CRAYFISH POACHERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3774, 13 July 1926, Page 32

CRAYFISH POACHERS.

OFF TASMANIAN COAST. AN INDEFATIGABLE INSPECTOR. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 17. A man possessing the name of Challenger should make an ideal policeman, and so it has proved with Chief Constable Challenger, the Tasmanian Inspector of Fisheries, who has had many exciting encounters with illegal crayfishers olf the Tasmanian coast, and in the Bas 3 Strait, towards the Victorian shore. He is known to these evil-doers as the "police terror of the seas,” and he has rightly earned his title by his indefatigable and courageous exploits. Fishermen now using crayfish pots in Tasmanian waters have to pay fees ranging from £l6 to £IOO according to the size of the boats. They cannot catch crayfish under a certain size. Constable Challenger’s chief duties are to run down unlicensed fishing vessels, or to detect the catching of undersized fish. The licenses and the profits from legal cray fishing add considerably to the revenue of the Island State, and hence Challenger’s curbing influence on wrong doers is of considerable value to his Government. restrictions are imposed primarily by The Government to prevent depletion of Tasmanian fishing beds; before that the use of pots for crayfishing was illegal. When their use was forbidden, the fishermen kept constant vigil for Challenger, because of his ingenuity in detecting them. He has been known to hide in a boat before it left port and appear suddenly on deck when the pots full of live crayfish were being pulled aboard. On other occasions he has swum great distances in the dark and clambpred aboard the boats unseen. Altogether Challenger has confiscated 25 fishing boats. One of Challenger’s most strenuous encounters occurred last year. He boarded a boat on the east coost of Tasmania and was attacked by the crew of four. Ho fought on deck with the captain and both fell overboard. They scrambled into a dinghy where the fight was continued. Challenger was knocked out, taken ashore, and the boat put to “sea. Next day knowing that he would never shake off the determined Challenger, the captain of the boat surrendered, was sentenced for the attack on Challenger, and later bought his vessel back for £IOOO from, the Fisheries Commission. On one of the occasions on which Challenger hid in a boat before it left port, the boat anchored near the shore. Challenger swam ashore, and watched operations. Finally the boat moved out further, and he waited all night in the bush. Then he swam out tej the boat.’ rushed the captain, and obtained evidence of illegal fishing. It was Challenger who sailed the boat back to Hobart. Only last week this indefatigable man added to the list of his captures by seizing a vessel not far from the Viotorian coast, and calmly despatched a. telegram of advice to his superior officers in Hobart from an obscure village on the "Victorian coast. But those superior officers have' been accustomed to Challenger’s movements, and though they may not hear from him for days, or even weeks, they aro never surprised to receive a telegram from him hundreds of mile 3 away announcing his latest capture. He has now been equipped with a fast launch, and this is expertqd to add to the inconveniences Chief Constable Challenger causes illegal fishers.