Octopus perhaps greater nuisance to Motunau fishermen

Press, 21 July 1988, Page 13

Octopus perhaps greater nuisance to Motunau fishermen

Motunau fishermen Tony McKay and Brent Ilton think the new measuring method for lobsters will have little effect on their catches.

About seven per cent of Agrade crays (smaller) are disallowed under the new law.

This time of year, says Tony McKay, crayfish are quite scarce. To break even, three large tubs have to be filled. At times, some Motunau boats struggle to bring in that many full tubs.

Mr McKay is the skipper of the Hayley 11, a year-old, jetpowered aluminium boat owned by David Pooley.

The Hayley II was custom-built by Hamilton Marine and designed for crayfishing. Apart from her ability to cross the Motunau bar in shallower water than propeller craft, the Hayley II is more manoeuvrable round the cray pots. The first job at sea is to unpack the bait. Different crayfishing operations use different baits, but crayfish will eat most

MALCOLM CONDIE

acquires some knowledge of crayfishing

by travelling with a North Canterbury crew.

seafood. Perch, terakihi, cod and barracuda are some of the main baits, and a day’s fishing can use up to 300 kilograms. At 70 cents a kilogram bait is a major expense.

About 180 pots have been dropped up the coast, spread from near Motunau to the Waiau River.

Each plot of pots can range from two to 20 traps. Although crayfish are not too particular how close to shore they live, none of David Pooley’s pots are set more than four miles out to sea. Each is marked by colour-coded buoys so fishermen can identify their own — most have two marking buoys.

A gaff is used to pick up the pot rope, which is then fed through a pulley and on to a hydraulic winch operated from the pilot’s control panel. As each pot is hoisted, the skipper must manoeuvre so that it does not snag on rocks it may be resting on. A depth sounder shows rocky outcrops. As a trap is lifted, it is dragged aboard and baited again.

Often the pots contain unwanted fish, which can range from octopi to eels.

One pot dragged up contained the skeletons of several crayfish. An octopus finds the sought-after delicacy as tasty as humans do

and leaves little for fishermen to savage.

Unfortunately, when crayfish are plentiful so are octopi. Once traps have been emptied of unwanted fish, they are kept on board until the skipper spies a shallower section of water on the depth sounder. Dropping a pot is probably the most skilled part of the job. Allowances have to be made for swell and tide movements.

Hayley II has an effective reverse that allows it to back up to buoys missed on a first sweep. The skipper has to watch for ropes on the surface as pots are being lowered. The jet unit intake, under the boat, can suck up

stray ropes and twist them round.

Although this is an effective way of pulling up pots rapidly, it is a big job to cut ropes free of the jet unit. All female crayfish — recognisable by the thousands of eggs they carry under their tails — are thrown back in the sorting process. Those lobsters which look undersize are measured with pre-set calipers. While catches are up, boats check the pots every day. Unlike many other fish, lobsters take a long time to reach maturity. An average sized fish is about 15 years old, with large crays well over 30 years old.

Laws about which crayfish can be caught are very strict in New Zealand. It is not worth taking illegal fish since fishing authorities have the power to confiscate a skipper’s licence and, in extreme cases, even his boat.

Weather is the main enemy for crayfishermen. The worst weather off the east coast is a south south-east wind. There is no place for boats to shelter.