No Buller entry-port licence

Press, 8 April 1978, Page 3

No Buller entry-port licence

Westport reporter The Buller Harbour Advisory Committee has been informed that Westport cannot be licensed as a port of entry for foreign fishing vessels. A letter to the committee, from the Minister of Trans-] port (Mr McLachlan) said' that all foreign vessels; would initially have to calk at either Auckland, Welling-, ton, Lyttelton, or Port Chai-; me ; for registration and in-

[spection. It is believed that!: the reason for this is that] ■ ] there is specialised staff]: -lavailable near these ports to; t] carry out such work. ” fj “After the initial registra-l ;jtion, vessels will be free to jl ! visit any New Zealand r ortjj ;]to take on provisions and: - for rest and recreation,” the : 11letter said. jl ;. The Westport Harbour- < i] master (Captain Gower) said 1 ■ ]that a 3 far as he was aware-< ■'all the Korean and R;:sianji ■ ! fishing vessels, the only!!

'ones at pre mt permitted to ] fish within the 200-mile I zone, were large ships and had draughts of more than 20ft. | “It would be impossible to ; bring these ships jnto West-i ; port Harbour,” he said. “A ship of this nature after its voyage to New I Zealand would 'need to take on about 3000 tonnes of fuel. We do not have bunk-: ering facilities to cope with j : this requirement,” Captain! Gower said.