The Chinese market closed to all rock lobster — or crayfish — exports in late January. China took 95% to 98% of all commercial crayfish landed in New Zealand.
"We basically got a Dear John letter on January 24 and told there was no market. It was a bit of a shock. We’ve been in the grips of no market, no income, since [then]," he said.
Mr Cooper is a second-generation commercial fisherman, who has fished from Karitane and Careys Bay for about 20 years.
Crayfish made up about 80% of his income.
He operated two fishing boats, one which was in Southland catching blue cod, and the other, which he was skippering, started the crayfish season in Otago in recent days.
Catches were not very high early on in the season and the main period was from July through to November.
Now the market was starting to slowly open up again and Mr Cooper was pleased to be back in business, saying prices were "looking solid".
"My gut feeling is its going to be OK, maybe like last season — not a boomer, not a doomsday either. I’ve got a feeling its going to be a solid one," he said.
The 2002-04 Sars global outbreak had also hit the industry hard at the time, but that was a combination of very poor prices and no fish stocks, so it was a "double whammy".
With Covid-19, there was plenty of product, but just no market.
The total allowable commercial catch for the year beginning April 1, 2020 in CRA 7 — Otago’s crayfish management area — had been increased from 97 tonnes to 106.2 tonnes, which was pleasing, Mr Cooper said.
Some areas had seen deductions, but the industry in Otago was in "pretty good fettle".
Trevor Allison, who started commercial fishing in 1979 and has been running a boat since the mid-1980s as a skipper-owner, said the shut-down happened during the peak of Chinese New Year celebrations.
How good the market was was geared around Chinese celebrations and May was a celebratory month with May Day events.
While it was early days, demand from China appeared to be "surprisingly good" and things seemed to be "looking OK".
There had only been about 12 hours’ notice of the shutdown in January and there were fish on the tarmac, ready to be exported, that were not able to go, he said.
In early February, the Government offered relief to crayfish exporters and fishermen not able to get stock into China by allowing them to return some of the fish to the sea.
The order cancellations meant up to 180 tonnes of live rock lobster were in limbo in New Zealand, being kept in pots and tanks at sea and on land.
