LONG HOURS WORKED BY CANTERBURY FISHERMEN

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24742, 6 December 1945, Page 4

LONG HOURS WORKED BY CANTERBURY FISHERMEN

SHOOTINGTHE TRAWL

[By a Special Contributor.]

With the depletion of the inshore grounds during six years of fishing within a restricted three-mile limjt, Lyttelton fishermen are now compelled to travel between 25 to 30 miles out from Godley Head to m3ke catches for the Christchurph market. Others are fishing out from Akaroa. The fishermen know no 40-hour week. On the four or five days a week they put to sea, they steam out of harbour at 4 a.m., and do not return till 8 p.m., after which they load their catches into the railway vans and make the trawlers clean and ready for sea. On days ashore, they repair nets and gear. Most Lyttelton fishermen work 90 hours a week—and it is not light work. Even on Monday, a pleasant northeasterly day on land and off the coast, when the writer spent a day out on a trawler, a choppy sea wet the fishermen to the skin when they were handling heavy gear or fish in the wells running deep with water. After the last haul was made and the trawler, was heading back on its three and three-quarter hours' trip to Lyttelton, a nor'-wester, smoking white, ripped across Pegasus Bay. In the five months of "strike," disputes, and representations to the Price Investigation Tribunal and disregard of the order operative since November 1, the fishermen have submitted that all they want is a fair and reasonable price, with retailers making an adequate profit and the consumer not being exploited. They have refused to operate underthe price order—in effect the original order, re-enacted on November I—and have sold their fish at prices fixed by the second order and amended after they had "struck." .No action has been taken against them. They go out for the fish every day fishing is possible. Although they have been given permission to sell fish on the wharves at retail prices; the Lyttelton fishermen have been selling, xm Thursdays and Fridays, at wholesale prices; only Lyttelton residents have known up to the present of this market of cheap fish. All catches, other than the quantities sold off the boats, have been sent to the market in Christchurch and sold at the fixed prices of the amended order for the winter months.

The fishermen are prepared to have a test •of strength with the Price Tribunal on the order which was supposed to have been operating from the beginning of November. Moreover, they have been interesting themselves in marketing and plans are well forward for the opening by them of a co-operative market in Christchurch; where fish, without fancy filleting and cuts, would also-be sold to the general public. Rises in Costs The fishermen are determined, however, that they will not accept the. Price Tribunal's order, which, they maintain, gives prices for some fish below ' 1914 prices. Fishing, for the people is not an industry in which a dory or pram and two oars, a rugged boatman, and lines, hooks, and sinkers are the equipment and manpower. To obtain the fish, the boats have- to go out to sea—many miles offshore. > A boat which was built and equipped for £2OOO in 1928 would cost £6OOO today. The vessels are not launches; they are miniature tugs, with gear for long, heavy hauls in all weathers, and seaworthy -vessels for open waters. The rise in costs since 1939 is quoted dismally by the fishermen. Glass floats which they imported before the war for lid each now cost them 3s 9d each. Wire rope has risen in price from £2B a coil to £lO6. Net twine which cost 2s. 2d per lb is now 7s 4d per lb; the fishermen make their own nets and when one is lost the replacement cost is more than £IOO. The longer steaming to and from, the fishing grounds means added costs. Diesel fuel oil Is now £2 8s 6d a 44-gallon drum, compared with £1 in pre-war days, and lubricating oil costs £l7, against £7 6s Bd. With the increased value of labour added, the fishermen submit that to operate on a price basis below that effective in 1939 is economically impossible. • The fishermen have to move in search of the fish and even on the fishing grounds .they have to watch cautiously distant marks to keep on the beds. A slight deviation off and they are wast-

