Sanford Limited has become the first New Zealand company to join the World Ocean Council (WOC), significantly expanding the fishing industry’s involvement in the WOC.
Sanford is a company devoted entirely to the harvesting, farming, processing, storage and marketing of quality seafoods and aquaculture products, mainly from New Zealand waters.
Sanford managing director, Eric Barratt, said, “With Sanford’s fleet operating around New Zealand and the Pacific gathering a range of ocean, weather and climate data, we’re impressed by the potential to share this as part of WOC’s efforts to expand the gathering and sharing of information by ocean users. This data is an important global business and scientific resource.”
In confirming Sanford’s WOC membership, WOC executive director Paul Holthus said fisheries companies have unique ocean stewardship concerns and responsibilities.
“One of the key areas that we believe Sanford can engage on in the near future is in bringing fisheries industry involvement and leadership to WOC’s ‘Smart Ocean/Smart Industries’ initiative. This program is working to scale-up data gathering by all kinds of ocean industries and achieve economies of scale and business benefits for industry and the broader ocean science community in doing so.
“There is a particular need and opportunity to expand and improve the role of fishing vessels in collecting information which can lead to more efficient and better-managed fisheries, as well as improved safety at sea,” said Mr Holthus.
