FISHING INDUSTRY

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 806, 22 January 1903, Page 3

FISHING INDUSTRY

(To tbe Editor of tho Times.)

—One of the rarest items that appears’ in any of the papers, and yet of so much importance to the country, is the fishing industry of New Zealand. Why such negligence is shown is beyond the comprehension of most people. The solving of the question may be found in the way that there is so little information to be obtained regarding the habits of the fish. The manner in which they travel and the discovery of the beds or banks whore the different kinds are located. It is true the Government have appointed gentlemen as fishery inspectors, and even sent a small vessel round the coast manned by fishermen under tho supervision of an inspector, to obtain an exhaustive report of the fishery. X very much doubt if the information gained paid for the expense of

the undertaking. From practical knowledge, I may say that most fishermen differ about the habits of fish, which make it appear that the problem is not solved yet, and until it is, I should like to explain my own ideas. A country like New Zealand, with the enormous seaboard at certain seasons, must bo the haunt of enormous sboals of the tribe. My reasons for this assertion are tnat the pievailing winds are westerly that are blowitm from tho Australian coast. Now there are probably banks between there and New Zealand, consequently the sweep of tho sea from the west would carry tho feed from the banks towards our coast, ] the fiaii naturally going with it. Then after rounding tbe south end of the Island there is a tide set always to the north. The fish travelling with it along the East Coast would find perfectly smooth water with abundance of teed settling on banks and shoals, forming ideal breeding grounds ; but until those grounds are found by practical men our fishery capabilities ure unknown. People say look at Napier or the Hauraiu Gulf. That’s all right. Ono could not get away

from finding fish there, because they were at their back door. Now take the pilchard, known here as tho Pieton herring. Sometimes they are in myriads oil Milford Sound, and they have been taken in enormous quantities iu Pieton. Wore tho habits of this fish more perfectly known, thoy could be followed as long as they remained on the coast. Probably why there are not moro of these dolicious fish caught are that the nets generally used are too largo in the mesh. Tako the largo mackerel known at Home as the Norwegian or horse mackerel, not the fish they call mackorol hero; sometimes in lino fishing there is an occasional ono caught. Thero must be quantity somewhere or there would not bo stragglers. The fish culled trumpeter, one of tho nicost fish in our waters, is a perfect bank fish , there are one or two trumpeter banks known on the coast, where one can always depend on good fishing. Thero must bo good beds for flat fish, such as flounder, solo, brill, etc., that will be located at, sometimes, tho river mouths, especially in Canterbury, for two or three months m the year. They aro teeming with flounders and herring. Three or four fishermen sometimes rnado quite a harvest whilo the season lasted, but a trout or two happened to be caught, so an Act was passed, prohibiting men from fishing with nets within certain limits of river mouths, and the men with their families had to seek employment eisowhere. Re trout, it is a well-known fact that the largo fish prey upon tho small odgs, so that thoso fishermen who caught a fow of the large fish in a 6in or 7in flounder net were doing the Society an enormous amount of good, if they only knew it. There aro great quantities of shell fish all along the coast, the oyster being gathered in quantities for home consumption and exportation; the rook oyster in the North Island and tho kind known as Stewart Island oysters from the South Island, but there are other kinds and other beds known that have not been worked.—Yours, etc., Interested.