Oyster Dredges Are Often Upside-Down

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30178, 9 July 1963, Page 14

Oyster Dredges Are Often Upside-Down

AUCKLAND, July 8.

Oyster fishermen operating from Bluff did not appear to be unduly worried at the decline in the oyster population, the leader of the Navy diving team that has been carrying out research at the oyster beds for the Department of Fisheries, Lieutenant George Wookey, said on his return to the Devonport Naval Base today. The divers found that other sea-life was prolific near the sea-bed. Lieutenant Wookey

(New Zealand Press Association)

said. He and his divers had observed plenty of fish and small octopuses, and on one occasion watched a school of six or seven sharks, between six and nine feet long, following a dredge for the scraps it turned up from the mud.

The main work of the diving team, which spent two weeks at the oyster beds, had been to observe and photograph the action of different types of dredge on the sea bottom. Observation was carried out at the end of the towing wire or holding on to the dredge while it moved at about two and a half knots. The divers worked in depths up to 112 feet.

The conventional dredge. Lieutenant Wookey said, often landed upside down and picked up no oysters at all. The new steel oyster boat, the Catherine, was using a new type of dredge which operated however it landed on the sea bottom.

Yet, some boats using conventional gear, made good catches, but they worked long hours and the fishermen had exceptionally good local knowledge of the best beds, he said.