Undersize net had shrunk during trawl

Press, 25 February 1981, Page 2

Undersize net had shrunk during trawl

PA Wellington ... An undersize net found aboard a Soviet trawler last year had shrunk during a trawl, a District Court judge ruled yesterday. Judge Beatson dismissed a charge against two Soviet fishermen of using a net with an undersize mesh.

Judge Beatson said that he was satisfied beyond any do tbt that a theory postulated by Mr Anthony Feinson a tutor at the Technical Correspondence Institute in Lower Hutt, who gave evidence for the defence about the cause of the net shrinkage, was correct. “That, is, that by dragging the trawl across the sea bottom and pulling up five tonnes of mud the filaments in the fibres of the net swelled, albeit in an irregular manner causing shrinkage of some 80 to 85 per cent of the total cod-end,” he said. Victor Albrandt, the ship’s

master, and Alexander Smirnov, chief trawl master of the Soviet fishing vessel Brigadir had been accused of using the vessel for fishing in New Zealand waters with a net, the size of which was in the cod-end less than 100 mm.

They had pleaded not guilty to the charge and were represented by Mr R. H. Hansen, of Auckland. Mr K. G. Stone prosecuted for the Ministry of Fisheries. Judge Beatson had reserved his decision in the case at the end of the hearing of evidence in December. Messrs Albrandt and Smirnov returned to the Soviet Union when the crew of the Brigadir was replaced early last month. .

The Judge said he was satisfied the net was the correct size when it was put in the water.

But nobody knew precisely what had caused the undoubted shrinkage that had been found.