Orange roughy at risk

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 12

Orange roughy at risk

PA Wellington Stocks of the prime export fin fish orange roughy will definitely be damaged if the catch rate in the six months to September continues, says the Minister of Fisheries, Mr Maclntyre. He told Parliament his Ministry was urgently studying ways to restrain catches at the main fishing ground, the Challenger Plateau, west of Wanganui, and he expected a report soon. He also said his Ministry had insufficient evidence to prove that illegal catches occurred on the plateau, but

it was still investigating allegations.

Fisheries officers have been looking into claims of poaching and irregularities on the fishing ground.

A Japanese trawler was boarded in Auckland recently and its log books and fishing records seized after it had been fishing the plateau.

Mr Maclntyre faced a series of questions in Parliament after a Government backbencher, Mr G. E. Lee (Hauraki), asked if illegal fishing of the plateau could seriously deplete the stocks,

and what steps the Minister was, taking to correct the problem. Mr Maclntyre told the House that the total allowable catch in the area was set at 5000 tonnes for the year from October 1, 1983. Mr G. T. Knapp (Social Cr&tfit, East Coast Bays), asked if the Ministry felt that the quota level was too high and might have to be reduced.

Mr Maclntyre said the Ministry recently did some research and was only now putting the figures together. “From that we will be able to decide what we believe can be safely taken each year,” he said.

Sir Basil Arthur (Lab., Timaru), asked Mr MacIntyre to confirm that policing the plateau could only be at best spasmodic unless much more money was spent. “Yes, that would be so, because it’s a fairly difficult thing to exactly work out where the 200-mile limit is in such a large area of water,” said Mr Maclntyre. Orange roughy displaced schnapper in the last financial year as the most important fin fish export. It yielded $23.6 million. Squid was the most important export species, with export earnings of $59.3 million.