Fisheries expert attacks dumping

Press, 11 January 1978, Page 1

Fisheries expert attacks dumping

A “shocking indictment of everyone who has anything to do with the fishing industry” is how an expert in the field has described the dumping of snapper at Nelson on Monday. More snapper were dumped yesterday. “We claim to have the capability of managing a 200-miie fishing zone and here we are catching and handling a premium-grade fish in such a way,” said Dr E. B. Slack, a reader in applied fisheries at Victoria University. “We have wasted precious fuel to catch the fish and we have even wasted more fuel in transporting it to the tip,” said Dr Slack. The dumped fish were part of an unusually large catch taken from Tasman Bay last week. Mr R. T. McKay, the general manager of Nelson Fisheries, said in “The Press” yesterday that the fish had been unfit for human consumption because they were full of mud and had been dragged over an area which might have been polluted. According to Dr Slack there is “absolutely no technical reason why this catastrophe in Tasman Bay should have happened.” The problem lay with lack of funds to train fishermen in the use of the technical equipment to prevent such occurrences, he said. Doctor Slack said trawl nets could be fitted with instruments to show how much fish was in the net or whether it was being dragged along the bottom mud. “As far as I know we do not have the educational facilities in New Zealand to train fishermen in the use of such instruments,” he said. There was nothing like the instruction in full technology of fisheries required to bring in a premium catch. In training programmes there had been a tendency to measure success in terms of catch size. "We seem not to have realised that it is better to land one ton of fish in top quality rather than 10 or even 100 tons that is destined for the tip.” Dr Slack said. “When we come to talk in terms of stewardship of the fourth-largest fishing zone m the world and

building up an industry with an export potential of S3OOM to S4OOM a year, it is time to make a funding for every aspect of training and education, commensurate With the value of the resource,” he said. More fish were dumped at the Nelson rubbish tip yesterday as fishermen continued to bring in huge hauls from an estimated 3000 tonnes of snapper in Tasman Bay, reports Barry Simpson from Nelson. One company. Sea Lord Products, has told trawler skippers to “ease up” on their catches. The company’s managing director (Mr C. C. Hufflett) said that the company’s refrigeration space could not cope with the catches. Its new refrigerated building was to have been ready in September but would not be completed for a few weeks yet. thus limiting the amount of fish that could be stored for processing, he said. The trawler. Sea Lord, had on Monday night landed the biggest catch of snapper the company had ever taken, said Mr Hufflett. The fish had not been in the best of condition and appeared to be older fish, said Mr Hufflett. They had been top feeding, or at least had been on top of the water, but an examination of many had revealed empty stomachs. He believed a big percentage had been ready to spawn. They had been drawn to the warm waters of Tasman Bay, water which in the harbour had a temperature of about 24 deg. Asked if he believed it good that fish about to spawn were being taken in such huge quantities, Mr Hufflett replied: “No, I don’t.” He said that his company had not had to dump any'fish and it was working to full capacity. The fish-meal plant, unfortunately, had been shut down for annual overhaul, and

only the standby plant was working, he said. Most of the fish his company processed was destined for Japan. News of the dumping of fish at the Nelson tip on Monday had reached Mr R. D. Lundy, the chief fisheries officer of the Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, when telephoned by “The Press” yesterday. “The matter is being looked at very closely,” he said. The Fisheries Act forbade the dumping of fish which was fit for human consumption, said Mr Lundy. Asked if his department intended to prevent trawler skippers from continuing this practice in the light of the great waste. Mr Lundy said the Nelson regional fisheries officer (Mr J. E. Warn) had been “fully briefed” and would look into the matter. Mr Warn, who was in Wellington yesterday, was not available for comment.