Fish for the catching in N.Z. waters

Press, 13 April 1978, Page 16

Fish for the catching in N.Z. waters

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

The establishment of an exclusive economic management zone around the coast and the off-shore islands — the fourth largest zone in the world — means that at least New Zealand can control foreign fishing activities within those boundaries. In a sense, New Zealand owes its original settlement by Europeans to the activities of “foreign fishermen,” but it is only in the last 20 years that modern fishing vessels from far off nations have appeared.

The Japanese were the first, in the mid-19505, despatching long-line vessels in pursuit of snapper and tuna. The snapper fishery was put out of bounds when the fisheries zone was extended from three miles to 12 miles in 1966, but tuna fishing has continued to grow. Trawling for bottomdwelling fish began in 1967 with a catch of 3000 tonnes — mainly ling,, groper, tarakihi, trevally, elephant fish, red gurnard, and hapuka. Catches rose to 50,000 tonnes in 1972 and have stayed around that mark, making this Japan’s main fishing activity in New Zealand waters. Off-shore bottom longlining, mostly by converted tuna boats, began in 1975 as a method of catching the prime quality deep-water fish — mainly ling, groper, and warehou. It was later taken up by the Koreans. The early 1970 s saw the development of the Japanese squid fishery, the fleet building up to about 130 vessels in recent seasons. Japan’s squid catches rose from 14,720 tonnes in 1973-74 to 24,500 tonnes in 1976-77. Korea and Taiwan have also fished for squid, but only in the last year has the Korean fishing presence around New Zealand been a major one. This followed Korea’s exclusion

from the 200-mile zones in the Northern hemisphere.. Around the United States and Russia, for example, the Koreans had depended heavily on catches of Alaskan pollack. In 1974, Alaskan pollack catches of 4.9 M tonnes made it the world’s most important single fish species in terms of volume, so the closure of these waters to its vessels hit Korea hard. It also led to many vessels switching to New Zealand waters, with some huge trawlers among them the 5000-tonne Nam bug, thought to he the world s biggest trawler. Russian fishing patterns •have been more southerly and distant. Available catch data is scanty but the dominant species taken is southern blue whiting which, since 1972, have been caught by trawling the shallow continental shelf south-east of New Zealand. Russian catches in 1974 totalled 49,000 tonnes — slightly more than New Zealand’s entire wetfish catch for that year. Russians tend to rely more on support vessels than do the Japanese or Koreans who, in consequence, make more frequent port calls. ■ , , Other foreigners working the coast in recent years, on a much smaller scale, are the Taiwanese (a few squid and tuna vessels) and the Americans. The Taiwanese presence is an embarrassment as diplomatic ties have been severed, but some access may be negotiated through commercial interests. Each season since 1975 three or four United States-owned “superseiners” have fished here under charter to a New Zealand company, and another has worked waters outside the 12-mile limit. These vessels took about 7000 tonnes of skipjack tuna in 1976-77 for canning at Pago Pago in

American Samoa. Before New Zealand could allocate quotas to foreign nations with traditional rights to our waters, potential fish stocks and yields throughout the 200-mile zone had to be estimated. Although these estimates are still pretty speculative, potential yields are expected to be in the order of several hundred thousand tonnes. Within the 12-mile zone, controlled by New Zealand before April 1, there is thought to be little scope for increased landings of bottom-dwelling species and rock lobsters, which receive most attention from New Zealand fishermen. But larger catches of pelagic (off-bottom) fish in these waters — such as anchovey, pilchard koheru, mackerel, and kahawai — are possible as only kahawai is being exploited significantly at present. But these pelagic fish apart, the other fish species with potential for development are further out. Resources on the coastal shelf (to a depth of 200 metres) have so far been fished by both New Zealand and foreign vessels. In 1976, local and foreign fishermen between them caught ..about = 100,000 tonnes: New Zealand took; a slightly less than- half the total. . Dr David Egglgstoh, of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Planning Group, considers there is little scope for prime fish such as snapper, tarakihi, red gurnard, flat fish, or elephant fish. The bulk of the catch increase will have to come from barracouta, mackerel, spiky dogfish, warehou, red cod and similar species. The main areas with scope for expansion of bottom-trawling and longlining for these species are off Stewart Island, the mid-west coast of the South Island, and on the

Mernoo Bank 'between Canterbury and the Chathams, he says. Seasonal squid fishing has already fielded more than 20,000 tonnes annually, and the resource can stand much more than this. Although considerable fluctuations in the abundance of squid are possible, it can stand relatively heavy fishing because of its short, oneyear life span. There is considerable scope for larger catches of pelagic fish, too. Big areas of both main islands might yield a total of at least 50,000 tonnes a year of mackerel, sprat, and similar species most of which can be caught by mid-water trawling and purse-seining. The coastal slope, down to 2000 metres, offers possibilities for increased catches — particularly of hoki, warehou, hake, sea

perch ling, and southern kingfish. The main areas for these are off the South Island, Stewart Island, and the Wairarapa coast. These depths are beyond the capability of almost all of New Zealand’s trawling fleet, but are heavily fished by foreign vessels. New Zealand’s distant coastal slope waters, with depths up to 1000 metres, might yield catches of about 50,000 tonnes, and are a likely area for expansion. Some of the grounds are on the Chatham Rise, Challenger Bank, and off the subAntarctic islands. Distant shelf waters in the sub-Antarctic hold substantial fish stocks and in 1973 ' yielded 75,000 tonnes. The Russians catch southern blue whiting, hake, cod, shark, and ling fl are, and

New Zealand has only « limited knowledge of the size of the resource. Several tuna species migrate through New Zealand waters every summer. These are already fished, mostly in-shore, and the skipjack, albacore, and yellowtm are all highvalue export species. Dr Eggleston estimates that the in-shore catch might reach 10,000 tonnes, with a further 10,000 tonnes caught annually m deep water by long-line vessels.

Twenty-three newly-re-cruited fisheries office, s have started training with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries for surveillance work in the extended fisheries grounds. They were chosen from more than 200 applicants, most of whom had previous fisheries experience In the first three months of their training priority will be given to work with foreign fishing vessels to ensure they comply fully with the new licensing regulations.

The officer in charge of training will be Mr G. T. Crothers, formerly a fisheries officer on the Chatham Islands. He will oversee a two-year programme on topics which include fisheries law and management, fishing gear, and marine biology. This training will involve a lot of new ground, as inspecting compliance within 200mile zones is a new activity everywhere. As it progresses, it is probable that adjustments and adaptations will have to be made. The initial problems of observers on foreign fishing vessels, where the crew speaks another language, where no provision had been made for their presence, where there mav be either overt or hidden resentment and obstruction, and a host of other factors, will make thorough training and extensive debriefing of observers imperative.