N.Z. Fish Conservation “40 Years Out Of Date”

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29778, 22 March 1962, Page 14

N.Z. Fish Conservation “40 Years Out Of Date”

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 21. New Zealand is operating its fish conservation in terms of 40 years ago, Professor L. R. Richardson, professor of zoology at Victoria University of Wellington, told a Parliamentary Select Committee today. There was no evidence to show that stocks of fish had changed at all over the last 15 years since the present conservation measures were taken, he said.

Professor Richardson, who last week made a 38-page submission to the Parliamentary Select Committee inquiring into the New Zealand fishing industry, was cross-examined by members all day today. The questioning will continue tomorrow. The former Minister of Marine, Mr W. A. Fox, questioned Professor Richardson for three hours and a half.

The potential food catch had not been realised, and the present licensing system was preventing the development of the fishing industry in the national interest, said Professor Richardson.

When it came to assessing fishing potential, fishermen were extremely conservative people, he said. Referring to the export of fish, he said that the expansion of th® industry he envisaged would mean that it oould cater for both the internal and external markets. The fear that the local market would suffer if New Zealand increased her export of fish was disproved by the crayfish export trade The only places he had heard of experiencing a shortage of crayfish in New Zealand were in Dunedin and Bluff. Mr Fox: Would there not be people who would set out to satisfy the export market at the expense of the local one? Professor Richardson: I do

not think there is any necessity for that. Professor Richardson assured Mr Fox that he had no money in the fishing industry and would not put any money into it. He was interested purely in the ethical and professional sense. He told Mr R. D. Muldoon (Tamaki) that he considered the rate of population increase in Australia assured New Zealand of a growing fish market there. "Restrictive Industry” Professor Richardson said he knew of no other country in the world that employed a fishing licensing system of such restrictive intensity as New Zealand. Mr Fox: Do you think there is room for any type of conservation in this country? Professor Richardson: Not

in the old sense. In the new sense I do not think we have arrived at the time tor conservation yet. The major measure of conservation we require is adequate research." Asked by Mr Fox whether he believed in the conservation of crayfish, Professor Richardson said he believed in the maximum utilisation of the crop. There was no crayfish research organisation, and the country was dogged by the philosophy of overfishing. In regard to oysters, a general summary of the fishermen’s opinion was that the catch was “never as good as it had been and would always be worse.” As against this was the fact that overall the oyster catch had been increasing.