Protest At Tanker Servicing Japanese

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31773, 2 September 1968, Page 1

Protest At Tanker Servicing Japanese

/From Our Own Reporter)

TIMARU, September 1

A report that the Union Steam Ship Company’s tanker Hamilton serviced a Japanese vessel in local fishermen’s traditional grounds, drew a strong protest from the secretary of the Timaru Fishermen's Co-operative Society, Ltd (Mr D. D. McCambridge) today. .

The Hamilton left Timaru for Marsden Point on Thursday.

Mr McCambridge said that on occasions it was believed that the Japanese fishing vessels exchanged stores and supplies, which placed the South Island’s east coast fishermen at an unfair disadvantage and he was concerned at the refuelling of Japanese

trawlers and supply ships by tankers which had only left Timaru three hours or so before.

The president of the society (Mr B. J. Kenton) said inquiries would be made. Timaru fishermen say that although the Japanese ships are within their rights in exploiting the lucrative fishing grounds outside the 12-mile limit, they object to their being refuelled at sea with no apparent disruption to their operations. It is thought that the Japanese are working with smaller nets and it is known that they are catching barracuda in large numbers. Timaru fishermen consider it uneconomic to land barracuda. A fisherman said that an export market was going to waste and that the Japanese were being encouraged by the Government to fish in these waters.