THE TRAWLING INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 63, 14 March 1919, Page 6

THE TRAWLING INDUSTRY.

THE PROPOSED LIMITS. SHELTER FOR TRAWLERS. j ' The Fisheries Commission was resumed to-day, Mr. E. C. Cutten presid- I ing. I Axel Nilsson, master of the trawler Countess, said that with the new line . suggested by Mr. Ayson the trawlers would be worse ofl" for shelter than I , with the old line. It would deprive them I iof the sheltered fishing area under j Kawau. In the limited area he had . trawled there he had caught splendid , fish in from six to eight fathoms. There were no small fish, but they got a lot of kelp. The area was not a nursery at that depth. If a line was drawn from Thumb Point to Cape Colville the trawlers would not 'be able to fish in ' east, north-east, and south-east winds, while it would cut out one of the only two moki grounds in the gulf. All the trawlers had been working for the last three months between the present line and the quarries, and they had caught no small Sell, (.hi his last trip he got 310 baskets in that locality, with no small fish. There was no shelter from ' the north and north-east winds on the south of Little Barrier, and there was no trawling ground in that locality. He knew of no sheltered ground south of ■Great Barrier. He could get protection I from northerly winds inside Kawau, up towards Fish Point, and close in north of Cabbage Bay to the stone quarry. At present the trawlers lost on an average about one day a fortnight, owing to rough weather. If .lie line were fixed as suggested by Mr. Ayson, he believed the trawlers would not be able to go out three or four months a year, owing to the fact that the easterly wind was the prevailing one. He usually trawled inside Kawau once a month. He trawled more times about the quarry than at Kawau and Tiri. The line from Thumb Point to Cape Colville would not be easy to follow. The flood tide ran at two and a-half knots, and as they trawled at about the same speed it would be difficult to keep on the line even if they bad a good bearing. The Countess could not trawl in heavy weather. A trawler four times her power and drawing loft could trawl in almost any iwcather. They wanted the limits brought in because the present trawlers wore not able to deal with rough weather. Mr. Haddow said that the City Council was just making its trawling (business pay, and if it were forced to employ more expensive trawlers it probably would have to go out of the business. Mr. Flynn said he considered any sheltered and shallow water a breeding place, the East. Coast being much more | favoured than the West in this respect. j Fishing had prospered for a long time in the liauraki Gulf, while there had I been comparatively little fishing on tho West Coast. The East Coast needed very extensive breeding grounds to maintain the supply. If there had been a gradual depletion since 15*96 there was no reason to ascrihe the depletion wholly to the trawlers, but it had been more rapid since their advent. Witness thought all schnapper to ibe of migratory habits. The coastal shoals travelled, rapidly in varied directions. If schnapper had not shot their roes when they disappeared at the Watchman it was obvious that they had not spawned in , the Gulf. The limit- which the Depart- , ment had proposed gave very little , 'shelter from northerly or north-easterly winds.