TRAWLING BY JAPANESE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29240, 25 June 1960, Page 12

TRAWLING BY JAPANESE

Taranaki Bight “Cleaned Out”

(New Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, June 24.

Taranaki and the King Country face a serious shortage of fresh fish this Winter because of the operations of three large Japanese trawlers which, a New Plymouth fisherman said tonight, “cleaned out” the winter fishing grounds in the Taranaki bight. He said the Japanese could have been using two-inch mesh nets which meant that the fish supplies for th ? next few years had been spoiled. “They’ve skinned our winter fishing grounds completely. My firm’s two trawlers spent three days this week between tj?e 45 and 60-iathom mark on the grounds and all we caught was an odd fish or two.” . He said he saw the Japanese boats fishing the winter grounds several times during the last three weeks. Early this week off Kawhia' he saw the Japanese vessels steam away to the north. The Japanese boats worked about 18 to 20 hours a day all along the coast and covered every suitable fishing area “as if with a fine comb,” he said. "Wc are particularly concerned about the size of the mesh the Japanese were using,” said another fisherman. “If. as we believe they are using two inch mesh instead of the 4J-inch mesh the Marine .’epartment insists all our boats use, I am afraid supplies are going to be poor for the next few years.” The fishermen believe the Japanese process all bones, scales, skin and small fish into meal, which means that large quantities of young snapper—a fish which takes three to four years to mature—would have been processed.