Exporters upset at cut-back proposed

Press, 28 March 1981, Page 28

Exporters upset at cut-back proposed

PA Wellington .Fish exporters are upset about a proposal to cut back catches of the promising new export species, the orange roughy. They said that the reduction in catch recommended by the Ministry of Fisheries Research Division would put the viability of several joint-ven-ture companies in question.

The division’s assistant director, Dr Adrian Colman, said the present catch of 27,000 to 28,000 tonnes a year could not be sustained. The division recommended a cut to about 20,000 to 25,000 tonnes for the year starting next month.

The recommendation is part of a package to be considered by the Cabinet Economic Committee, which will decide the total allowable catch for New Zealand’s 200-mile fishing zone. An aimouncement of levels for the 1981-82 year is expected soon. Dr Colman said he did not think the orange roughy could sustain the present levels of catch, and some controls were needed. However, the division did not recommend

any great changes in catch levels for other species. They were likely to be much the same as last year. But the president of the Fish Exporters’ Association, Mr R. Harrison, said the recommended cut would put the viability of several joint-venture companies fishing orange

roughy in the Chatham Rise area in question.

“If you take away some of the prime species it is just plain uneconomic to fish those waters,” he said.

The investment made by fishing companies was based on an economic mix of species, and any change in total allowable catches could only be done on a long-term basis. The companies had made big commitments in advance and sudden changes in the catch for the next 12 months would put their viability in doubt. A catch of 27,000 tonnes of orange roughy would represent at least $2 million in export earnings, he said.

There ~s simply not enough research to justify the proposed reduction in the catch of the order proposed, he said. Much more research was needed about the orange roughy before such a move could be taken,

“I am dead against any reduction in the T.A.C, (Total Allowance Catch) until sufficient research has been done to confirm the Ministry’s ‘guessti-

mates’ — and I stress that that is what they are.” The pioneering work on the orange roughy species has been done in the past two years by the West German joint-venture ship, the Wesermunde. The chairman of the joint-venture company, High Seas Fisheries Ltd, Mr D. Stevenson, said the company would be concerned at any reduction in the allowable catch, although it would not oppose restrictions designed to protect the fish stock. The Wesermunde is at present undergoing maintenance work in West Germany, and the company has not yet decided whether she will return to New Zealand waters.

The Ministry’s research division is also recommending a substantial reduction of the T. *..C. of 160,000 tonnes for fishing area E, the large zone far to the south-east of the South Island. This will not mean any reduction in catch, however, for foreign vessels working the area — mainly Russian and latterly some Japanese — have only ever caught about half that amount,