Views differ over trout farming

Press, 24 April 1979, Page 33

Views differ over trout farming

An Australian trout biologist and a New Zealand angler have crossed swords over trout farming.

The debate was started by a letter in “The Press” during February by the angler, Mr Tony Orman. One statement in particular was taken up by the trout biologist, Mr R. D. J. Tilzey. Mr Orman said that “trout farming on the mainland of Australia, in Lake Eucumbene, has caused uncontrollable trout poaching with gill nets and set lines."

Mr Tilzey, a scientist in the New South Wales State Fisheries, said in reply that there was no fish farming within 100 km of the lake, and no evidence that poaching in any trout water had increased since trout farming began in Australia.

“In fact, we believe that illegal trout sales have decreased slightly because fish are freely available from the farms,” Mr Tilzey said. “Poaching has always existed and unfortunately always will. It is a policing problem not connected with trout farms.”

Mr Orman raised the question of disease in fish farms. Mr Tilzey said that since farming began no

disease outbreaks had occurred in wild fish populations. The diseases which had occurred in the farms had been known for many years in the wild, and were caused by pathogens such as Aero hydrophillia.

‘‘Most importantly, before the introduction of trout farming, frozen trout were imported from overseas with the consequent serious risk of disease introduction. The establishment of a local industry played a significant role in getting a total ban on the importation of live and frozen salmonoids,” he said.

Mr Orman was asked by “The Press" to comment on Mr Tilzey’s letter.

He said that his information about the problems of poaching at Lake Eucumbene came first hand from a writer reporting on events in late 1977 in the Monaro Acclimatisation Society newsletter.

“The writer said that he had seen fish taken illegally, and noted a complete lack of surveillance by inspectors,” Mr Orman said.

The newsletter writer had also reported seeing a fisherman netting a bay,

another fisherman with 14 set lines, and others with 10 or more. The poachers were tempted by the market price Of about $1.50 per trout and were not deterred bv the $2O fine. Mr Orman said that a second source of information about poaching on Lake Eucumbene was Mr John Craze, of Motueka, who visited the lake and reported his findings late last year in “Fishing Line," the newsletter of the New Zealand Alliance of Freshwater Anglers. According to Mr Orman, Mr Craze said that in one month 34 case's of poaching were brought to court, all connected with the use of nets on the lake. Many nets had also been confiscated but no offenders caught. On disease, Mr Orman said that he had referred to the problems in Britain and Denmark; not Australia, but one Australian scientist had recently produced a paper emphasising the danger of salmonoid disease.

Mr Orman said that New Zealand experts had seen overseas trout farms, and had warned NKEW Zealand Governments about the dangers associated with them.