Caroline Anderson
Name: Caroline Anderson
Years in industry: 3
Occupation: Owner/operator, inshore fisher, retailer
Vessel: Wairoa
Location: Picton
Step onto Caroline Anderson's 60-year-old fishing boat, and you'll likely get an earful. The young fisherwoman has a welcoming smile, but her parrot Starboard is a squawky bloke.
Come Saturday morning, Starboard is tucked away in the wheelhouse, as Caroline and her crew-hand rope 43-foot Wairoa up against Picton's commercial jetty and hang a sign promising "very fresh fish -straight off the boat".
Regulars include Picton locals, eager to get the freshest fish they can lay their hands on without casting a line, and restaurant chefs.
New girl on the block
“It’s a lifestyle. It’s living a dream and it’s doing it while I can.”
Caroline's first experience with wharf sales came early winter 2008, when her partner convinced her to give up her job as a Ministry of Fisheries observer to help him sell kina from the wharf in Wellington. The couple soon realised wet fish were in higher demand and started fishing cod, groper and butterfish instead.
When bad weather forced them to tie up in Picton they discovered the market in their home port.
Going solo
While her partner Troy concentrates on kina, Caroline runs the Wairoa, a kauri fishing boat converted to a live-aboard vessel that serves as both. Each Wednesday, weather permitting, Caroline, Starboard and crew set off for three days fishing, setting as many nets and drop lines as they can, catching shark, groper and blue cod, before returning to port late Friday.Two tonne challenge
Caroline leases her quota predominantly from Nelson quota broker Donna Wells, but has also bought two tonne of pilchards with an eye to a future market.
Her Little Fish Company is named both for the diminutive size of her operation, and for her goal of attracting New Zealand palates to small fish such as pilchards and herring.
Testimonial
Michael Seresin of Seresin Estate Winery and the Waterfall Bay Restaurant is enthusiastic about Caroline's operation, calling it "the antithesis of the supermarket culture of food".
The head chef at Picton's Yacht Club Hotel, Philipp Knoedler, only has to walk two minutes from his kitchen to the Wairoa. He'll call to find out what Caroline has that morning, devise a fish of the day dish, then wander down to buy his fish.
Living a dream
"I'll never get rich fishing, but the lifestyle is adding to a wealth of experience," she says. Her father recalls Caroline always paddling in ponds and never frightened of the sea. She bought herself a wetsuit at 13, took an aquaculture degree in Tasmania, spent three years working for New Zealand King Salmon, and was a Ministery of Fisheries observer for a couple of years.
"Long term, I hope the potential of the pilchard market plays out."
"It's a lifestyle. It's living a dream and it's doing it while I can."
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