New Zealand ”"Neglecting” The Wealth In The Sea

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28266, 2 May 1957, Page 10

New Zealand ”"Neglecting” The Wealth In The Sea

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 1. New Zealand was virtually neglecting the sea as a potential source of “enormous wealth,” Professor L. R. Richardson, of Victoria University College said today. “For an island nation, the size of our fishing fleet is worse than pathetic,” he said. “The fishing industry has not begun to be developed.”

New Zealand had 3000 miles of coastline—equivalent to that of the United States—but the annual fishing catch was worth only about £2 million, of which much came from the export of crayfish tails-

Professor Richardson emphasised. that he was not criticising people in the fishing industry. He felt that the nation as a whole did not appreciate the potentialities of the sea. It was partly in an effort to develop such an appreciation that he had publicised his deep-water fishing work, he said. One of his objects in this work was to provide convincing evidence that there were abundant fish for commercial fishing in deep water.

“The bulk of our fish is caught no deeper than 70 fathonis,” he said. “In other parts of the world, commercial fishing is carried on down to 400 fathoms.”

He was convinced, he said, that now only the upper edge of the groper population, for instance, was being tapped. Crayfish, too, may be found in abundance in deep water. As an example of what might be achieved he cited a case on the American coast where one boat fishing at 400 fathoms obtained 67,000 dollars worth of crayfish in 24 hours.