Govt extends fishing ‘to allow review’

Press, 19 November 1981, Page 28

Govt extends fishing ‘to allow review’

PA Wellington Existing fishing arrangementstor joint ventures and foreign holders of licences will be extended for 12 months, according to the Minister of Fisheries (Mr Maclntyre). He said that this would allow a major review of ways to ensure that deepwater demersal fisheries were used in New Zealand’s best interests. No additional joint ventures for trawling would be approved in the next 12 months. The industry had reached a watershed. Any changes made to the present mix of domestic, joint-venture, and foreign licensed fishing would be significant and would have to be phased in to avoid major disruption to all sectors of the industry. Mr Maclntyre said: “In particular, several key aspects associated with decreasing joint-venture efforts and expanding the New Zealand fleet have to be looked at. Careful thought has to be given to the best way of allocating access rights. “The large number of requests from New Zealand interests wishing to invest in deep-sea vessels is such that the Government must consider the total impact on sustainable yields, especially on the limited stocks of prime species which offer the best return for the least effort.” Mr Maclntyre said that these prime species were a critical factor in determining which ventures would be profitable. Too many approvals could jeopardise the profitability of all deepwater fishing companies. The future of existing onshore joint-venture processing facilities and the employment they offered in fishing ports also had to be looked at closely.

Mr Maclntyre said that reducing foreign involvement in New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone could affect New Zealanders’ access to overseas markets. Government officials. and the Fishing Industry Board were working on a major strategy paper, looking at the implications of a range of options. This paper would be used as the basis for formulating policy proposals which should be ready by mid-1982. The general manager of the Fishing Industry Board, Mr R. I. Jarman, said that the Government’s 12-month delay in deciding the future of joint-fishing ventures could impede, the development of the industry. Joint ventures had been valuable in giving the domestic industry a bigger catch to process and in increasing the experience of New Zealanders in catching, processing, and marketing a» wide range of fish species. Mr Jarman said: “Nevertheless, the legitimate expansion intentions of the domestic industry must always have first priority.” Joint ventures had been established to lead to greater New Zealand involvement in fisheries development and it was not expected that they should impede such development. In the last four years the domestic industry had invested an estimated $35 million in fish-processing plant and vessels. This had Jed to the additional employment of 1500 people and foreign-exchange earnings of $45 million during the same period. In the last two years the industry had planned to start a major programme to develop deep-water fisheriess and several companies had applied to import larger trawlers, valued at $3O million, which could take

50,000 tonnes of fish from deeper waters. Mr Jarman said: “It is unfortunate that it now appears that these plans will be delayed as this could affect the momentum of the development which has been so successful over the last three . to four years.” Although it was too early to make definite statements because of uncertain information, the board believed that if domestic boats had access to enough of the higher-valued deep-water fish species, the fishing would be profitable. “The deep-water resource is finite and as greater numbers of vessels gain access to it the less the chance each has of being economic. It is now accepted in most quarters that too many jointventures have been approved. “Furthermore, present arrangements do not permit the most rational harvesting ’ and processing schedules which are essential for the long-term viability of an industry based on the deeperwater species or, for that matter, any fishery.” The Labour Party’s spokesman on primary production, Sir Basil Arthur, said that the Government’s decision to extend the jointventure licences was “a cheap cop-out to political expendiency and political friends.” He said, “This spells out Government intention only too clearly: think big to the detriment of anything else. There is obviously no intention by the National Party to increase New Zealand-owned and operated participation in the fishing industry. “Those companies which have gone to immense cost and effort to arrange importation of large fishing vessels able to fish way offshore for species such as orange roughy have been told to pull their heads in.”