John Bennett, Deep Sea Skipper

Name: John Bennett

Years in industry: 34

Occupation: Skipper, Deep Sea Fishing Vessels, Sanford Limited

Location: Southern Antarctic and Atlantic Oceans

Making a difference: Working towards improving seabird by-catch mitigation methods

Every day is extraordinary for southern oceans skipper John Bennett. Whether it’s hauling up the world-renowned colossal squid, capturing the beauty of jade icebergs on film for documentaries, or developing seabird by-catch mitigation methods John Bennett’s daily work is worlds away from a 9-5 job.

In the Antarctic and South Atlantic oceans, John has the big responsibility of skippering deep sea vessels with more than two dozen crew at a time, including his wife Sue on some voyages.

John’s job requires spending between 60 and 95 days at sea, where he is responsible for navigating some of the world’s most dangerous yet beautiful oceans on a daily basis and capturing, processing and storing toothfish for sale to export markets, particularly the United States where the species is popular.

Fame found John in February 2007 when he memorably pulled up a 495 kilogram female colossal squid refusing to let go of its toothfish dinner. The squid is now interred and on display in Wellington at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. “Catching the squid was special, one of those moments that memories are made of and I’m sure I’ll have many opportunities to relive that moment many time with the grandkids”.

It’s John’s commitment to developing seabird by-catch mitigation methods that makes him one of New Zealand’s seafood industry heroes. He can proudly say that in the past 15 years he hasn’t hooked a single albatross.

“The development of good fishing practice (including Seabird safe methods) has been a driving force in the last 15 years. Seafood company Sanford have openly backed and funded many ideas that we have come up with in our goal to minimise our fishing footprint. I’ve been fishing for over 30 years and I think I can show that it’s possible to fish, do well, and not catch birds. We now have crew that think about environmental problems and react accordingly without being told.”

John’s achievements in seabird mitigation are also internationally recognised as a Golden Albatross Award recipient from the International Fishers Forum.

"I like to think I was born a fisherman,” says John.

“I’ve always loved fishing and I struggle to imagine doing anything else. I enjoy the freedom of making instant, decisive decisions and not really knowing what will happen next and I particularly enjoy the challenge of extreme weather, ice, freezing conditions, and the way my crew meet those challenges. To me, those tricky situations are what are missing from most people’s lives.”