Fish earnings $500M

Press, 16 May 1978, Page 10

Fish earnings $500M

PA Dunedin New Zealand could earn up to SSOOM a year from deep-water ' fishing with the new 200-mile exclusive economic zone, a conference in Dunedin of the Marine Sciences and Ichthyological Societies was told. This is the view of Dr R. Francis, a scientist with the Fisheries Research Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Wellington.

He was addressing the conference on the subject of the assessment and management of New Zealand’s deep-water fisheries.

The present management of deep-water fishery is based on an estimated annual yield of 200,000 to 300,000 tonnes, but Dr Francis believes the real value is much greater — between 500,000 and IM. tonnes.

His “crude assessment” uses information from the records of an exploratory Japanese fishing boat Shinkai Maru which did extensive trawling in New' Zealand waters between November, 1975, and Februarv last year. This was the only “research” that had been done, he said,

and it warranted far more attention.

Dr Francis suggested several ways in which the real size of the resource could be estimated. —

A complete monitoring of ongoing foreign fishing. A well-planned resource survey involving trading access to the zone by foreign .countries for research information on the potential for deep-water fishing.

An understanding of the total food chain of deepwater fish and its relationship to commercial production. More research attention should also be focused on the Campbell Plateau — a large shelf area to the south-east of the South Island — he said. “It is estimated that this is the area of maximum deep-water fisheries potential and we know very little about it.”

The Campbell Plateau is the area where two species of fish, the southern blue whiting and the hoki, are found.

Dr Francis said these warrant more research attention than they are getting because they are “potentially the most important species in the fishery.”