OUR FISH RESOURCES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10237, 28 August 1909, Page 6

OUR FISH RESOURCES.

THE PORTOBELLO HATCHERIES. . Mr G. M. Thomson, M.P.. in a lecture in Dunedin, said: — Our maritime fisheries, as an asset, arc at present only touched. It is a mistake to suppose, as many do, that the edible fishes of the Northern Hemisphere are much superior to those of the Southern Hemisphere. Fishermen know practically nothing of the life history of the fish they catch and thev often blunder when asking for legislation on the subject. Fav" instance, the Fishermen s Imvon told the Hon. J. A. Millar the other day that the only food for the trout to'cat in Lake Logan was the spawnof flounders. As a fact, there, was -pawn from flounders anywhere in the harbor. They go to sea to, spawn. A."ain a regulation was passed as to the "size of barracouta that might be taken this apparently being enacted in ignorance of the fact that the barracouta is common to the Southern Hemisphere, and that all the barracouta, that could be caught in New Zealand would make no difference to the countless mvriads in the sea. A 'biological station was really wanted here, but it would not appeal to the public. The introduction or food fishes was something the people could understand, and that was one of the Board's objects. New Zealand has about 5300 miles of coast-line, but wo have not the great areas of shallow water like there are m +hc fishing grounds of the North Sea. Our trawlers do not work beyond the SO-fathorn depth. Line fishermen often <n> out fiftv miles and work in any \ water from'GO to 90 fathoms. There arc between forty and farcy cp-cies of edible, fish in New Zealand waters. Of mollusca wo have practicallv onlv the oyster; of erustaeca, only Flie crayfish, and, in a few localities, shrinms. . c , There is an enormous amotinu or tood material in the water that we have not touched —for example, the skate, the sardine (as true as you get in the tins;, •ui'l the auchovv, also the cuttlefish (esteemed a delicacy in Europe), bc--H.H"; mussels, cockles, and periwinkles. "Of the non-edible fishes there are the sha>-k end the porpoise, botli valuable for oil and manure. They. would be made use-of when labor was available. Before the Portobello station was .started he did not think that anything was known of the habits of our sea fish-.-s. Thanks largely to the mvalu•<ble vers and attention of Sir Anderson, the caretaker, the eggs of tioiiudcrs, the two kinds of soles, -aim brill had' been collected by the million, hatched, reared for a time, and the young described by drawings, and the iifc tuslory of the gurnard had aiso been studied. The eggs of the crayfish, the procelain crab, and the. shore c'-ao had been collected in quantity, and tin: larvae examined for a considerable time. Experiments had been made 1 with blue cod. and some knowledge ••ained, as, for instance, that this fish won!-.! 'not stand the sudden lowering oi tin temperature that thev got in the p::nd. To simply.the enclosed fishes a quan- ■ iity of i'ooil had to be provided; hence • the attention given to pigiish, whale feed (.a red .shrimp), and the despised ■ coek-a-hiilh- (corruntion of kokopuru.), i which is tl'ic only fash that is known to • i-,v it-- eg<-s on the bottom. The whale ; iced ami the larvae of the two other ■ sorts; named were natural food for the : i.-J. under examination. i Fishermen complain that the trawlers .' disturb the spanning fish. That is ar- ; rant nonsense. A traveler covers iu a • dav'swork a line from 30ft to 50ft wide oi '■! ;: length or perhaps twenty-five liii'es. Such a hue, if drawn to scale on i a n:::i). could harifly bo seen with the , imkoi.l eye. i 'Hie temperature of the sea and oi : ti:e ,ponds "was regularly recorded, it , was found that, even iu winter, the . temperature ol tiie open sea never fell i appreciably below Oildeg Fahrenheit, we'd." in tiie harbor it sometimes fell i as, low as -Hideg, and the ponds at the . hatchery occasionally fell to 32deg. The lobsters' could stand a temperature of . blidog, though they became sluggish in :;uch water. All tiie big fish moved out , inu.» the warmer deep water to spawn. ; The introduction of fishes from the Home Country was a problem. It is . impossible to bring herrings to New Tv.aiand at present, because the eggs hatch out in six days in warm weather and tv. live days in cold weather, and if hatched mi the voyage they would mver reach In re. Until a/ means is found of maintaining life in the eggs '. for fioiu forty-five to fifty days, which period would be required to bring them to New Zealand and hatch them here, it will be impossible to establish the herring here. The lobster had, however, been successfully introduced, also the edible crab. There were three dozen lobsters i:: tiie Portobeilo ponds. Of these, seventeen were- females, and about ISO.C'.Si) of their young had been turned out after passing through the third monk and assuming the form of an adult, though only about 2\\n long. These .'.oung lobsters went to sea with the ebb tide, and no doubt were carried northward by tiie current, so that i; lound afterwards it would be about Akaroe, or other spots to the north, it v.\;;dc I;;' nearly live years before they reached any size. The experiment was regarded hopefully. The fact that ■ the Sis!: were going away from Otago iiarbor show, a that the work was not parochial, but for the benefit of the Dominion.