FISHERMEN MAKE GOOD CATCHES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29352, 3 November 1960, Page 21

FISHERMEN MAKE GOOD CATCHES

Brown Jelly Clogs Nets (New Zealana Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, Nov. 2. Abundant catches were reported yesterday by commercial fishermen operating out of Port Taranaki, Auckland and Wellington during the last two weeks, but some Auckland fishermen complained that two Japanese trawlers were working the Manukau bar and scattering the fish. Other Auckland fishermen said that the brown jelly, reported by Nelson fishermen last week, was now clogging nets off Great Barrier Island. The manager of an Auckland wholesale fish firm (Mr R. M. Bremer) said in a telephone conversation today that catches of fish had been “pretty good” during the last few weeks, but the brown jelly had affected catches during the last few days. The jelly prevented any fish from entering the net. Mr Bremer said that two large Japanese trawlers had been working the Manukau bar last week and had broken up the shoals of fish. Several New Zealand trawlers had seen the Japanese, who were working right

among the local boats. The professor of zoology at Victoria University, Professor L. R. Richardson, said in Wellington today that samples of the brown jelly from Nelson had been examined at the university. “I can't make head or tail of it,” he said. "It looks as if we will have to wait for more samples to be sent by the fishermen.”