FISHING GROUNDS DEPLETED

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 194, 14 May 1936, Page 5

FISHING GROUNDS DEPLETED

New Zealand’s Resources SMALLER CATCHES THAN IN FORMER YEARS The old adage that there are more fish in the sea than ever came out of it does not appear to be true of the New Zealand coasts. In an address to the economic biology section of the Wellington Philosophical Society last night, Mr. A. E, Ilefford, chief inspector of fisheries, emphasised the fact that the local fishing grounds not only appeared to be limited but were being rapidly depleted. The early settlers, said Mr. Ilefford, had the impression that no country in the world possessed better fish resources than New Zealand. This attitude was not surprising: what lived in the sea and what went on the sea remained obscure even to those who travelled on it, and was even more so to landsmen. This view, still a popular misapprehension, was naturally encouraged by fishermen, who objected to having restrictions imposed on them, and by others financially interested.

“We can only tell what fish inhabit the sea by what we can take out, through the fisheries. We can only judge of the extent of these resources by observing how fishing tends to deplete the fishing grounds. Well, during the latter half of New Zealand’s history, depletion has taken place everywhere where commercial fishing has taken place regularly. We have reached this point: everywhere fewerfish are being taken to-day than was the case in the early days,’’ said Mr Hefford. He instanced specific fishing grounds on the coast, and pointed out that local groper grounds had become depleted since the evolution of the modern method of setting drift lines by the Island Bay fishermen.

On general considerations, he pointed out the scientist would not expect to find the same abundance of fish in New Zealand waters as, for instance, in the North Sea. The piscine food supply depended on the quantities of certain salts in the water, and these were obtained by erosion from the land. For that reason the world’s principal fishing grounds were in the Northern Hemisphere, in landlocked, narrow, shallow seas.

From New Zealand waters, in a peak year, 300,000 hundredweight of fish had been taken. From the North Sea Great Britain had taken 3,300.000 hundredweight in a year, and besides Britain the ships of many other countries were fishing those waters. The North Sea had been fighed for many years, whereas ■bn the New Zealand coasts fishing had only been going on for a few decades.

‘‘lf your resources aro as limited as they seem to be. it is all the more reason why we should take care of them and conserve them to the best of our ability,” said Mr. Hefford.