FISH SUPPLIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 180, 31 July 1940, Page 6

FISH SUPPLIES.

Many of your readers will have apj"*' ciatcd Mr. S. R. Smith's letter on this subject. One point he touched on k of \>tal importance to amateur fishermen living in East Coast bays. Rightly or wrongly they attribute the increasing shortage of snapper in the inner waters of the Hauraki Gulf to illegal night trawling in prohibited waters. This is * question that could easily be settled by the Government Department concerned if they chose to investigate the matter thoroughly. Last summer I fished in th* Gulf many times, and we were on the whole very poorly rewarded for oar efforts. We tried all the known spots irom the mouth of the Wade down to Milford, and well out towards Tiri * s well as close in, not forgetting to visit Rangitoto. In spite of living on one of the finest snapper grounds in the Dominion, the local inhabitants get very little fvli. It is not askinsr much to request that"the inner waters of the Gulf should 'lv? entire] v reserved f° r line fishing, and that, the trawlers be kept out of this area. At present we lia\e no local fish supplv. and find that what we naturally regard a> r-ur own preserves are rapidly becoming depleted. Can anyone tell us whv ? EAST COAST BAYS.