DEARER FISH.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 165, 14 July 1928, Page 12

DEARER FISH.

RESTRICTIONS ON TRAWU'NG

WHAT PUBLIC CAN EXPECT.

ATTITUDE OF SEINE SETTERS.

"If any legislation is passed to prevent the ferine net fishermen operating in the Hauraki Gulf it will mean that the public of Auckland will have to pay 100 per cent more for fish," said an Auckland fisherman this morning in commenting on the movement in progress to further restrict trawling.

''If the bill that is to be presented to Parliament this session is passed the public can expect to pay tlie Sydney prices of 1/4 per lb for feehnapper, whereas to-day it is retailed in Auckland at 6d to &1 per lb." The iifcformant indicated that while the seine net fishermen of Auckland were not presenting any counter-petition against the proposals to close the gulf to them, they were quietly resenting the interference with their domains. How Fleet will be Affected. Should the bill be passed, the fleet of twenty-five launches that at present operated in the sheltered waters inside the Coromandel Peninsula and Barrier would be forced out of commission or else have to resort to costly line-fishing. It was absolutely impossible for them to venture further afield.

Referring to the suggestion that trawling operations were responsible for the depletion of fish in Auckland waters, the fishermen admitted that fish were not as plentiful as formerly, but at the same, time they were in better condition and not nearly so many "half spents" were caught. Seine netting was a superior method to trawling, and with the common usage of a four-and-a-half-inch mesh only fish over lib in weight were caught. Indeed, very few of these were landed, and it was a common sight to see small ones swimming right through the nets. Proposed Closed Area. Mrs. Ruby Watson, of St. Helier's, who has been prominent in the movement to restrict trawling, states that operation by power iriven nets should be prohibited in any harbour, the Firth of Thames, Hauraki Gulf and within three miles of the mainland from the East Cape to the North Cape, and from the North Cape to Raglan.