NEW ZEALAND SARDINES

Otago Witness, Issue 3335, 13 February 1918, Page 36

NEW ZEALAND SARDINES

ls AN INDUSTRY POSSIBLE? One of tiie articles of common -use affected by the war is the sardine. The ordinary sardine in oil, which is not really a sardine at all, has become dearer, owing to the restrictions placed by the war on fishing, the high price of tin plates and oils, and the keen demand in Germany for the Norwegian tinned fish. The possibility of a sardine industry being established in New Zealand is mentioned by Dr J. Alan Thomson director of the Dominion Museum, in the first number of the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology. Mr C. Tate Regan, the well-known British Musoutm authority on fish, wrote recently: "A fact that may perhaps be emphasised is that the exotic species of sardine" resemble the European pilchard, not only in the structure of the adiult fish, but in that of the eggs and larvte, and also in their biology-growth, food, migrations, etc., anci that the Australian and South American species coidd certainly bo made use of in the same way as the European one. ■ . . Hitherto very little us© appears to have_ been made of tho pilchards of South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, although they are very abundant * perhaps in the future sardine industriea will become established in those' parts of the British Empire." Just how plentiful the pilchard is in New Zealand waters is not realised by the public. Many years ago fishermen used to bring some of the small fish ashore, and sell them as "herrings" or "sprats" at a few ponce a dozen. But the housewife of to-day prefers the larger fish, which are easier to clean and easier to cook. The abundance of the species was noted by Hector as far back as 1872, when he wrote: "Pilchard, or sardine (Clupea sagax).— This is tho true representative of the herring kind in these seas, and it is reported to visit the east coast of Otago every year in February or March. On the last occasion it was observed that the shoal was

migrating southwards, and extended as far as tho eye could reach, followed by a multitude) of gulls, mutton birds, barracouta, and porpoiso. So densely packed were they that by dipping a pitcher in tho eca it would contain half fish, so that if larger boats and suitable nets were employed thousands of tons could be caught. . . .Another fish of tho same family reported to occur in New Zealand, and exceedingly abundant in Victoria, according to Professor M'Coy, is tho anchovy (engraulis encrasicholus), being identical with the well-known anchovy of commerce." There is abundant proof that the pilchard spawn in New Zealand waters, and Dr Thomson suggests that the fish offers a vast and neglected source of wealth.