DEPLETING OUK FISHERIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 188, 9 August 1924, Page 5

DEPLETING OUK FISHERIES.

(To the Editor.) [ Sir, —Tour correspondent. Ruby E. 1 Watson, has at last acknowledged that I the closing of the Thames Gulf ajjainst trawling and seine fishing was political, and that the regulations were brought about through the help of Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Young, M.P.'s. I have always advocated for a Fisheries Board to control New Zealand fisheries, and thus take this impnrtant question out of Lhu hands of political influence. Political [ inlluenee also closed the best fishing j grounds off Tauranga. I am very ! 1 much afraid that until a Fisheries Board . is established, the natural resources of the fishing industry will never lie developed on lines of right and justice for the good of all.—l am, etc., GILBERT SAKFORD. (To the Editor.) I Sir,—l should like to state a few j facts in connection with trawl and purse ! . eeine iishing. I have been a fisherman ' :in the North Sea purl the < atff'-at for 1 twenty years, and in the Firth of Thames and the Ilatiraki Culf for seven years. In the North Sea and the Catteirat. I was fishinsr, at different tini'S, J with hooks (long lines>, net? and purse ! seine, and in the Firth of Thames ami ITanraki Cult I have used nets ami long lines. I have not been fishing with the '~ trawl, but, to my sorrow, I knew from ; bitter experience bow very destructive : this method of fishing really is. I have i seen good fishing grounds where | was carried on successful , y year ;ifter i year, with net and destroyed by \ trawlers in a very short tu::e. but I i : have never seen sticli fialiinir gTour, 1.-s I restored aiain. I suppo-o this is tlie ' reason why so many triwles fro n the North Sea now are going so far away :h I to the White Sea an 1 up to the m>r:!i ' of Iceland. I have not exactly measured the distance, but if I fay as far as from i here to Australia I am not far wrong. I ; Why should they go so far away if i the fipliir.fr grounds nearer homo wore j : not (iepletod? .'-nil lv what fUa bit j ■ trawlina are they deplete.!? Not a: d line fishing have never destroyed f,' r »xl fishing grounds and never will. Son:e ponple may say tiiat tliiiip- are di.Tsrent here in New Zealand water.-, Lut is. id Burely evident tliat if t;a-.\lin r. is d•- ---: struotive in other pi ec--. it will be ! a ! ! here too. We must bear in miad 'hat our fishing grounds lire not very exlen- ' sive. the hundred-fa'him line is to ho. found not so very far away from the coast of New Zealai.d, and this will, ot ; course, only give a very limited place for the Trawlers. In the Danish law there is or.ly fourd a few word a'i'Ut trawling but they are very significant. They j arc-: "All fishing with trawl is pro- ! hibited." That shows plainly enough I what they think about it.—l am, etc., , BANS JENSEN.