DEPLETING OUR FISHERIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 167, 16 July 1924, Page 10

DEPLETING OUR FISHERIES.

(To the Editor . Sir.—Your correspondent. Mr. -T. P. Bennett, is very concerned about trawling and catching of school lish. The school schnapper not only come into the gulf in shoals, but are found in all the surface waters from the Kast to Hie North Capes. This <-la~s of schnapper abounds on our consts in large shoals about Ilic month of November and deserts again about January. Whore ilic ii-li go to or conic from has never yet been ascertained, due fact is known that the school schnapper docs not frequent the bed torn of the sea. being a sharp toothed fish that shoals on the surface of the waters, the diet of the iish being whale food, a kind of substance resembling cooked sago. The trawlers catch little or few of the real school schnapper for the reason the nets are at the bottom of the s.-a. j\!r. Bennett asserts that by catching school fish if. tends to deplete the sea. Considering tho spawn of a single school schnapper consists of 250.000 eggs. surely the tremendous breeding powers of the seaworld is not understood by llr. Bennett. It would take very few schnapper to keep tho people of Auckland supplied at such a breeding rate. The catching power of man has no effect in any way on the sea world. There has arid always will be lean and plentiful periods for fish on account of their migrating habits. In the rivers of Canada the same thing applies with the salmon. The iish in full roe go up the rivers in countless millions and are caught and canned. There are lean and plentiful seasons, but we never hear of the waters being prohibited for catching the fish on account of the fish being in full roe. In fact it is the other way about—when fish are in full roe they are in prime condition and become spent when the spawn is deposited. The few fish caught by the Auckland fleet of j trawlers is a mere bagatelle compared with the quantities caught in other countries. There are more fish brought into Great Britain in one day than are consumed in Auckland in twelve months, and it has been so for the past 70 years. These are figures from the "Weekly Fishing Gazette"' published in Hull. Personally, I have great faith in our future fish igupply, and considering the great strides that have taken place in the industry during the past ten years, I can safely say that Auckland will be in a position to export very large quantities of fish in the very near future. — I am, etc., GILBERT SANFORD.