Hard questions about fishing

Press, 18 October 1976, Page 18

Hard questions about fishing

A recent report from an interdepartmental committee on the fishing industry says that a coherent policy for the development of the fishing industry is needed. The need for some action over fishing off New Zealand is not to be disputed, and the report adds to a very long succession of calls for such a policy. Even if the commercial prospects for a large domestic fishing industry prove too doubtful to justify the industry’s expansion. New Zealand cannot safely let foreign fishermen continue to take fish from New Zealand grounds without control or supervision. The making of a policy on managing marine resources cannot be postponed much longer. Supervision of all fishing, so that the size of the catch, the species being taken and the sizes of individual fish are all kept under scrutiny, has become imperative. Such information is urgently needed from all those fishing off the New Zealand coast so that this country’s marine scientists can calculate a sustainable yield for each species. The danger of over-fishing popular species is already very real. The committee has laid emphasis on more active fishing by New Zealanders rather than conservation of the stocks. It asserts that New Zealanders themselves should be catching and processing for export more fish; and its authors are apparently confident that the returns from a larger fishing industry would justify the expense of expanding the industry. Because the domestic market is so small, profitable exports are essential. Fish prices overseas have soared since last December and there is greater optimism now than there has been for several years about prices and market opportunities. But investment in the fishing industry will only be profitable if export markets remain buoyant for a number of years. The committee admits a risk.

If the general idea of more intensive and extensive fishing is accepted, the question remains: where will the manpower, skill, knowledge, and capital be found? The Government is obviously hoping that some money will be raised by, or within, the existing industry. Yet, in recent years, most established fishermen or fishing companies have found that the cost of

building or buying vessels to add to or to replace the fleet has been prohibitively high. But the Government has offered to consider applications for licences to import, free of duty, large fishing vessels that are new or nearly new. At least one firm in Nelson has modest expansion plans of its own well under way. But the fishing industry seems to be incapable of raising sufficient money on its own to finance expansion as broad and as rapid as the report favours. Government money and probably foreign investment will be necessary if the report’s recommendations are followed. The Government may have to go so far as to buy new fishing vessels itself, perhaps through the Shipping Corporation or the Fishing Industry Board, and lease them to fishing companies or individual fishermen.

In practice, the Government will probably attempt to solve the two problems of controlling foreign fishing and of developing the New Zealand industry, in tandem. Foreign countries will be given permission to fish in the waters over which New Zealand will almost certainly assume control by international agreement, but the permission will entail conditions. These should include agreement on markets, and perhaps an assurance that those countries’ markets will be open to New Zealand fish exports. The Fishing Industry Board has already endorsed such a policy.

Other countries can probably be persuaded of the fairness of such conditions; but they will not be impressed unless New Zealand shows that it has people who want to fish on a large scale and that it is ready to produce the equipment for them to do so. No discussion about fishing rights will make much sense if we are not prepared to act on the rights that we assert are ours. If marketing opportunities are to be guaranteed New Zealand has to produce the fish. This may mean co-operative ventures, in which other countries share. But, whatever the approach, the Government and the industry face some big and expensive challenges. The new fishing and management limits at sea virtually preclude one course; which is to do nothing to enlarge our fishing industry.