Japanese doubled their fish catch

Press, 23 August 1977, Page 6

Japanese doubled their fish catch

Japanese fishermen almost doubled their fin-fish take 'from New Zealand waters last year, according to information given to the Minister of Fisheries (Mr Bolger) at Japanese fish research laboratories. Mr Bolger said in an interview that the fin-fish ] catch by the Japanese fleet had amounted to about j 100,000 tonnes. Another 25,000 tonnes of squid had ; also been caught. These figures indicated 1 that Japan was now catching between 40 and 50 per cent of the fish taken an- ■ nually from New Zealand . waters. He said that the Soviet' deep sea fishing fleet was)' catching between 60,000 and/ 80,000 tonnes of fin-fish a . year. The New Zealand in-! dustry was catching at a . rate of about 50,000 tonnes ‘ a year. Mr Bolger said it "came ‘ through loud and clear” that • the industry was concerned ’ i that it might not in future ; ■get the same degree of c access to the New Zealand J fishing grounds. '. “All the representatives of 1 fishermen’s associations I 1 have spoken to have exj pressed the hope that we ! will treat them fairly in the * allocation of rights to fish ' in our 200-mile zone,” the/ Minister said. “My response has been ; £ that if we can resolve the/ trading difficulties between)' our two countries I am sure' they will be treated fairly.’ It Mr Bolger visited a Japan-) F ese Government sponsored; l fish laboratory where heH was brought u] to date on!‘ the fishing catch of the' 11 'Japanese fleet in New Zea-] I land waters. r

“They also macle other information available to us and assured us of future cooperation,” he said. The records he inspected covered species of fish caught, as well as quantities. An early-morning visit today to a fish auction left him with vivid impressions. “It seemed to me that any fish that is long enough to wriggle is saleable here,” he said. “Cockabullies would look big alongside some of the fish I saw being sold.” The Minister noted a skipjack tuna weighing 70 kilo-: grams being sold for about! $BOO. “Top quality tuna is] bringing very high prices, I But it has to be in top-class I condition and should be I deeply frozen soon after being taken from the water." | A visit to a fish farm indicated to him what results could be achieved in a comparatively small area of water. “I don’t think this type of farming is practical right now in New Zealand but from the small bay I visited they were taking out 3000 tonnes of Japanese yellowtail, snapper and some mackerel each year.” Mr Bolger also inspected a tuna processing factory. He found it to be more labour intensive than he had expected but was impressed with the manner in which all parts of the fish were processed for sale in some form. Mr Bolger said he believed that the Japanese Government was beginning to r:clise that it would have to do something to improve access I for New Zealand farm predicts to its markets. 1 He said that the Govern rnent's representations t<

• Tokyo on the question were I “getting through.” Mr Bolger declined to ■ detail informal discussions he held with the Japanese Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Mr Z. Suzuki, but' he believed indications were' given that Tokyo will re-| examine its methods of ten-; dering for dairy imports. New Zealand dairy inter-] ests have for some months been upset by the methods used by the Japanese wheni they decide larger imports I of dairy products are necessary. Recently Ireland ob-' tained a sale in Japan which (the New Zealand Dairy] (Board feels it could have I won had it received earlier; notification of the Japanese] (intention to place an order, i I According to Japanese] agricultural authorities there! is more likely to be an early] improvement in Japan’s! ordering of overseas beef! than progress on access for; dairy products. Japanese sources indicated] that the Fukuda Government' was more inclined to the! view that Japan could not be self-sufficient in beef and i therefore could tend to en-' large its import allocations, j