The Northern Advocate Daily MONDAY, MAY 25, 1936. TRAWLING MENACE

Northern Advocate, 25 May 1936, Page 4

The Northern Advocate Daily

MONDAY, MAY 25, 1936. TRAWLING MENACE

Registered for 1 transmission through the post as a Newspaper.

It is high time that the Government took steps to protect New Zealand coasts from the depredations of power trawlers which, coming close inshote, are robbing fishing grounds not only of fish but of the food upon which fish exist. This is a matter of national; importance, for, despite a common belief to the contrary, New Zealand’s fishing grounds are of a limited nature, and require to he preserved and increased by every possible means. The advent of power-trawl-ing and seine netting has changed the whole outlook of the fishing industry, and it is clear that, if strict conis not exercised, fish will become a luxury in a land where it should be one of the cheapest and most plentiful, as it is one of the best, articles of diet. The menace of the power trawlers in the Hauraki Gulf, to mention only one fishing area, has aroused forceful protests. This matter affects Northland as a unit of the Dominion, hut this territory is more intimately concerned in its own fishing grounds which, it is becoming increasingly clear, are in grave danger. We have referred on several occasions to this menace. Whangarei people are learning to their cost that the inshore activities of trawlers in the waters between Bream Head 1

land Bream Tail are having a de~| i pressing effect upon the local fishing industry. . There are persistent reports of trawlers having been seen close inshore, and there is unquestionable evidence that this is depleting the fishing grounds, as line fishermen, who were at one time able to obtain good catches, now obtain practically .nothing. That is bad enough. But it is mot the worst. The heavy nets dragged by powjer trawlers across the bed of the 1 fishing grounds are declared to be destroying the marine growth upon which shellfish exist, and, as the shellfish constitute the food of the snapper, the hapuka, the cod and the other members of the finny tribe which, in their turn, should their why to the table, the source of future supplies is being destroyed. This must not be allowed to continue. We are glad to hear that the Ministers of Marine and Unemployment, to whom the situation was represented recently, informed a Whangarei deputation that the whole matter is to be investigated. The Ministers, who are anxious to conserve the food supplies of the masses, gave the deputation a sympathetic hearing, and we feel that they may be relied upon to deal effectively with the menace. If they do not do! so, the people of the Pominion will , have cause for disappointment.