Incompleat Fishermen

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30348, 25 January 1964, Page 14

Incompleat Fishermen

The loss of a £lOO,OOO overseas order for paua meat because of the ban on

exporting unprocessed paua seems a small item when compared with New Zealand’s major exports. This is equivalent to about 30,000 carcases of lamb. It is significant enough. But more significant is the demonstration of the urgency for completing surveys of the Dominion’s marine resources; for it is largely out of caution through the lack of complete information that the ban persists. It may be fully justified when all the facts of the paua population are known. They should be known. The Parliamentary committee which inquired into the fishing industry found that, in spite of the increasing sale of paua meat in New Zealand, especially in the North Island, the Dominion is not eating all that is available. It also concluded that if manufacturers could not use greater amounts of shell, then consideration should be given to permitting the export of shells. There has, in fact, been an increase in the popularity of paua shell jewellery, both among New Zealanders and visitors, and the shell has been much admired abroad. Some of this success with increasing sales must be attributed to the standard specification for setting the shell in silver. This has raised the esteem in which the shell is held, as well as improving its durability. If manu . facturers can devise other ways of promoting sales they should not be bound by a restrictive regulation; the committee recommended that the prospective Fishing Industry Board re-examine the position at the end of this year. The whole future of the paua industry, like other aspects of our fishing

industry, depends on more and swifter research. Marine Department fishery officers surveyed 23 miles of Wellington coastline for paua. According to a departmental newsletter the surveyors, using a dinghy and a glass box for under-water observation, covered two miles of coast in about an hour. The survey, then, represented perhaps two or three days work. If, as has been suggested, there is a shortage of biologists for research work, is this not the kind of survey that could be competently undertaken by student scientists on a part-time or holiday basis. Marine research is urgent and the new Minister of Marine, Mr Scott, should lose no opportunity to press forward with studies on which sound and early decisions can be made. No time should be lost in setting up the Fishing Industry Board. The Government’s General Election policy on fisheries noted that plans were in hand to expand the present research staff of 40 to 52 withm a year, and to 75 officers and technicians by 1965. It promised the doubling of research expenditure to about £ 140,000 a year within two years. Meanwhile, £lOO,OOO in overseas earnings may have been lost on false assumptions and as a result of inadequate information. The news of New Zealand’s participation in the F.A.O. fisheries development seminar in Canberra this month and the Minister’s statement on the expansion and diversification of fishing with reference to rock oyster farming are good signs. Mr Scott, well briefed as chairman of the Parliamentary committee, has an opportunity, and a duty, to encourage his department, the Government, and the industry to fish in less sluggish waters