FISHING IN THE GULF.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 215, 11 September 1929, Page 6

FISHING IN THE GULF.

I was rather surprised to read in your issue, of the 2nd inst. a letter written by one of the old school of trawlermen, Captain R. Nixon, supporting our old friend, Mrs. Ruby Watson, What surprised me most was to read that the trawlers had depleted the gulf and Captain Nixon's suggestion of closing that area for three years, with no trawling outside, within one hundred miles of Auckland. I have before me a copy of the evidence given by Captain R. Nixon to the special commission set up to inquire into the fishing industry some years ago. It reads: "If the boats were forced to go out further the trawling industry would be ruined, for in rough weather there were no sheltered grounds, while there was also very little reliable trawling bottom. Between Channel Island and the Barrier there was a good bottom, but beyond that few fish were secured; in fact, as far as his experience went, there was only about one hundred square miles of good trawling ground outside the Rodney Point-Cape Colville line. During the past year trawlers would have been able to work only about half-time outside the line mentioned, and, as it was, last year a considerable amount of time had been lost on the present grounds. Fishing as a line man, he had found it impossible to catch sufficient fish to make his work p?,y. Apparently the fish there had plenty of feed and would'not take the bait. Trawlers, he added, proved useful incidentally in destroying sharks, which were responsible to a great extent for the depletion of the fishing grounds. Personally he did not think line fishermen could compete successfully in regard to price with the trawlers. Line' fishing was out of date. There were more fish in the gulf nowadays, but apparently there was so much feed available that they would not take the bait on lines." Captain Nixon, of course, has been out of the trawling business for a number of years, and this, no doubt, accounts for his change of front. E. R. HODGKIXSON.