TROUT MURDER

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 February 1927, Page 3

TROUT MURDER

WHY GELIGNITING IS FOLLY. The enemies of trout life are many. They are subjected to the under-water attack of eels and of their own kin, the trout being a cannibal. From the air above the shag and the gull attack them. And there is also the man who drops in a pond a charge of gelignite, whereby he seeks to kill all the fish, in order to obtain ohe or two. It is impracticable to reason with eels and shags, but it ought surely to be possible to appeal with some success to reason of the riverbank dynamitard.

The law fixed penalties for him long ago, but the law appears to frequently fail in its purpose. At any rate, there is reliable independent evidence that the geligniting of trout ponds is taking place on certain streams in broad mid-day hours and within sight of a public road. Whether the failure of the law is due to administrative neglect, or to the overworking of administrative staffs, or to the peculiar difficulties of obtaining evidence in a country district —difficulties which can be as well imagined as decribed —the fact remains that many sportsmen despair of legal deterrents, and confine their efforts to moral suasion. Many of them are willing to overlook the shooting or “tickling” of individual trout. A farm hand or bushman who takes one or two fish for food, by illegal means, is not deemed a serious enemy to trout supply. He is, of course, proscribed by the law, but so is the geligniteangler, and as the law seldom catches either of them, the legal side of the problem seems to have little importance outside the Statute Book. Consequently,,. ignoring the ineffective law, many" friends of the fish are willing to countenance the gunman, the tickler, and the snarer —provided their demands are within moderation —and to concentrate against the use of explosives, by pointing out that the lattei’ process is anarchic, wasteful, and directed against every man (licensed or unlicensed) who feels the desire to take a trout for food or sport. For if a charge of gelignite destroys all the trout in a pond, how can there be any left for a meal next week or next month? Many a bush fraternity has enjoyed trout once or twice , a week, and the trout supply in the stream has gone on prospering, but not so when the regular after-work occupation is to go from pond to pond exterminating all fin life within range of the explosive charge. Without the use of explosives, there is some chance that the fish will be prolific enough to meet the wants of the angler as well as the unlicensed consumer. But where the gelignite policy persists, there can be only one result —the extermination of the fish, to the deprivation of all concerned. Is it not then folly, as well -as criminal, to adopt this method ?

Moral suasion on the above lines is, it is hoped, having some effect. It may easily have more effect than legal deterrents. To have less effect would be impossible. The natural enemies of trout, are, of course, beyond the reach of moral suasion. That is a big handicap, but it is not as big a handicap as is the general ignorance of trout life and habits. Specialists in the older countries where the fish originated do not know very much about trout. Here in this country, with its new environment and with the surprisingly early results obtained therein by imported trout, ignorance of the essential facts of fresh-water fish life is even denser than elsewhere; yet New Zealand, with its new problems in a new setting, should be a specially attractive field for research.

Prima facie, the eel seems to be the trout’s worst natural enemy. Trout, large and small, are frequently found in eels. Some observers state that they have seen in a pond a team of eels —five to ten —operating in a gradually narrowing circle, to the diminishing centre of which are driven a. school of trout, which by and by appear to become half-paralysed with fear. As the “corralled” trout drop to the shelter of the stones at the bottom, units of the eel cordon are detached to search the stones and seize the fugitives. While evidence in support of this elaboration of “encirclement tactics" may not be authentic, it is a commonly observed fact that . eels, particularly in hot weather like the present, show marked and apparently concerted activity. As many as a dozen may be seen operating from all quarters of a pond, to the evident dismay of the trout. This is the time of the yeai- when the big trout are prone to swing round and round the ponds in graceful circles. But too often it happens that the trout is deposed and in its place eels, four to five feet long, circle the pond, swimming quite high in the water and with an un-eel-like rapidity. That has happened on many ponds in this distiict during the last burst of summer weather. On all sides there is evidence of an abundant and aggressive eel life. If the eel is not in evidence in a pond, the hooking of a trout and the consequent struggle and 'splash will often bring the eel to notice. His interest in the trout’s struggles is no friendly one. His keenness to investigate is, sometimes so great that the angler has to kick him away at a range of a couple of feet. It is hard to see how trout and eels can coexist satisfactorily while the latter are so abundant. A.t all evepts, the balance of trout and eel life, in the particular, conditions presented by New Zealand- lakes, and streams, should be investigated with the close-, ness that the importance of the troutfishery demands. The researchers also should consider the shag. Opinions of the degree of his, guilt or innocence ebbs and flows If proved guilty, he should be easier to control than the eel. Shag rookeries exist in the forested gorges on the upper waters of many of oui* rivers—the Hutt gorges, for instance. Big, conspicuous balls of rubbish worked together high in forks of tall trees indicate the nests. Small calibre rifles have been used to kill the sitting birds as well as to snipe others when they alight on bare projecting boughs after awkward flight. In the river gorges they are easy to kill, but it is not.so easy, to recover the bodies in support of bonus applications, as many fall in the rockbound torrent and are washed away.

In his wild bush home, the shag is quaint, ..even picturesque. As he is a native, it would be easy to forgive him, and to respite him, particularly if research should indicate that his responsibility for trout-murder is loss than has been thought. But the eel is a different proposition. He commands no sympathy, and appears to deserve none. He is too much like the traditional snake that caused all the trouble in the beginning.