TROUT AND DROUGHT

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 118, 16 February 1928, Page 8

TROUT AND DROUGHT

NO CAUSE FOR ALARM OVER SCARCITY OF FISH

DOES INSTINCT WARN THEM OF DANGER?

There has been a good deal said recently about the serious effect the drought in some parts of New Zealand has had on the trout in the rapidlydiminishing streams of parched districts, and it has been stated that the work of the acclimatisation societies is likely to suffer considerably by the loss so occasioned.

As far as the Wellington Acclimatisation District is concerned, the secretary (Mr. G. I. Dasent) is quite unperturbed. He has received no alarming reports of death-dealing droughts from the rangers, whose daily duty is to watch the streams ami all that therein live. One of the most curious occurrences which he reports is the disappearance of the River Ohau for a couple of miles westward of Levin. Not that this is curious to Mr. Dasent, who states that it is an idiocyncrasy of the Ohau to do this '’disappearing trick” during exceptionally dry weather. The Otaki River has been very low for some time past, and in places is nothing but a chain of pools, but he does not think that there is any justification for worry on the part of the society. There have been occasions when the rangers have had to net trout low down in the Ohau and Otaki and rush them up to the better waters above.

Mr. Dasent believes that it is a delusion to think that because a river or stream drops below its average height in mid-summer the trout that live in the stream should perish. After all_, he said, was it net natural that streams in midsummer should be lower than usual, and was it not just as natural that the trout should experience warm water in February just as human beings experience warm weather. He believes that the trout have an instinct which warns them of coming trouble, and that they get down stream and perhaps out to sea before that trouble overtakes them. "I should sav that eight out of every ten get away safely. Ranger Andrew, of the Palmerson North district, does not think we lose manv fish through drought conditions. Dead fish have been picked up here and there, hut in any case, without drought that might readily occur. So I don’t think that we stand to lose many of our trout during the summer, other than those who respond tn the lure of the fishermen.” "I’ll tell you a peculiar thing,” he proceeded. “We have found that young trout on transfer travel much better in a fast-moving motor-cat than they do on the railways. You would not think that trout would evince any interest in how thev travelled, but the fact remains that thev like the most modern form of travel best. \Ve judge it on the results of manv iournevings bv rail and motor, having alwavs found that there are less death's when the fry are carried by motor. The reason, I think, is that bv the jolting of the car over roads that are not always too smooth, the water becomes agitated and aerated, whilst the smoother railway travelling makes for stagnacy.”