Fishermen’s row brewing

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33932, 27 August 1975, Page 10

Fishermen’s row brewing

(N Z. Press Association) BLENHEIM. ’ Strong competition between commercial fishermen and skindivers “masquerading” as amateurs is threatening to flare into violence in the Marlborough Sounds. Most of the divers use unregistered boats, taking kina (sea-eggs), paua, and crayfish with no regard for the size and catch limits imposed on bona fide fishermen, members of the Picton Fishermen’s Assocaition allege.

Threats have been made to deter registered fishermen from calling in fisheries inspectors, say association members. One fisherman is said to have had his boat cast adrift at Picton, and another to have lost 30 crayfish posts after an incident 'with some of the divers. Members of the Fishermen’s Association spent 'more than three hours with

I senior fisheries inspectors last Friday in an effort to 'decide on action.

Regulations are so full of loopholes they say, that they can be flouted with a thin veneer of secrecy and need to be changed now. Men diving with bottled air are siad to be taking advantage of the faet that there is no limit on amateurs’ taking on kina. Registered fishermen have a limit of 10 seacks a day. The wholesale taking of kina has little effect on the ordinary fisherman, but the divers are alleged to be turning to paua and crayfish when the sea-eggs are out of condition.

At peak times, the divers are, said to send 400 sacks of kina a month to the North Island. One diver is said to have had a gross income of $70,000 last year.

For the few who are caught and prosecuted fines of a few hundred dollars may mean little, say the fishermen. Most of the offenders have no licence to

lose, and do not need one anyway. The fishermen say that the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries officers arc aware of the problems. They even know the individuals involved. For inspectors, the hardest thing is finding conclusive proof of the offence and making it stand up in court, the association was told. The fisheries area of Nelson, Marlborough, and the West Coast was given an allocation of funds each year, and if it were spent at once on a drive against poaching, there would be nothing left, one officer said.

, “Things have been very I close to violence. Unless [something is done, someone will drop a stick of gelignite in a boat, or there will be a stand-up fight on the wharf,” said one fisherman The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (Mr Moyle) will be asked to take action, and a letter, will ~bc sent tq the Director of Fisheries Management <Mr B. Cunningham).