Trawler offered overseas

Press, 16 February 1978, Page 3

Trawler offered overseas

The sale of the confiscated Japanese fishing boat Tomi Maru 81 will be advertised in New Zealand and seven other countries in the next week.

But while tenders for the vessel will be sought from the seven countries, which include Japan, the Government Stores Board is seeking a New Zealand company to export the vessel’s cargo of frozen fish.

Advertisements calling for tenders for the Tomi Maru 81 will be placed in four New Zealand newspapers, and in newspapers in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Argentina, South Korea, Indonesia, and the west coast of the United States. The cargo of fish will be

sold separately. New Zealand exporters will be invited to tender for 350 tonnes of frozen fish. Because of New Zealand health regulations, and the nature of the catch, the fish will have to be exported. A spokesman for the Stores Board said yesterday that the fish on board the vessel were species not popular in New Zealand. The fish had been headed and tailed, but not cleaned, and they would have to be defrosted and cleaned.

It would be against New Zealand health regulations to freeze the fish again for sale.

The spokesman said the cargo would be a big one for any New Zealand company to handle. The aim was to sell it in toto, rather than break it up.

The fish will be offered “ex ship hold” from Auckland, where the vessel has been since it was arrested by a Naval patrol boat. The closing date for tenders is expected to be April 3.