FISH DECREASING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 273, 17 November 1936, Page 8

FISH DECREASING.

WELLINGTON AREA STREAMS. "REAFFORESTATION 1 " NEEDED." (By, Telegraph—Own Correspondent.) PALMER ST OK NORTH, Monday. The fact that many stream* in the Wellington province are not carrying as many fish as in past years was a subject of discussion at a meeting when the council of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society met some members in Palmerston North. The aim of the society, said the president, Dr. G. F. V. Anson, was the improvement of shooting and fishing. It might be said that trout fishing was deteriorating, but as against that there had been a steady increase in the last few vears in the number of fish liberated in the rivers and streams for each £1 paid in fisliing licenses. The chairman of the society's fish committee, Mr. A. J. Seed, said that he had fished in the Wellington district for tho past 40 years and had been con- [ corned for some years at the lessening number of fish in the streams. Floods, he thought, were the greatest factor in that deterioration. The only thing that would bring the fish back to some streams wss reafforestation, not only of the banks of the streams, but also of the watersheds; that would do more to restore fishing than all the liberations. Every fisherman should be an ardent forester for that reasou. Reafforestation would take many years, as the streams were now in many cases only sluices for floods and wastes of ehingle.