Trawlers working illegally — fisherman

Press, 24 February 1977, Page 11

Trawlers working illegally — fisherman

Assertions that trawlers, were fishing in prohibited waters in Lyttelton Harbour have been made by a Christchurch amateur fisherman. Mr W. T. J. Hartley. He said that he was fishing on the south side of the harbour. just inside Adderley Head, on February 13 when two trawlers made a sweep into the harbour less than 450 m from the shore. . Mr Hartley is one of the few regular fishermen in the • area to use long lines. He , said that if he had been using long lines that day, several hundred dollars’ worth of ; gear would have been car- i ried away by the trawlers. He could not identify the vessels but said he took it for granted that they were Lyttelton boats. The chief fisheries inspector for Canterbury (Mr R. V. Reid) said that trawling was prohibited inside a line run-

ning from a point two miles to sea from the north branch of the Waimakariri River to Godley Head, then along to Long Lookout Point at the head of Okains Bay. This made the Banks Peninsula bays and the Sumner ] estuary out of bounds to trawlers. Mr Reid said that fisheries > inspectors were available at; all times to act on complaints. He inspected photographs taken by Mr Hartley | of a trawler allegedly fishing in the harbour but said that there was nothing to suggest from the photograph that it was actually trawl-! ing. Mr Hartley said that in 20 years of fishing around Banks Peninsula, it was the closest: he had seen trawlers working. Since the controversy! between Lyttelton and Sum-: ner fishermen, trawlers: seemed to have come much'

. closer to shore. i. “Lately, they have been ' coming in very close to the; Birdlings Flat area,” he said. : “Surfcasters could have! reached them —they were noj more than 150 yards off ’ I shore.” Mr Hartley said that the; “dramatic change” in the pat-' I tern of fishing in recent ■ jyears was a matter for con-; cern. “They (fish) are slowly get-] iting smaller and smaller,” he! 'said. “Twenty years ago, the] average cod weighed between: four and six pounds. Now , they average between one (half and two pounds. Skate were usually between seven and 10 pounds. Now they are! only one or two pounds. i “Hardly anyone catches I elephant fish on a rod now and other species seem al-1 most to have disappeared. I lean only put it down to in'tensive trawling.”