FISH SUPPLIES

Southland Times, Issue 23199, 14 May 1937, Page 20

FISH SUPPLIES

WARNING BY CHIEF INSPECTOR NEED FOR RESEARCH WORK In his presidential address to the Wellington Philosophical Society, Mr A. E. Hefford, Chief Inspector of Fisheries, who took as his subject, ‘Fish: Facts and Fancies,” spoke of the importance of the economic and biological aspects of fishing in New Zealand waters. One popular fancy which Mr Hefford exploded is that the New Zealand waters contain an inexhaustible supply of fish. One authority, between 60 and 70 years ago, stated: “I do not only believe, but I know, that there is an inexhaustible source of natural wealth swarming unmolested round these islands, that will yet be a profitable resource to the laborious fishermen, and contribute largely to the aggregate prosperity of the country. In my own humble view, our present mineral wealth is nothing now to what it will become in the time to come, yet I believe that the fisheries of this country will surpass it in wealth, permanence and stability.” North Sea Waters Other optimistic appraisements of New Zealand’s fishery wealth had been made in more recent years, and a general idea had prevailed that there was an enormous wealth of fish' life in the waters round New Zealand. Legislation, however, had been framed at intervals for the purpose of the conservation of the fisheries, which showed that some people, at any rate, were alive to the facts and did not indulge altogether in fancies.

“Experience up to the present day,” said Mr Hefford, ‘has shown us that the bountiful supplies of fish off our New Zealand coasts which were presumed to be available by earlier observers—who did not and could not observe very extensively—are not so bountiful and inexhaustible as they had fancied them to be.” Forty years ago, he added, all practical men scoffed at the idea of worrying about the conservation of the North Sea fisheries. All they had to do when the fish on one area became scarce was to go further afield, where they were plentiful. Conservation Requirements'

This, however, had proved to be a mistake, and it was a mistake which New Zealand was inclined to copy.

“The sea fishing resources of New Zealand, far from being of vast extent and up to the present hardly touched, are actually of relatively small extent, and such exploitation as _ taken place up to the present time—though this exploitation has been feeble compared with the much more intensive and extensive fishery operations of the northern seas—has had a manifestly depleting effect on our most valuable stocks,” said Mr Hefford.. “The lesson to us is clear. It will pay us better as a nation to investigate our fishery resources scientifically so that the requirements of conservation may be definitely understood and exploitation rationally controlled, rather than wait in a state of inertia until manifest depletion of the fishing grounds stirs us into activity when it is too late—when the battle will have been lost and the measures requisite for recuperation and recruitment too expensive. For the last 60 years Governments have been ready enough to legislate, but, not even in the most recent times, to investigate so as to be able to legislate intelligently.”