CHANNEL PIRATES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10963, 4 May 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHANNEL PIRATES.

The fisherriieri :i^ ihe English Chanael are just now experiencing the evils, of an . invasion .^of .foreign pirates whicli v must 1 be galLJarid .wormwoodTto their souls, while it ' unddjUbtedly rieduces their oj. • portiuuty, of -making. a likelihood, to ih-„ nnitesimal proportions. , When the.. la.', mail .left.! Hom e' were 150, foreign .team trawlers commanding the English, .Channel, from Start Point to the lizard, arid they had driven tbe mackerel fishers of . the^e^t, cou^tpy off ; the'"sea. The extent to which that was done may be . realised ; frorii , the fact that., Q*n' ojie day : 100,000 'r^abkerel T;were larided Tit Boulogne by those boatsTfrorii the Start and Eddystorio grounds.. T* Ori the', same day npfc one mackerel was landed a_ '",?■>*., niquth, ; Syhlch is ! the great!. market for the fishery. _pire distress prevails a!mong ; west counfay fishermen as |he fesilljt; and numbers are actually wantiri'g' the'whe.ewithal 'to.'phrchase food m V.orisequen>:e. Mackereiare caught by drift fishing, the boats— chiefly Juggers. arid dandies — ride to theirTnets, r'^nich are stretched oy?r •two miles of water. i^^ TThey -'brily ."shoot" by- nigH, the unwritten- flaw, being thai' trawlei*s on mackerel .ground shall , not tow their nets, at ..nights Hut the forjeign trawlers d)o riol> bee^ thisruie. They drag their heavy gear right' through the mackerel' .fUfet and destroy the nets. They ."seem". 'to'__!have maste^d an art which the Eiigjfsh fishermen ,do not understand,", ijamely,, the, catching of mackerel m flying: trawls, or 'trawls which do riot touch the bottom. ' 'Many'' we^t cduritry fishermen haye_ been ruined .m this; inariner. A fiillset of mackerel .nets, cost £200. and "theire ai*e. numerous iri : •stances, of thes6 not only having been cut,; but hauled aboard arid carried, away, by iforeigri.. traw^rs.'''/- The - fishermen of! Devon and Cornwall are , petitioning the ; Admirilty to ' give . therii adequate proteciiou from these depredatory aliens, whei are literally robbing then, of their liyelihood. Afc present there are only two little coastguard t cruisers enjplqyed m guarding ninety . miles of seaboard an. t watching 160 foreign!, steam trawlei'Sj, andl neither' of thesevessels is as large or as fast. as the smallest of the foreign trawlers. T T - ! ! '..,..