Govt backs one-year fishing trial

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33031, 26 September 1972, Page 1

Govt backs one-year fishing trial

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, September 25. Gisborne would be the base for an intensive one-year trial of pelagic fishing, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (Mr Carter) announced today.

The Government will join with Wattie Industries, Ltd, to establish a fishmeal factory at Gisborne. The company will use its own vessel, the Marine Countess, fulltime for one year on purse seining for pelagic fish.

At present the bulk of New Zealand’s fish are demersal (sea bottom) varieties such as snapper, tarakihi and groper which are caught by trawling at depths of up to 100 fathoms. Pelagic fish, such as trevally, mackerel, kahawai and the small speciessardines and pilchards—are found in schools near the surface and at middle depths. Pelagic fish made up about 4 per cent of New Zealand’s total catch but in other countries up to 60 pet cent, Mr Carter said. There was room for considerable development of pelagic fishing in New Zealand waters. N.D.C. target The National Development Conference 1972 target for the New Zealand fishing industry was an export income of ss9m by 1981-82, $19.5m of this from pelagic fish. The 1972-73 target was total fish exports of slBm, including sl.sm from pelagic fish.

The fisheries development council of the N.D.C. had recommended that an overseas vessel and crew be brought to New Zealand for purse seine fishing in the Bay of Plenty and a fishmeal plant built at Tauranga. An N.D.C. committee considered this proposition and recommended the use of a New Zealand boat and crew and the establishment of a fishmeal factory at Gisborne. Mr Carter said that the Government accepted the N.D.C. recommendation and agreed further that terms similar to those offered to Watties be extended to San-

fords, Ltd, of Tauranga if that company wished to start a pelagic fishing industry in the Bay of Plenty. The Government had offered Watties a loan of $150,000, representing threequarters of the cost of a fishmeal plant, building, services and shore storage facilities. The Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) had approved the use of State Advances Corporation finance for this purpose. Watties would find the balance.

One-year trial The one-year pelagic fishing trial based on Gisborne would be supervised by a management committee representative of the ■ Fishing Industry Board, said Mr Carter. The results of the trial would be made known throughout the fishing industry, he said. The board’s representative on the committee will advise Watties on trial shipments and substantial penetration of markets, as well as collaboration with other distributors. The Government will guarantee that the real incomes of the crew of the Watties vessel during the trial year will not be less than they would have earned in normal operations.

The purse seine and sardine nets of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries will be let to Watties, which has agreed to arrange ' for the use of back-up nets to continue fishing should the main nets be damaged. The Ministry is also making available as an adviser a gear technologist skilled in purse seining. Winter trawling The Ministry’s fisheries management vessel the W, J. Scott would carry out the winter trawling normally done by the Marine Countess, and the company would nay the usual port prices for fish bought from the W. J. Scott during the winter, Mr Carter said. The fishmeal plant to be built in Gisborne as part of;

the Government experiment would be ready by next March, possibly by February, the managing director pf Wattie Industries, Ltd (Mr G. J. Wattie) said in Gisborne today. Full capacity The start of processing would depend on the availability of machinery from Europe. “We have been restricted in the past as far as the size of landings have been concerned but we will’ now be able to handle the 80-ton capacity of the Marine Countess,” said Mr Wattie. “We will also now be able to use the heads and scraps of fish which ’ we have been throwing away up until now. Thanks to the Government assistance, it will be possible to set up a large plant.”