Seven Russian ships in Pegasus Bay

Press, 24 February 1977, Page 4

Seven Russian ships in Pegasus Bay

The Russians are once again gathering in force off the Canterbury coast, with seven vessels reported anchored in Pegasus Bay on Tuesday night. However, local fisheries officers are not unduly perturbed. They say they are keeping an interested eye on the situation but there has been no cause for concern that illegal fishing is going on. The chief fisheries inspector for Canterbury (Mr R. V. Reid) said yesterday the Russians had been in the area for eight to nine months of the year for the last four years.

‘They are perfectly at liberty to anchor in or pass through New Zealand’s territorial waters,” he said.

No action was being taken on a report from a Sumner fisherman who claimed last Monday that he saw a Russian trawler haul up its gear and drop

anchor as he approached. The fisherman was taking a compass course out to sea in heavy overcast and

out of sight of land, said Mr Reid, so a wide margin for error must be allowed in fixing his position. “We calculated that, knowing the speed of his

boat, the fisherman would have taken between seven and twelve minutes to reach the Russian from the

time of first sighting. “Not even the small local I trawlers could haul up their gear and drop anchor in that time,” said Mr Reid. However Mr Reid said he <

did not want to discourage such reports as they could often be quite helpful. A Russian trawler with a broken propeUer blade is due to enter the Lyttelton Harbour Board’s graving dock today. She is the 2500-tonne stern trawler Yunost, which is believed to have been

anchored in Pegasus Bay for two weeks, waiting until the dock became available.

However, Lyttelton’s harbourmaster (Captain D. Holden) said yesterday that the ship had not yet confirmed whether it would come in.