ing time and money dragging throuW bar-en waters or filling their nets wfiw wee I from shelves before the se&5J5 drops to the extraordinary deptbj£2 the continental shelf, a sudden dm S the bed measuring more than -*S fathoms off Kaikoura and nearly?*!! fathoms eastward from Pegasus Jj£? Following the Fish < ' The grounds are fished in the fish move. While, after thw« months, the .fishes' fancy takes tK*n to the ground known as "east-south east," off the Peninsula, from (hZ "north-east ground," the fishertiien work the inshore and offshore ground? near Akaroa. The "east-south-east" ground in August and -September calls lor day and night fishing; and in-Oc-tober the trawlers move back to catch ' tarakihi, mainly, on the "north-east" • ground. In January, February and March, the vessels are usually trawffiw for "fiats" hr about 18 fathoms, alonf the steamer tracks. " s After three hours' steaming from port on Tuesday, the trawler's master fixed hia marks, far-off three cluinns of trees in line on a Peninsula stH> ■ The trawl was shot. Through the winhv whirred 100 fathoms of wh\Ki greased wire cable. The davit, wswung inboard and with nearly fSM 7 worth of gear suspended between"lE stern and the ocean bed, the trawlw was headed due north for an eight, mile tow. The crew were not idl« ■ With one eye on the weather and ih» course, they had the other on preDar ations for handling the catch—adjustto»" the fish-well partitions, stowing :thi boxes. At the end of its three-hour run due north, the trawler was swum round in a wide arc cautiously h*. cause a sharp turn would have capsized the net, a misfortune which caUVfor back-breaking readjustment. For-an other three hours, the trawler headed south on the line of the Peninsula trees. Dead to the minute, the toW ; ended, the trawler was worked-lip'to windward and the net was hauledltt The "bag" rose, a silvery mass of fish; ' to the surface. The fishermen :were happy, although they had "to work'hard and handle the gear delicately tb ; lift the load aboard. It weighed nearly one ton —tarakiki by the few groper, silvery kirigfish. ugly." teethed snapper, ling, spiny pioki (tfoi.fish, to the wharf fishermen) and hetty. elephant fish. " 'r •'':

Luck of the Haul ;'^ v All hauls are not like that. Fop'five weeks, tho same crew did not haul* aboard enough fish to pay the running ' expenses of the boat A few yardsloilr the bed and they might well-have hauled in a- net of baby elephant-n«£ which were the only catch for'solne' weeks of another boat. Off the bed o the eastward the six-hour trawl might 1 have brought only a load of Fishermen trust to their luck. Mong{ ' the very same course, they are jusEasi likely to get,' instead of a full bag'of. fish, a paltry two-case haul. On day, over the same bed," the next bSvflip taking another six hours, prodiiSa only half the quantity of fish. Usuallythree.hauls, two long and one sjtiMt. are made each day. Out from port« 4 a.m., the trawlers head homeward*; to reach their- moorings about ■ IKpjß.7 a working day of 16 hours, plus anolhwhour unloading and cleaning. KTaV' homeward trips are not relaxation; MeV fish have to be gutted and headeeUTS*". fishermen are amazingly . dextrbyjSv they gut a piokl in a few deft cuts —but a fine haul of nearly'■%' • ton keeps them busy for threev hour*; Even when the fish, in other than norV'westerly weather, are packed '.'green"in ; their boxes for overnight transpbrtittr .the Christchurch market. the c&jing, and stowing, the washing down o£the vessel, and the safe stowage of the;ifear ; occupy fishermen until they are "at the Heads. '

Lyttelton fishermen ridicule ahy.:;reports that they fish only .'long?;enoughV to earn good money. ."Our job is to> catch fish, and the fish do-hot leave? u«V cards telling us when able," said the master erf the trawler.;* '•'The more fish we catch and selFa! a-'l fair price, without exploitation; vHhe'.? happier we are." And saying heaved overboard an elephahtftflsK commenting "We are expected ito>get' lid a lb for that. ' We won't pirt'up v with exploitation of ourselves and the public, who pay £22 for a case Cot 'elephant' done up as fried fish." a*£v;