TRAWL AND DRIFT. FISH OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 89, 17 April 1911, Page 7

TRAWL AND DRIFT. FISH OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH

DOGGER BANK INCIDENTS. Captain Eastick, fishing master of the steam trawler Nora Niven, was aboard somewhere away aft in the narrow caboose over the propeller, and called the saloon. Had Captain Eastick a minute or 6o to spare to talk about t)M fish of these waters and those of the North Sea? Why, certainly. He had plenty of experience of both — fished for years off the Dogger Bank, fished practically all round New Zealand, at any rate in tho eastern waters and the Chathams. "What's wrong with the 'gayback,' or mackerel? Do you know of a finer fish than him?" asked, the captain, as if challenging. . " Well, we've the identical fish in New Zealand. Yes; I say we've the mackerel in these waters. Bigger than the European mackerel — a finer fish altogether. We've caught them in Hawke's Bay." Then why dent you catch them in abundance? the captain was asked, " Because we haven't the gear," ho replied. "Do you know of a. finer dish than a plate of fried sprats?" he asked again. "I don't— fried or smoked," they are fit for a king. Well, eprate, anchovies, and sardines aue all the same. .We have them in New Zealand. Enormous ehoals of uiem ; tons upon tons at a time. We don't catch them because we haven't the gear; but w© havei them here when the time comes. We want drift nets. "Here, in these watere," Captain Eastick continued, "wind and weather rule the movements of the fish. • More bo than in the North Sea. There the.weather is more stable j but_ it hae' grown worse and' more unreliable of 1 recent years. " The fishing industry of New Zealand is capable of enormous exDaneion," he went on;- " but the distribution of the British fish has become a fine art. All fish caught is packed in natural ice in boxes, and bo it is sent to the market within twenty-four hours of catching. Then there ts> a perfect system by post and rail' ac between the dealer and consumer, and rapid carriage and house-to-housa delivery by the railway companies themselves at remaTkjably cheap rates'." Than the New Zealand fisE were.com-. pared with the fish of the North Sea. Captain Eastick held that the sole ' of Europe was a fish superior in. point of flavour, texture, and everything else to the New Zealand sole ; but * in all other respects the New Zealand fish were well up ito the North Sea standard. THE PEINCE OF THE SEAS. "Now take the herring." he said,, ft ifast, is the Prince of all the fish. I' know of no finer fish in all the seas than the herring. Why should it not be in--troduced into New Zealand waters. Thrive ! I should think it would. Herrings ! They come- down from the North of Scotland from John o'Groafe right down into the ChanneL We do not follow them beyond the North Foreland. Well, in the herring season the ITonth of England fleet tackles them sailing out of Sunderland, the Shields, then follows the Grunsby fleet, and after that the Yarmouth and Lowestoft boats, and so they are hunted — if you like toi put it that way — up to Christmas time, when they get into the ChanneL I have - seen them for a few minutes at a time bo thick that a man might almost stand on them. They swim compact, massed' come four or five feet thick." Captain Eastick has-- a good word for sharks. ''They are cleared out," he Eaid, "whereever the trawlers go. They have been cleared out of the British -waters like that. Oh yes ; there could be, as there have been; sharks in the English Channel, as here. « Why not ? Except for the trawlers. But the shark is a valuable fish. The Maoris like him. SWEET WILLIAM AND THE NUESE. "Let me lei! you that there is a good pale for the dogfish 'Sweet William' and the 'Nurse,' , in England. They are all dogfish, and very sweet eating, too — as sweet as a nut. None of them are thrown away. Oh dear, no. If the shark is the curse of the sea, then turn Trim to good account. Commercially, he's one of -the most valuable of sea fishes if treated in the right way. Bufc you must do jt before trawlers become plentiful, for assuredly they will exterminate him." SAILING OUT OF YARMOUTH. Captain Eastick graduated at Yarmouth. In the captain's days it was all sailing trswlere and drifters, trim vessels with red-brown sails. Even as late as thirteen years ago, as the captain tells, there were 840 sailing smacks out of Yarmouth alone, besides steam trawlers and cutters. They were "all cutter-rigged, and ranged from fifty .tons up to 120 tons. ' "They are all gone now," said the captain. "Where? Sold to' foreigners. Steam has taken their place." •Hien the talk veered round to the -Dogger Bank, that wonderful stretch of shoal water lying midway between the North of England and Denmark, the great international fishing ground. The Bank is, roughly, seventy miles long by twenty miles broad, and ranges in depth from three fathoms to fifteen fathoms. On that patch six or seven nations fish, taking vast hauls of fish, and this has gone on for centuries. In Captain Eastick's opinion, the fishingis not so good as it used to be. With some sixty trawlers in a radius of come Tour or fkve miles this is not to be (Wondered at. FISHING IN THE WHITE SEA. It is no wonder that fishermen now have to go farther afield. "Even up to the White Sea, when it is ice-free," says Captain Eastick. "The fish are getting cleaned out of the Bank," said he. "Too many trawlers in it," he added. Up in the White Sea fish are yery plentiful, "BOY BOKOS AND DEVELS." With such a racial mixture year in and year out on the Dogger Bank, it is not to be wondered at that there is trouble at times. Belgian fishermen, who wish to "drift" over th« Bank, have a habit of cutting British trawlers' net*, doing hundreds of pounds' damage in a few seconds. "They hang over their bows," said Captain Eastick, "a machine that we -call a devil. It is like a propeller, with sharp cutting blades. It shears the warps and cuts the trawls adrift. "Out of sheer wickedness," according to the captain. "Oh, sometimes we catch them. Then we steam alongside, and there is a lively hand-to-hand fight, I tell you. Blood and hair flying, and good British oaths. I don't -know the Belgian ones. We call the Frenchmen boy bokos. I don,'t know wiy. We don't have much to do yrith them."