Save The Mussels

Northern Advocate, 29 March 1938, Page 6

Save The Mussels

F;OR as long as can be recalled, mussels have been plentiful periodically on the rocks at some points along the Northland coast. They have then disappeared, and probably have not been seen again for five or six years, when a new generation has attempted to obtain a footing on the rocks. The same thing has happened again, the mussels becoming, scarcer and scarcer until they have vanished. ' This state of things has been due in large measure to the rapacity of human beings, who, not content witli gathering in reasonable quantities the largest specimens of mussels, have made a clean sweep of small and big alike. The folly of thus destroying what might have been a permanent source of food supply does not require emphasis. In olden days, the Maoris made a practice of taking the mussels sparingly, and leaving a large number of big ones in order to ensure continuity of supply. % If that practice had been followed by Europeans, periods of mussel scarcity would not have occurred. 4 ■After an absence of some years, rock mussels are ,again beginning to make an appearance, and the Marine Department and its inspectors are taking steps to safeguard what would be, if conserved, a capital supply of food. It is to be hoped that the commonsense of people will render it unnecessary for the department to take action. Everybody should try to prevent waste of any kind, and there can be no question that the wholesale despoiling of mussel beds is a very bad example of criminal folly.