've ever experienced down there down in the south um once wind gets over sixty or seventy knots well that's very hard to know how fast it is blowing it physically just picks up the <.>top the surface of the water and makes visibility you know down to say a hundred <.>or or even <,> fifty metres and it's just <.>th the wind taking the top off the waves and driving at it and it's just as thick as a fog so it becomes very um <,> very rough at times and you've got to be conscious of what's going on around you not just where you <&>14:00 are because it can go from five knots <.>to <,> to er seventy five knots er you know in er in er fifteen minutes less sometimes it looked like just like a fog that was coming to you there would be that much wind in it at that stage normally the sea's still quite flat because it hasn't had time to build but <.>it's you know the force of the wind is quite amazing you can't stand out on the deck or anything <{><[>so you <.>just <[>roaring forties well <{><[>named laughs <[>exactly yeah and you know the radars don't work it's just total blot out <,> the main problem voc with seas isn't so much the <.>am amount of ROLL there is which is the <.>si the size of <.>the the waves it's the amount of tide flow that perhaps is running against it which steeps them up and makes them stand up <.>and mm they become very violent and you can have big seas with only three or four metres <.>of of um waves but they're very steep and you can fall off them and you know broach or something running with them or something like that <&>15:00 it's er true also at times that you'd er you'd be well almost overloaded with the um the <.>k the kind of gear you're carrying with the cray pots and <{><[>so forth <[>yes you have to be very conscious of that it's too easy to um you know keep putting more and more onto a boat because you know in normal conditions <,> as i say normal conditions the boat's quite seaworthy but er as it gets er pitched and rolled um you know into greater levels of er ANGLE then you know <.>th <.>y you can do that big load of fish on deck can put you down and er it changes the stability of the boats but it's experience and er that's one thing you know as we all know you can't buy experience mm you have to experience it and er and make the odd mistake and er <.>a and hope that you come out of it at the other end <,> the people say about the <.>o old time fishermen and er the types of weather that they used to work in <.>and and of course um not for a minute suggesting that we're better fishermen <&>16:00 or better MEN er but that we work far bigger seas than they ever could work because we've got so much better GEAR mm better boats designed more for specific jobs so the seas that <.>th <.>we the fishermen work in today are far greater than they ever could work in the old days does that mean you're taking greater risks yes it becomes harder to make <.>a a bob at the end of the day because you know the <.>t the changing times like i mean a fisherman now has to be an accountant a solicitor laughs you <{1><[1>know an engineer a mechanic <.>and all rolled into one <{2><[2>it's rough trying to make a bob <[1>yeah yeah <[2>so is there pressure for you to get out there <.>in in seas that that you know you shouldn't really <{><[>be in because you've got to make a buck <[>yes yes that's um sure at the end of the day um it all revolves around the amount of money that you've turned over for the year and whether you're going to make a bob and er as i <.>s er probably repeating myself <.>it it seems to work that um the rougher the weather <.>as certainly in the cray fishing line <&>17:00 mm then er <.>th you know the better the fish can be have you gone out er in <.>t er times when <.>you've knew that you shouldn't really be out in those <{><[>seas <[>yes yeah er there isn't any fisherman that hasn't done that mm that um you know he knows his ability the boat's ability and you're <.>w <.>working walking the old fine line at times of er you know of er whether you should be and shouldn't be and there are times when of course <.>you you feel it's not right and you just don't go anyhow now there have been times obviously for reasons that you've been talking about when people drown and er you know you have losses here <,> er loss to the stewart island community i suppose how does the community handle that well <,,> the island itself and the people that have been here for a number of years in the fishing game become er <.>a voc i suppose it's been said laughs lots of times before but <&>18:00 it's a big family so if there is a loss in ANY way to um <.>an an individual islander then it becomes um a loss for the whole of the island very much so mm they um <,> voc are very close the people here whilst they might be individuals i mean as far as tragedies and things like that go they are very close and the boat's only got to be in trouble and everyone no matter what they're doing at the time just down tools and it's all for looking after boats in fact i've seen er people that don't necessarily er enjoy one another company but er if there's problems or strife they just forget everything and it's just gone now you'd remember particular events where people have been drowned is there one that sticks in your memory oh yes there was um one in particular where we lost three in a brand new boat <.>he <.>w the skipper of the boat worked for me for a number of years here on the <&>19:00 island and eventually er went into partnerships and er <,> they were drowned with only forty hours of er on the motor of a brand new boat so er they had a lot of experience um they'd fished for years and just got caught out in a position and ended up er rolling the boat over and they all drowned yeah <,> very close friends you're in competition tut <.>fishermen between fishermen mm um but you're also a community <.>in in your own right i suppose there's the two <.>a two aspects to it <.>is is there yes it's quite daggy you know the <.>b er the way things happen er when everyone steps ashore <,> it's just one big family again and er you know they'd er give you their last sixpence <,> but they get out to sea and er look out <.>because although it tends to have changed er a lot voc in the last few years because of quota because a fisherman has x amount of fish to catch <&>20:00 for the year so er he can just go and er catch that whenever it sort of suits or mm when he's best suited to do it whereas before it was <.>we you know it was open go so how does the competition show at sea what kind of things go on <,> tut i don't think there's anything perhaps physical that happens um you know <.>the <,> the rapport <&>pronounced raypaw between the fishermen here's generally pretty good er depends on the type of fish that they're catching the three main species of course are the paua and the blue cod and the crayfish mm so sometimes you don't want the other guy to know what's actually happening because er or whereabouts because especially with crayfish they can be working quite well in one area and just half a mile away you won't catch a fish or even less of course so how do you STOP someone knowing where you are what you're catching oh there's little tricks you see another boat come along side and <.>you've you'll pick up a pot that you've had half an hour before and of course obviously it's got no crayfish in it when he goes away you go back to picking up the ones that have got fish in <.>and <&>21:00 laughs yeah yeah you know there's lots of little things that you can do there or you can <.>dib deliberately steam to a place and keep packing up gear that you know that you've got to put fresh bait in but there's no fish been working there in the last couple of days mm and they do it the same too yeah <&>21:12