FISH "SCRAP" INDUSTRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18272, 13 December 1922, Page 11

FISH "SCRAP" INDUSTRY

USE FOR INEDIBLE FISH.

NEED FOR A FACTORY.

POSSIBILITIES IN AUCKLAND.

The dumping of Auckland's fish refuse in the Rangitoto Channel, beyond the limits of the Harbour Board's jurisdiction, may, it is suggested, become a tiling of the past at no far distant date. The first step necessary to obtain this objec»tive would be the granting by the Harbour Board of a suitable waterfront site for an up-to-date factory, with latest equipment, for converting fish refuse and also inedible fish into fattening food for cattle, poultry feed, and fertiliser. At present there is a daily discharge info the sea of the city's fish "scrap," and the idea prevails—rightly or wrongly—that in some measure this practice is accountable for the prevalence of sharks in Auckland Harbour. As a matter of fact, however, sharks haunted the harbour long before fish nffal was thus disposed of, and, as summer advances, they are likely to come in in augmented numbers. The main phase for present consideration is the possibility of utilising not only the fish ret use, but the vast amount of inedible fish that the trawlers catch. It seems an astonishing statement, but it is asserted by those connected with the fish industry that, on an average, every lift of the trawl means the capture of some 20" sharks, ranging from quite small fish to giants that may weigh up to half a ton. One such large fish had some little time ago to be put back into the water by means of the trawler's winch. At present all inedible fish is thrown overboard as the nets arc emptied. Those engaged in the trawling industry feel assured tliafc if a modem factory were erected a, very useful industry could i>e started.

With such a factory in operation, the Auckland trawlers would no longer dump overboard the fish for which at presentthere is no market, nor would it be necessary each day for the boat Tiri to carry out the fish offal from tho fish dealers, for disposal in Rangitoto Channel. A further development that is in the minds of those concerned in the trawling business is that of a canning plant. Before the present, system of dumping fish refuse in Rangitoto Channel was entered upon, an arrangement existed by which the various fishing concerns paid a small sum for their offal to be taken away by an Auckland business man, owning a farm in the Henderson district. The offal was taken by a vessel, named the Tamure, to its destination, and it was there ploughed in as fertiliser on the farm. This was done for three or four years, but apparently it did not pay. Then came tho dumping method, which has been in vogue for 10 years. At present there are seven steam trawlers fishing out of Auckland, but with an ever-increasing population it may be assumed that this number will grow. Such a growth would obviously bo accelerated were it possible to make a profitable use of the large amount of inedible fish now netted, and also of tho city's fish refuse.