FISHING INDUSTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27157, 12 August 1949, Page 8

FISHING INDUSTRY

Record Dominion Catch PORT CHALMERS TOTAL DOWN Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON. Aug. 11. The total amount of fish landed at Port Chalmers last year was 38,460 cwt, which was 6389 cwt below that for 1947, according to the annual report of the Marine Department presented in the House of Representatives to-day. ine value of last year's landed catch at Port Chalmers was £59,404 compared with £70,583 the previous year. The report states that while the Dominion total weight of wet fish, 446,265 cwt, was the highest recorded total, the small increase over the previous year’s total indicated that the factors which had in successive years since the war given such substantial increases in the total annual catch were now almost spent, 'l’he effect of. the return of large catching units after war service and the re-engining and replacement of many vessels after the war upon the fisheries, that had enjoyed a comparative rest period during the war years, was now very mucn reduced. These changes that had taken place in the post-war years had, in effect, greatly increased the fisheries. It now remained to be seen whether this greatly increased potential could maintain a correspondingly increased level of production. Already in a number of ports there were indications that the upper level of production had been reached. The cost of maintaining this increased fishing potential in the light of seasonal fluctuations of supply, was now in the process of sorting itself out as the industry went through its final stage of settling down again.