Squid fishery fears may be premature

Press, 30 January 1984, Page 2

Squid fishery fears may be premature

Fears that New Zealand’s squid fishery is failing appear to be premature. Up to mid-January catches by Japanese squid jiggers off the northwestern South Island were down more than 50 per cent on last season, according to recent Japanese reports. Some of these sources have attributed the decline to El Nino, the climatic situation which creates warm water lacking in nutrients. A scientist in the Fisheries Research Division, of the Ministry of Fisheries, Dr R. H. Mattlin, said the change in the pattern of squid catches had created some apprehension within the industry but there was not yet any cause for real concern. “Catches .by foreign licensed squid jiggers are definitely down, but it is too early to panic,” he said. “I would certainly suspect that there is much more behind the low catches than overfishing and it is possible that El Nino is one of the causes.”

Catches by foreign licensed vessels for the week ended January 8 averaged only three tonnes a vessel. This compared poorly with the 1982-83 seasonal average of 21 to 22 tonnes a vessel a week. However, the average catch a vessel for the week ended January 15, was 17.2 tonnes. “This probably reflects the shift in fishing effort from the West Coast of the South Island to the area round Stewart Island,” Dr Mattlin said. “The squid caught off the West Coast is a different species from that caught off the east coast and it may well be that the east coast fishery will give much better rates. It is still too early to tell.” Dr Mattlin said poor catches on the West Coast

might have been a result of a bad squid recruitment in the fishery last season. This could have been caused by factors such as poor spawning and did not necessarily mean recruitment in the fishery would not be good this season. He said squid recruitment was believed to depend on several influences such as the weather and sea surface temperatures. The Fisheries Management Division reported that 92 Japanese and six Korean squid jiggers have been licensed to fish in New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone this season. The first vessels entered the zone on November 25, 1983, about a fortnight earlier than for the 1982-83 season. Last season 89 Japanese and six Korean vessels were licensed to fish.