TRAWLING. TO THE EDITOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11987, 9 June 1902, Page 7

TRAWLING. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — seems to mo that Dr. Moil's chief aim is to stop trawling in order that tin; gulf shall be kept as an attraction to vistiors for line-fishing, and yet he says that the area insitlo the Ivawau up to the Wade is practically cleared out by his catching 43 schnapper during the six weeks that he was staying at the Kawau. Certainly, the trawler did not clear them out. I may tell the doctor that with the exception of 0110 or two trial trips at various places we have continually worked in the Thames Gulf, and we find the fish more numerous now than when we first started. In fact, our "record" week's work was made only a few week ago, and our " record" haul for one set of the net was made the last night that the Iviinnie (ji.'sey worked inside the limit line. This shows that the fish are still there, or the vessel would not have paid me to keep her going. As for trawling depleting the stock of fish in the Thames Gulf any reasoning man can see that if enough steamers were put 011 to scoop up every schnapper in the gulf, in one night, we should not have taken away tho schnapper food supply, and other schnappcr would soon rush into the good food district like rabbits into an unienced clover paddock. Again, if we could scoop up every fish within a hundred miles of this gulf, it would be nonsense to argue that it would take three years to bring the increase to present numbers. Latest authorities give the spawn of one bream at 250,000, and schnapper are included in tho bream class. As we are now coming to figures I may safely say that about 37 years ago there was about an average of 300 schnapper brought to Auckland every week, which increased a few years later to about 2000 weekly, and have continually increased' until tho present time, when quite 24,000 schnapper are brought to Auckland weekly from this gulf. If I am right in my numbers this, multiplied by 52, gives us 1,248,000 as our yearly catch. If all the spawn lived and came to maturity it would require five schnapper to spawn in the gulf to keep up our present yearly catching. If the half of the spawn died it would require 10 fish to spawn, and if three-quarters died, it would requite 15 fish to spawn in this gulf. There are, however, hundreds ot millions of schnapper spawning in this gulf every year, and if they aro well thinned out, so that there is always a good supply of schnapper food, the fish would improve in breed, and mature in half the time that they do at nrcsent, which I consider to be about from four to 12 months. The number of animals on land are limited by food supply. The slici'p aro limited by grass available, and rabbits will starve them out by eating the sheep food. We limit the increase of j sheep by only breeding from a small number, | but we have no power to prevent the fish i from breeding up until the food supply pre- j vents further breeding, and fish die out for ! want of food. i Some years ago in Auckland, when cattle , reached the food limit, and people were kill- J ing their calves, because it paid better to make milk into cheese, and bacon, some silly writer in the Herald correspondence, urged the Parliament to at once legislate and stop , the killing of calves. I think the writer I was also a doctor. This would have had | the effect of trying to grow cattle while j there was no grass in the country to feed | and fatten them. Can Dr. Moir guarantee that if we cease j catching fish they will not be eaten by na- j tural enemies? or, if not eaten by enemies, | will he guarantee to provide the fish with . food'.' In the early days there was often a scarcity j of fish when so few were being caught, but ; certainly it was not the catching that did it. | I'; is morn likely that it was because so few I were caught, and nature was compelled to remain stagnant. Had the natives not been fish-caters it is doubtful to me if fish would : over have been plentiful, or fit to eat, in j

this gulf. As we cannot control the won- ! derful spawning power of the gulf, and are powerless to assist the food supply of schnapper, there is only one reasonable course to j pursue, and that is to catch and kill all we can. ! The line-men could not catch fish to pay | them for several years before the trawler started, and flounders have been caught on the Thames flats in greater numbers this ! autumn than for many years past. . Dr. Nishikawa, the Japanese Commis- | sioner, who lately visited Auckland, told mo that the fish in Japan had developed "instinct," or '"cunning," so that an in- j visible snooding for the' hooks had to be used to. get any fish at all. This seems to me very reasonable, as the intellectually dull fish would bo caught, and the cunning ones allowed to spawn, which in time would allow only the cunning to survive. _ | At present there is no sign of scarcity in • the Thames Gulf, or it would not have paid me to run the steamei, and sell the fish at the rates which have prevailed since the steamer started. I also think that to stop the catch- I ing of fish in the Thames Gulf is" one of the best means that man can possibly devise to i bring nature down to the minimum ot production. We could, of course, do some artificial hatching to help on the destruction by ! allowing the number to reach the food limit, but to beat nature in getting there we should have to work on a gigantic scale. ' I feel | that I am wasting my time in trying to j convince the doctor, on account of the length of time the doctor has held his present opinions. The human brain is something similar to Edison's phonograph cylinder for | taking impressions," and the impressions are so deeply fixed on the brain of the doctor that he himself would be powerless to obliterate them. However, I think the people of Auckland will see tilings more clearly, and demand that this absurd restriction be at once removed, so that we run no risk of injury to the production of fish in the Thames Gulf, which, if properly and regularly worked, may be mad? to yield more than all the gold mines in the colony.—l am, etc.. May 23, 1902. A. Saotobd.