Oystermen’s Gloom In Bluff

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31994, 22 May 1969, Page 1

Oystermen’s Gloom In Bluff

(New Zealand Press Association)

INVERCARGILL, May 21.

The prevailing mood was one of gloom in Bluff this morning as oystermen began to realise the full implications of the decision by the Minister of Marine (Mr Scott) to close the oyster season from midnight.

Although union officials were expecting Mr Scott’s decision, many oystermen thought it was a Government threat which would not be carried Out. “If he had started out to ruin the Bluff oyster to benefit the cultivated.oysters in the North Island he could not have done a better job,” said one irate oysterman. Although eager to put their views forward, none of the oystermen were willing to be named. Those spoken to were firmly behind their union's stand. / ' Fist Shaken The first thing that greeted a reporter and photographer when they arrived in the town was an irate man shaking- his fist at a passing car.

This scene illustrates the bitter feeling in the town today.

When speaking of Mr Scott, one oystermaii said he felt that the Minister was hot capable of judging the situation. “When he was putting forward the allocations to go with the new season he tried to tell us that no oysters were to be opened that were discoloured or inedible in any way.

“We don’t know what the oyster is going to be like until we open it.” Rock dysters

A spokesman for an Auckland seafood company which handles oysters from the Bay of Islands, said today that

rock oysters from the north were still coming into Auckland at the rate of about 15 sacks a week.

He said there was a period of about two months when the’oysters would be spawning, “but that was about months off.” Rock oysters were more expensive than Bluff oysters. They retailed about 85c a bottle and Bluff oysters sold at 74c to 75c a bottle, i