Fishermen blamed after rescue

Press, 31 January 1979, Page 1

Fishermen blamed after rescue

The time has come to clamp down hard on small-time fishermen who are inexperienced and illequipped, according to Sumner lifeboatmen. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent each year in searches for fishermen who should never have been allowed to go to sea, said the secretary of the Sumner Lifeboat Institution (Mr W. J. Baguley) yesterday.

His comments came after two young Christchurch fishermen had to be rescued yesterday for the second time in two weeks.

A big air and sea search began on Monday evening after the 5m Sumner-based fishing runabout Venture I failed to return from checking nets 19 kilometres north of Sumner.

The missing craft was found by the Bruce, a Kaiapoi fishing boat, yesterday morning and was later taken in tow by the naval i eserve launch Kupara, which sailed out of Lyttelton.

The two missing men, Mark Roelofsma, of Sumner, and Steven McNiven, of Christchurch, were safe

and well when the Kupara and its tow arrived at Scarborough about 3 n.m. yesterday. Last Friday, the same vessel had to be towed home by the Lyttelton Harbour Board’s pilot launch Wairangi after running out of fuel off Taylors Mistake.

Lifeboatmen said the small fishing boat, which had no compass, had become lost in a small fog bank. “Most of the trouble we have involves this type of craft and this type of inexperienced crew,” Mr Baguley said. “Many of these craft should never put out to sea. They have insufficient experience; their boats are badly equipped; many do not " have sea anchors, enough flares, or other essential gear,” said Mr Baguley. He said that the Venture I was not equipped with even a citizens’ band radio, and was obviously not designed for off-shore fishing. “It is high time that some Government agency cracked down on these small-time and part-time fishermen for their own protection,” said Mr Bagulev. At present, he said, only vessels of 18ft or more were subject to Marine Department survey, or had to have qualified skippers. “If somebody took a craft the size of a bathtub to the Marine Department and asked for a fishing licence, he could get one under the present system.” said Mr Baguley. He said there "were some “responsible and well equipped small-boat fishermen” who were trying to form an association in

Sumner. These had the full support of lifeboatmen.

Captain J. F. Crawford, the Lyttelton Harbour Board pilot who was involved in the first rescue of the Venture I last Friday, also criticised the regulations governing small-time fishermen.

“People do not seem to realise the great cost of these searches. In this case the subjects of the search did not seem to have proper gear, or know what they were doing,” said Captain Crawford.

“No bona fide seaman would have gone where they were going on Monday if he had heard a forecast or could see what weather was coming,” he said.

Mr Roelofsma said that the Venture I had broken a fuel line 12 kilometres north of Banks Peninsula, and had drifted north.

“We saw a plane about 8 p.m. on Monday. We

knew they were looking for us, and we were not worried after that,” he said.

From Wellington, the Press Association reports that the two crew missing off the trawler Owenga V were found yesterday in their liferaft by a commercial helicopter taking part in the extensive search for them.

A spokesman for the search and rescue headquarters in Wellington said last evening that the two men, Frederick Alfred Chard, aged 35, of Hamilton, and Patrick Michael Campbell, aged 22, of Whitianga, were spotted by one of two helicopters from Helicopter New Zea< land, Ltd, at 5.15 p.m. yesterday. The calm seas allowed the helicopter pilot to pick up the men from the liferaft and take them to a depot for the Maui gas fields, where there are medical facilities.