FISHING INDUSTRY

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12357, 29 January 1926, Page 6

FISHING INDUSTRY

CANADIAN ACTIVITIES EXPERTS INTERVIEWED. (By Telegraph—Speoial to “Times.”) AUCKLAND, January 28. Mr Charles H”, Gilbert, chair of zoology, Stanford University, California, and Mr John P. Babcock, of Victoria, British Columbia, chairman of the International Fisheries Commission, reached Auckland by the Tofua after having spent a month in Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa groups of islands. “Our trip,” said Mr Babcock, “is one of pleasure and for rest. We have been in the South Seas before. Next month or more will he spent in New Zealand, and the main portion of the time in the South Island. Thence we go from Dunedin to Melbourne and Tasmania. We sail from Sydney on Maroh 24th via Rarotonga, Tahiti, and San Francisco.” ' “In the South Island,” ho continued, “we will pay particular attention to Pacific salmon that have been successfully acclimatised there. The stock was drawn from California in 1897. Dr. Gilbert is a leading authority on the life of Pacific salmon and the foremost fishery investigator in North America.” The International Fisheries Commission, of which Mr Babcock is chairman, was created by the Halibut Treaty between Canada and the United States, exchanged in 1924, for the investigation and administration of the halibut fisheries of the North Pacific, and in which Canada and the United States are jointly interested. Mr Babcock is also an executive officer of the British Columbia Fisheries Department. The exchange of the Halibut Treaty by Canada and they, United States marks an era in fishing conservation, and it is the first treaty signed by Canada and the first treaty made by two governments far the joint administration of fishery. Speaking of the fisheries of Canada, Mr Babcock said: “In the year 1924, the last data available, Canada’s fishery products were marketed for 44,534,000 dollars, of which British Columbia produced 21,257,600 dollars, or 47.6 per cent. British Columbia’s total that vear exceeded that of the province of Nova Scotia, which was second in rank of the provinces of Canada by 12,480,300, or 14.2 per cent., and her output exceeded that af all the other provinces of Canada combined by 5,758,000, or 27 per cent.” British Columbia’s prominence in fisheries is due to her salmon and halibut fisheries. though she produces 23 other species of food fish. In 1924 her salmon catch produced 13,027,250 dollars, or 61 per cent, of her total. The halibut landings totalled 5,427,500 dollars. The salmon catch of 1926 produced a pack of 1,620,000 cases, each containing 481 bof dressed fish. The pack consisted of the fine species of Pacifio salmon that frequent her waters. The fishing and packing is closely regulated by both the provincial and Dominion Governments.