WEALTH IN FISH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 281, 27 November 1935, Page 5

WEALTH IN FISH.

AUSTRALIA AND N.Z.

NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES.

ENTERPRISING JAPANESE,

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, November 21

Our newspapers recently published a cable message from Auckland, sent by Mr. Charles Cam, managing director of Sydney's best known trawling company, to the effect that at Japanese fishing "factory ship" was reported to have reached Sidney with a large cargo of fish, frozen or preserved in brine. Reference to local authorities made by the "Sun" shows that "there is no such ship here or known to be coming," so that so far as this rumour is concerned the alarm aroused among the representatives of fishing interests in New Zealand and Australia may be speedily allayed. But the report was published in such detail —including, among other matters, the precise varieties of the fish forming the cargo of our elusive Japanese visitor —that it may prove after all only a slightly premature anticipation of the future.

Even if the Japanese have not yet started competition on these lines on this side of the Tasman, we know that they are much interested in our fishing grounds and their potentialities. A few weeks ago a message from Tokyo disclosed the interesting fact that some Japanese scientific observers had discovered that the seas to the north-west of Australia are simply teeming with sea bream, a food fish which the Japanese value highly. Japanese Experts' Knowledge. It is said that the Japanese experts know more about the varieties of fish in Australian waters than our own ichthyologists, and they could not well know less- than our politicians or our business men seem to know about these important matters. Unless and until some systematic attempt is made on

this side of the Tasman to utilise, for example, the vast shoals of pelagic fish ! of the pilchard and sardine species that j %vander up and down our coasts we may naturally expect that enterprising people like the Japanese will always be ready to exploit the opportunities that we, have missed. I However, local competition from j Japan in this matter has so far taken i the form not of frozen but of tinned fish. Having made a great success of tinning crabs, the Japanese are now shipping to us large quantities of herrings in tomato sauce and other similar delicacies, and they are apparently able to undersell the Americans and—in spite of the preferential tariff —the Canadians. No doubt Australia needs to import tinned fish as she has made little attempt to supply her own. But direct exploitation of our coastal fish supplies, or even competition with them, would be entirely a different matter, and we could not tolerate it with the same equanimity. ' Of course, the moral of all this applies to New Zealand as clearly as to Australia. For New Zealand too has neglected systematically and shamefully the splendid natural resources that her i seas provide, and she need not be sur- j prised if more enterprising competitors i attempt to intrude upon her preserves, j

Trips Across the Tasman. Of course a country is always supposed to be able to keep its territorial waters intact, for its own sole use and benefit under international convention, but outside the three-mile limit there are always great productive areas open to anyone energetic and adventurous enough to exploit them. As it happens, this painful truth has been brought home to New Zealand's fishing interests quite recently by the incursions of the Sydney trawling fleet into those regions. Last year the Alfie Cam made three trips to the New Zealand coast and the experiment was so successful that Cam and Sons are now establishing a branch at Wellington and are preparing to reinforce their fleet in New Zealand waters. The Olive Cam, which has been attached lately to the Australian Navy on special service, has now returned to her ordinary occupation, and she and another trawer are to join the Alfie Cam shortly "over there."

Of course the Cam trawlers have been careful to respect the limit of "territorial .waters," as was proved by

an appeal to tlie courts last year, but outside the three-mile limit they have operated from Lyttelton to Poverty Bay on the east coast, and from Westport to Cape Farewell off the South Island, with such success that they intend to develop their plan of campaign 011 an even larger scale this season. No doubt j this Australian invasion does represent 1 "a menace to the New Zealand Ashing industry"—as a pathetic little cable from Auckland told us recently. But the New Zealanders have only them- ! selves to blame for their neglected I opportunities.