ATLANTIC SALMON

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 83, 4 October 1929, Page 10

ATLANTIC SALMON

WANGANUI RIVER A FAILURE

Disciples of Izaak "Walton will be interested, though disappointed, to learn that attempts to stock the Wanganui River with Atlantic salmon have, not been attended with success.

The Chief Inspector of Fisheries (Mr. A. B. Hefford) says in his annual report that the Wanganui River still shows no apparent sign of results from the stocking with the fry of Atlantic salmon, which has been carried out yearly since 1923. Since that date the fry from approximately 2,927,000 ova have been liberated from the Kalcahi hatchery in its upper waters, but no salmon run has eventuated, and it now seems probable that the attempt to make the Wanganui a salmon river, which was entered upon with"optimistic hopes, may prove to be fruitless. On the assumption that some salmon would reach maturity at three years old, and the majority at four years (which is the case in Britain, although apparently the Waiau salmon mature at an earlier age), by this time four generations of adult salmon should have been produced; but no authentic record of a single fish of this species having been caught or seen has come to hand. The Wanganui River ..system is indeed of vast extent, and much of it is somewhat inaccessible, so it is possible that fish may be in existence without the fact being recognised. It seems, however, says Mr. Hefford, to be more probable that the fact of the Wauganui flowing into a sea which is outside the influence of Antarctic water, and is, so to speak, quite foreign to this species, is the decisive factor, and that the explanation of the Wanganui failure is analagous to the failure of the Hokitika in respect to quinnat acclimatisation.

The Postal authorities liuve received cable advice from Sydney that Hie Makura, which left ati p.m. yesterday for Wellington, carries 806 "bags of mail from Australia and 247 parcel receptacles, including 557 from, <Hher •places.