HOPE OP SURVIVAL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 149, 21 December 1923, Page 7

HOPE OP SURVIVAL

IMPORTED FISH IN THE SOUTH

TURBOT, CRAB, AND LOBSTER PORTOBELLO EXPERIMENTS. (BI TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL TO THE POST.) • DTJNEDIN,,This Day. The report of the Pbrtobello Marine Fish Hatchery Board, which has carried out important experimental work for many years, and is the only one of its kind in New Zealand, states that the last shipment of European lobsters and crabs arrived by the Waimana at Port Chalmers on Ist March, 1913, when 41 lobsters and 43 crabs were received. At the same time, 195 turbot, each about the size of a half-crown, were placed in the tanks. The outbreak of the Great War and the complete disorganisation of shipping which resulted prevented any renewal of shipments, and owing to the continued high freights it is doubtful whether any action can be taken in the way of renewal of the stocks. Of the turbot, 170 fish were liberated in 1916 arid 191?, and 14 others were retained in the tanks, where, however, they are unable to spawn oh account of the lack of depth arid pressure of water. Some of these have grown to a length of 2<i inches, but they have not grown for two years. They are how at least 12 years old, and one or two have recently died, perhaps from old age. Meanwhile nothing has been seen of those put but ir. Tautuku Bay. It is hardly possible that they are alt iost, as turbot produce enormous numbers of eggs. Buckland, the English naturalist, records a 231b fish as producing i 4 million. It is certain that if only one turbot spawned, and the eggs were fertilised, there must be vast numbers of them in the gea, so it is hoped that they will yet appear* The crab 3 did not thrive well in the hntchery ponds, and several died. In the Hortie seas they always migrate to deSp water on the approach of will' ter, as the cold is fatal to them. Probably the Portobello ponds, being shaU low, were too Gold in winter, so about a score were liberated in the sea.. Meanwhile about 32,000,000 larvae were produced and get free. Again it seems incredible that this 'species is lost in our seas.

Previous to the Wiiimaha shipment, that is, between 1906 and 1913, 47 lobsters had been received at the hatchet y, and 'great numbers of larvae had I eon liberated. Since then another million and a half larvae have gone to sea, and about a score of adults w;ere also placed oh the coast. As the last lobsters received in 1913 were then at least 10 years old, it is not a matter of surprise that the number of adults in confinement is being'reduced; and only four or five are how left in the ponds. The hopes of the reappearance nf these three species of fish and crustaceans are based not only oh the improbability of their total destruction, but also on the fact that several animals which were introduced into this country, and were thought to have failed completely to establish themselves, are now known to have become natural-; ised. With these encouraging examples ; before them, the Fish Hatchery Board is' quite hopeful that turbot, lobsters, and crabs may yet be met with in the New Zealand seas.