The Press FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1972. Fishing limits

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32998, 18 August 1972, Page 12

The Press FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1972. Fishing limits

For the first time in an international forum New Zealand has proposed the establishment of a 200-mile fishing zone “to enable the world’s countries to “ protect resources off their coasts The cabled report from London from which this passage is quoted has drawn attention to the change in New Zealand’s official policy — hitherto based on the protection of resources within 12 miles of the New Zealand coast — which was outlined at a meeting of a sub-committee of the United Nations committee on the world’s seabeds. The policy change is significant, but by no means as restrictive as might have been suggested by the brief cablegram. The New Zealand proposal is that each maritime nation should be allowed the exclusive use of fishing waters up to 75 miles from its shores, and, in addition, should be responsible for a “ management *• zone ”up to 150 or 200 miles from its shores. The fishing fleets of other countries would be allowed access to the management zone, but would have to observe the conservation laws of the country policing those waters. A Japanese fleet, for instance, fishing 100 miles off the New Zealand coast, would have to observe the minimum size of fish stipulated by the New Zealand Government from time to time; the total catch of any one species could be restricted by New Zealand; and the fleet’s activities would be supervised by the New Zealand Navy and Marine Department

The New Zealand proposals are not new; they reflect a growing concern among fishermen and conservationists throughout the world over the possible depletion of the oceans’ stocks of fish. Rising world population has expanded the demand for fish, and at a time of rapid technological advance which has made the world’s fishing fleets more efficient than ever before. Japan and Great Britain, two denselypopulated island nations traditionally reliant on the ocean to supplement the food production of their slender land resources, now send their fishing fleets thousands of miles in search of the huge quantities of fish their peoples demand. Accusations of “ poaching ” off the coasts of Iceland and New Zealand — and many other countries — have multiplied in recent years as the British and Japanese fleets have worked further afield. The conflict of interest between countries such as Japan and Britain on the one hand and Iceland and New Zealand on the other hand are more apparent than real: before many more years have passed edible fish will be scarce everywhere unless conservation is practised in all the world’s fishing waters. The South American countries which have been protesting against the intrusion of North American vessels into “ their ” fishing waters now have powerful allies among the influential conservationists in the United States. Most of the European maritime countries are aware of the need to safeguard their fish supplies.

New Zealand is ill-prepared at present to administer the policy it has urged in London. Although there is little likelihood that this policy will be adopted soon, it would seem prudent to prepare the New Zealand fishing industry — not to mention the Marine Department and the Navy — for the time when such a policy may be internationally accepted. This will require a considerable expansion of the New Zealand fishing fleet, so that it is capable of harvesting each year the maximum catch that can be taken without threatening the survival — or, indeed, the abundance — of each species. Until then New Zealand has no moral right to insist on exclusive rights to fish the waters up to 12 miles, let alone 75 miles, from its coasts. It is doubtful whether New Zealand’s tiny naval fleet and fisheries protection vessels can adequately patrol a 12-mile zone, let alone a 200-mile zone. But the top priority must be given to the controlled expansion of fishing and to research into the present and potential resources of the seabeds in New Zealand waters.