The Press MONDAY, JUNE 16, 1975. New Zealand’s impotence and foreign fishers

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33870, 16 June 1975, Page 16

The Press MONDAY, JUNE 16, 1975. New Zealand’s impotence and foreign fishers

Within the next year or two New Zealand will almost certainly try to take control over all fishing within 200 miles of its coast The Government would clearly prefer to extend the limit beyond the present 12 miles only after the United Nations conference on the law of the sea has given the 200-mile limit the force of international law. The reasons for such a preference are not just legal or diplomatic. New Zealand has difficulty enough in policing its present fishing zone: the country’s ability to control fishing in the vast area of sea encompassed by the 200-mile limit will be greatly improved if the new limit has been apnroved intemationallv Even if such approval is not forthcoming, the actions of other countries and the agitation of New Zealand fishing interests will probably compel the Government to extend the limit unilaterally. Unless the conference on the law of the sea acts quickly, New Zealand might be well advised tn extend its fishing zone as an interim measure. Foreign countries which send fishing fleets far afield are increasingly interested in fishing the waters around New Zealand. Some form of control is for the general good, not just for New Zealand’s welfare or profit.

New Zealand will be able to control fishing within 200 miles of its coasts effectively only if other countries co-operate. New Zealand will have to ensure that the fishermen of other countries obey whatever rules are needed to prevent our fisheries becoming as seriously depleted as some northern hemisphere fisheries New Zealand will also want to ensure that it secures some benefit for itself from what will become, with the adoption of the 200-mile limit, as much a national resource as mineral deposits on land. This need not. and should not, mean that New Zealand deprives other countries of access to supplies of food, particularly when those supplies are more than abundant for New Zealand’s own needs. But the Government must attempt to secure as much benefit as possible for New Zealand from the rich fishing grounds off the New Zealand coast

Adequate control of fishing in New Zealand waters could be secured simply by licensing foreign fishing operations, by setting quotas for catches, and bv requiring declarations of catches. The quotas will have to be strict until more adequate information about the resources of fish in New Zealand waters has been acquired. A licensing arrangement should not be regarded as a source of revenue: its purpose should be solely for the purpose of fair and conservative management of the stock of fish. Because New Zealand lacks the manpower and capital needed to exploit its marine resources fully on its own, the only alternative to a licensing scheme is the arranging of joint ventures. The Fishing Industry Board has already given considerable attention to ways in which New Zealand and foreign interests could work together to develop the fishing industry in New Zealand waters. Whatever course is to be followed. New Zealand must ensure that all be done in a spirit of co-operation with other fishing nations. This country, with insignificant means to enforce its will on what it might regard as poachers, could not win any showdown with those nations even on the seas close to its own coasts. That is one reason why fishing grounds close to New Zealand are attractive to the big fishing fleets The other may be that this country has been singularly unsuccessful in harvesting the nearby seas on a large scale.