FISHING INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17100, 4 March 1919, Page 5

FISHING INDUSTRY.

.0, GROUNDS IN THE GULF. i THE QUESTION OF LIMITS. : EFFECTS OF TRAWLING. The Fisheries Commission continued its sitting yesterday, when further evidence d regard to the fishing industry was heard, The chairman, Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., presided. James Holt, master of the trawler Baroona, who has had 16 years' trawling experience in European and New Zealand waters, said that fish were variable as to i the places where they could be caught. \ l'lio movement of fish in bays was gov- < erned largely by weather conditions. At Napier, trawling was carried on in a restricted area—less than that of the Firth af Thames. The trawlers often followed sue another in line, circling round much the same ground. From his experience, particularly of Iceland and Dogger Bank trawling, he considered that trawling rather improved the fish-food conditions Lliaa injured them. Ho did not think. that trawling depleted the supply of fish in the area they had worked in Napier. Allowing for weather conditions, which in | some years, particularly 1918, affected' catches, the fishing at present was just the same as in previous years. The quality : of the fish was better now, he considered, i than when he i carno to Auckland four years ! ago. He had seen no indications that trawlers were destroying feed or young fish. The trawl was constructed to skim, not to drag along the bottom. Disturbance of Beds Denied. Outside tho Colville Rodney line, con-' tinued witness, the boat class of vessels | would be beaten by weather conditions. About 14 days each year he had been outside the proposed new fisherman's line, but had always had to come back into tho j gulf to fill up his vessel. The best depth I for catching echnapper and moki was inside 25 fathoms, the depth trawled in on the Dogger Bank. Thousands of trawlers were on the Dogger Bank, which was about 120' miles lone and 25 to 15 miles wide, but he had never heard while fishing there that tho bank was being depleted. It was impossible to avoid catching small fish in the trawl, but he did not think there was any great destruction of small fish. He had taken eitremely small fish in the Bay of Plenty. He did not think the trawling industry in the Hauraki Gulf was lar?e enough to disturb tie balance of the breedin,? of fish against tho amount taken. The mesh used in New Zealand was the same as that used in the North Sea Trawling outside the suggested limits, he thought, could not be carried on successfully from the commercial point of view, because the bottom was not suitable, whatever the charts might say. If the limit were reduced, fresh fish could be brought into Auckland every morning. Improvement of Fish Alleged. Francis Barber, an employee of Sanford's, Ltd-, said (hat before trawling commenced in the Hauraki Gulf it was becoming increasingly difficult to catch fish on the line. He was working in Sanford's receiving shed, and the quality of the fish was now better than whan the trawlers started. He considered that " school" fish cime ra-shore to feed only, not to spawn. William Shepherd, another receivingshed employee of Banford's, Ltd., gave similar evidence. Ernest Hodgkinson, an employee of Sanford's, said he had had experience of trawling in New Zealand air'ce 1900. At Napier, between 1908 and. 1915, an average of eight or nine trawlers worked an area of shout five square miles, near tho mouth oi the Olive River. The trawling had a very good effect on tho quantity of the fish. Continuous trawling in the one area had the effect of carrying the feed to another area of the same size, and the trawlers, then worked there. Weather had the chief effect on catches. In a cold wind the fish disappeared. A westerly wind was tie most favourable. In 1911, a marine growth appeared, and hampered the industry for about two months, but some trawlers kept on working, and their operations helped to clear the growth away. A similar occurrence ruined the fishing at Golden Bay for two years. At Napier, flat fish could not bo got in quantities over 14 fathoms, and "round" fish beyond 25 fathoms. Fie did not belijve that the Hauraki Gulf was the breeding ground for fhe whole of the East Coast. Experiments he had made indicated that flat fish remained in the same locality, but that schnapper did not. In far* her evidence the witness corroborated genrcallv that given by the first witness. Under further examination witness said he considered that the trawl rs aught euffHent shaks to compensate for the Hndersked fishes taken. At this stage the commission adjourned until today.